KATE Leeming’s personal account of her epic 25 000-kilometre bicycle expedition through Australia, Out There and Back is the story of an amazing nine-and-a-half month journey into the heart of Australia – the Great Australian Cycle Expedition or GRACE.
The 25 000 kilometre ride, 7000 of which were off road, took Kate along the Canning Stock Route (CSR), the first bicycle crossing of this treacherous part of Australia by a woman. Kate took 28 days to traverse the four deserts and approximately 1000 sand dunes of the CSR, some of them 16 metres high.
Kate had to combat dehydration, severe exhaustion, continuous extreme heat, sand and corrugations. The perilous Canning Stock Route is the world’s longest, most arduous stock route, a 2000 kilometre series of rough tracks joining 52 wells between Wiluna and Halls Creek in Western Australia.
Other remote tracks tackled on the GRACE Expedition included the Cape York Peninsula Development/Telegraph Road, the Gulf Track, the Tanami Track, the Great Central Road and the Gunbarrel Highway.
The purpose of the expedition was to promote awareness and contribute towards education for sustainable development. The project was chosen as Australia’s first and one of the world’s first Demonstration Activities for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 – 2014).
Cycling without the aid of a support vehicle (for all but the CSR), and alone for the second half of the expedition, Kate made a strong connection with the Australian people and landscapes. She experienced the ‘real Australia’, being made welcome on farms and stations where Kate received first hand experience of station life and learnt of some of the sustainable practices that ensure they will be passed on to the next generation.
Starting and finishing at Parliament House, Canberra, the expedition had to be timed to take Kate through northern Australia and the central deserts in the Dry season, while the unsealed tracks were passable. This meant cycling at least 3000 km per month.
To complete the planned journey required considerable physical and mental endurance. While carrying 30 – 50 kilos on her bike, Kate pedalled an average of 130 kilometres each day on tarmac and approximately 100 kilometres per day on gravel. Kate rode an average of six to eight hours each day.
The pioneering spirit courses through Kate’s veins. During her amazing journey Kate was able to follow in the tracks of her great-great-uncle, William Snell, two of whose many pioneering feats included revamping two thirds of the Canning Stock Route in 1929 (up to Well 35), and completing the second bicycle crossing of Australia when he cycled from Menzies (near Kalgoorlie) to Melbourne and back in 1897 to propose to his childhood sweetheart.
Kate’s first big cycle journeys in 1990, 91 and 92 covered 15 000 kilometres in Europe from western Spain through to Turkey and then up to Nord Kapp in Norway. Most of the travels were solo and riding an average of 130 kilometres a day.
In 1993, Kate became the first woman in history to cycle the breadth of the ‘New Russia’, completing the five month, 13 400-km Trans-Siberian Cycle Expedition from St Petersburg to Vladivostok, which she organised and led to aid the children of Chernobyl.
One of Kate’s biggest supporters is Robert Swan, OBE, the first man to walk to both the South and North poles. Adventurer Dick Smith and Australia’s No 1 best-selling author Bryce Courtenay have both endorsed Out There and Back, Kate’s first book.
Kate was accompanied for the first 12 000 kilometres of her Australian odyssey by Greg Yeoman, who also cycled the Trans-Siberian Cycle Expedition with her. He returned from England to ride the last week of the GRACE Expedition. Yuri Trusov, one of the Russian participants on the Trans-Siberian Cycle Expedition also took part for a short section of the GRACE Expedition.
After her Trans-Siberian Expedition, Kate discovered Real Tennis at the Harbour Club in London in 1994. Formerly known as Royal Tennis, Real Tennis, from which all racquet sports are descended, has been around for about 900 years and is played with hand-made wooden racquets and hand-made balls.
Kate won the Australian Open Real Tennis singles in 1996, 2006 and 2007 and the doubles in 1996, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007. In 2003, Kate moved back to Australia to take up a job as Deputy Head Professional at the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club. After competing in the 2007 British Open and World Championships in April/May, Kate attained a No.2 world ranking.
Out There and Back by Kate Leeming will be published on August 1. The 350 page book, with more than 300 full-colour pictures will be available through selected bookstores and direct from Kate through http://www.gracexpedition.org for $49.95. The book is distributed by Dennis Jones and Associates.
The story of the 25,000-km Great Australian Cycle Expedition … an amazing journey chronicled in new book
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