Support Crew - Bella and Ann

Bella has been a "jack of all trades" on this ride. She has had the job of being PA to the Fine Master and Fairy King, Fine Collector, Challenge Recorder, Breakfast Helper and most importantly Navigator. You are amazing Bella and we would literally be "lost" without you.

Ann has done an amazing job of being our Photographer and Videographer and has done an incredible job of ensuring every step of our journey is recorded.

Whatever was happening, Ann was there to record it and we would have these incredible memories without her energy and enthusiasm.

Our Support Crew - Medical Team

Our wonderful Medical Team of Ash and Queen have done a wonderful job looking after all our riders. They have been kept very busy dressing blisters, attending to chaffing, grazes, headaches and general aches and pains. They are always close by following the riders and handing out water, food, sunscreen, band aids, panadol etc.

Thank you so much girls

Day 10

After leaving Singleton the riders hit the road again and headed to Branxton where the lovely CWA ladies had made a smorgasbord of cakes, slices and sandwiches. Several people called in to give us donations and after a photo with the wonderful Ladies of Branxton CWA, they were keen to get back on their bikes to head to Newcastle.

Meanwhile back at Kenrick Street, The Junction, the Welcome Home Party was in full swing with lots of music, street stalls, jumping castle, face painting, Mr. Beaks, balloons, tattoos all happening. There was a real buzz in the air and everyone was waiting with much anticipation to see the riders arrive home.

The riders arrived at The Junction around 1.00 pm and regrouped into their Teams before heading into Kenrick Street where their families were waiting for them.

Amazingly Dean had phoned to say he would like to walk across the finish line with his Team mates. The riders were so amazed at the strength and courage of Dean and Sarah to be there and were so honored that they could cross the finish line with their team mate. Thank your Dean and Sarah for your absolutely selfless gesture of coming along to support our riders today - we are in awe of your strength and it meant so much to us all.

Orange Team crossed the finish line first followed by each other colour and then the amazing Support Team. The atmosphere and cheers as we arrived were incredible and everyone was very emotional as they saw the amount of people who had come out to greet them.

There was lots of hugs, tears and noise as riders landed in the arms of their loved ones after 10 days on the road, over 1000 kms peddled, 19 schools and 4,166 kids visited and introduced to Camp Quality and our amazing Puppets, and lifetime friendships made.

Everyone headed over to the stage area where we presented all our teams to our families, friends and supporters:

Team Jayco, Team Mingara One, Team CSA, Team United Colleries, Team Junction Hotel and Team Flightdance.

After this we introduced a special guest. Ben Emmett from Maitland Rugby Union surprised us all by presenting us with a cheque for $26,000.00 from a Charity Day that they held. An absolutely incredible amount and an awesome finish to our fundraising.

Now it was time to announce out final fundraising tally. There is still a lot of money coming in and lots of cheques not yet banked so this amount is "conservative".

With the amount that the wonderful Maitland Rugby Union presented to us added to our tally, we announced that we had raised $232,460.00. !!!

What an absolutely incredible amount raised and made possible by the generosity of so many.

But our excitement was not yet finished. Fairy King asked to give one last presentation. He then called Fairy Queen up onto the stage and in front of everyone, asked her to marry him - how exciting, and only after a mere 14 years together!! Congratulations King and Queen, we are all thrilled for you both.

Meet some More Support Crew

Meet the lovely Massage Therapists - MJ and Eden. These girls have been amazing on the ride and have not only massaged away all the riders aches and pains each afternoon and morning but have also assisted with the driving and with whatever needed doing.
Thank you so much for coming along girls, the riders wouldn't have been able to get up each day and ride like they did without all your hard work.

Also meet "The Don". Don was on last year's ride with his brother Keith who sadly passed away about 6 weeks after last year's ride. It would have been a hard decision to come again this year without Keith, but Don once again came on board and we are so glad he did. Don is our Lead Car Driver and an absolute inspiration to all on the ride. We love you Don and really hope you will be back again next year.

Day 10 - Homeward Bound

Newcastle here we come.

After an another awesome night all together and being very well looked after by the Staff at The Royal Hotel at Singleton, everyone was up bright and early and eager to get on the road to Newcastle and into the arms of all their families and friends after an incredible 10 days!

Day 9

After the riders left Aberdeen they then made their way to Muswellbrook where they stopped for a photo with the Muswellbrook Lioness Club who gave them lots of takeaway sandwiches and homemade cooking. They also gave us $125.00 which was very generous.

After this the riders made there way into Singleton where they were met by lots of people who formed a guard of honor as they came in. There was lots of locals there including many people from XStrata Coal and the local schools. It was so lovely to have such a wonderful welcome.

We were very honored to have Dean's parents and brother attend and speak to us. XStrata also presented us with a $2,000.00 cheque - thank you XStrata.

After this we went over to the Royal Hotel and had lots of our families and friends meet up with us. It was lovely to have them there and we spent the afternoon catching up with everyone.

At 7.00 pm we all went into the dining room to have our baked dinner and King went around the room and spoke about each person individually and what they had bought to the ride.

Davey was given the King of the Mountains Jersey, Jason got the Joker Jersey and the King and the Don both got the Most Supportive Jersey.

One more sleep and we will all be home again. Wow we are looking forward to sleeping in our own beds.

