Day 0 - Friday, 2nd May 2008 - Sydney to Adelaide

Today was a mixed day between being rushed and having nothing to do. It started at 5am and after a shower and breakfast I had to start by packing, I had cleaned and partly packed last night, but that was the extent of my packing. Further I had to empty out the bathroom in preparation for the renovations. In the end I managed to get everything done, and I walked out and got into a Taxi at about 8:50am. The only problem was my flight was at 9:45am. Even so, I got to the airport in time, bot my bags checked in and caught the flight.

At the check in I was worried about the protein powder I had in my bag, I was worried that it might be mistaken for something "harder". That didn't seem to happen as my bag arrived unscathed. After touching down in Adelaide I contacted Phil from All Trails and after about 20 minutes he picked me and Greg (our Mechanic) up. Once at the Hotel I checked in and I headed out for a bite to eat, that was an experience in itself as I had no idea where I was in Adelaide and I had no idea where I could get something. In the end I got a good sandwich from a pub.

Back at the Hotel, I reassembled the bike, which was surprisingly easy, and found that I had brought everything that I needed. I didn't have a good pump, but there was going to be a session later on to reassemble bikes, so I could use one there. I then went for a wander through Adelaide. I had no particular destination, so I just walked. Compared to the other Capitol Cities I have been in, to me, there was no obvious CBD, once you knew what to look for it was there, but it wasn't as "look at me" as other cities. I have seen. After about an hour long walk, I headed back to the Hotel for some afternoon tea and a sit down. At about 4:40pm, my room mate John showed up. He has done other rides with All Trails, and we have done 2 Cycle Queensland's together, but as far as we know, never met. At 5pm there was an official check-in and the bike reassembly. I started to meet the other riders, 2 things quickly became apparent, first most of the riders have done other All Trails Rides, and as a result already know each other, and secondly, I am the youngest rider by a reasonable margin, only the masseuse is younger.

After check-in, there was a short briefing about the ride in general and what we can expect for tomorrow. It starts with a bang as we have about 145km to get through and we gain about 400m in elevation. After the briefing we all went out for some dinner and we split up into smaller groups. I ended up with a good social group and we went to the Hogs Breath Cafe for a feed. There are only about 25 riders on this and as most of them know each other I can see that this is going to be a fantastic 2 weeks.