Day 9 - Singleton - here we come!

Last night proved to be a big night for most people. Mary and John from The White Hart Hotel were so welcoming and even put on a Band for us all last night. They had a 100 Club, raffles and even face painting and ended up raising us $376.00. Brad was asked to sell a pink Camp Quality hat and he said he couldn't sell it for under $100.00. People took the hat around and he sold it for $138.00. The people who paid for it then gave it to a little girl.

Everyone was up bright and early after a freezing night of minus 1 degrees !! Brian kept the Support Crew awake all night with his horrendous snoring - lucky it is his birthday today or he may not have made it to today. Unbelievable Brian !!!!

The riders jumped on their bikes and headed off to our first stop which was at Aberdeen where the Aberdeen Lions Club whipped up a storm on the BBQ for us with steaks, corn on the cob and lots of yummy salads. They also raised us about $700.00 through their raffles and donations from the local towns folk. Thank you so much Aberdeen for all your support (once again).

The riders have now jumped back on their bikes and are heading into Muswellbrook to meet up with the wonderful Muswellbrook Lioness Ladies.

Day 8

This afternoon the riders went to Quirindi Primary School. The kids were amazing and each class had made their own drawing of Giggle and taped their Gold Coin donations to it. They really loved our Puppeteers and asking the riders questions.

Then it was back on the bikes for the next 34 kms before hitting the Murrurundi Ranges. It was a long climb and a steep decent, but the riders smashed it with some of them doing 55 kms per hour coming down!

After 126 kms and 6 hours in the saddle, everyone finally arrived into Murrurundi at The White Hart Hotel. Bikes were put away, showers and massages had and then it was time to relax. Wayno, Les and Jason's families arrived to spend a couple of nights along the road with us. Bozo was given his very own "room with a view" and Damian and Mark were very happy to have a room without is snoring !!!

The White Hart served up a great meal and then we all had the pleasure of listening to the McGrath Family who came along to have dinner with us for the night and talk about their Camp Quality journey.

The rider's really enjoyed hearing a personal journey of our Camp Quality Family and were inspired by their story. Thank You lovely McGrath Family for coming along and spending the night with us.

Tonight Leigh was given the Most Supportive Jersey, Justin was given the King of the Mountains Jersey and Craig was given the Joker Jersey.

Green Team is still winning the Challenge Event and Mark got the "L" Plate award for working so hard to beat the King up the Hill that he almost had a heart attack.

As I type this, the riders and crew are all out in the Pub listening to and dancing to the Band. They are all having a great night and are really looking forward to the last couple of days on the road before they finally finish.

Day 8

A great start to the morning. Everyone was up bright and early for breakfast and ready to face the day. The Support Crew had breakfast prepared, Brad had bags packed and off set the riders.

Our first School this morning was the little school of Curlewis with only 36 students. Unfortunately the riders were unable to come to this school as they needed to get an early start but the wonderful Puppeteers and myself and Brad carried on. What a welcoming little school Curlewis were.

We then jumped in our cars and headed in to Werris Creek Public School to meet up with the riders. Werris Creek school were kind enough to let us feed all the riders in their school grounds and Thelma and Louise had a great lunch ready and waiting for them.

We then went into the Hall to watch our Puppeteers perform their magic once again and present prizes to the winners of the Giggle Colour In Competition.

The riders are back on the road now and heading to Quirindi - stay tuned for for more updates. We are getting closer to home !!!!

A Thank You from Glen Innes

Check out the great messages we are spreading along the way. Below is a message from one of the Schools we attended:

Hi Donna,

I would just like to thank you for your time and efforts in organising the Camp Quality Ride that visited Glen Innes Public School on Monday. I have been a Camp Quality Companion for 7 years now and I believe it is one of the most important charities in Australia. I think you have done a wonderful job and you will bring laughter and happiness to so many children and their families.

I know the students at school really enjoyed the visit. I teach Kindergarten and I discussed the puppets with them on Tuesday morning. They took so many important messages away and they are only 5 and 6 years old. The opportunity to meet with the riders and ask questions while examining their bikes was wonderful as well. The riders were all so caring and giving and were freely chatting to the students, it really made their day (and mine).

I know the ride from Monday night on will not have been easy and my thoughts are with you all, especially Mr Dunn and his family. I thank you all for the amazing job you are doing in raising money and spreading such a worthwhile message while raising awareness of a wonderful organisation.

Please contact me again next year if you intend on coming through Glen Innes - we are more than willing to support you.

Kind Regards,

Nikki Lee
Glen Innes Public School
Classroom Teacher
0402 527 342
nikki.penn1@det.nsw.edu.au

Meet more Support Crew

Here are a couple more of our wonderful Support Crew Members.

Brian and Norm are in the rear onroad car keeping all our riders safe and sound from the trucks and traffic passing by.

Nick is our Bike Mechanic. Not only is he keeping all the riders bikes in good working order but he is fixing punctures along the way and also riding the whole way.

Thanks so much for all your help guys.

Day 7

Day 7 was Tamworth to Gunnedah. The ride was Inland and mostly flat. We were greeted to huge applause at Westdale Primary School. They were having a football colours day and they were all dressed up in their favourite football team's colours.

By the time we left here a massive head wind had really picked. The head wind was with them for the next 77 kms and it was a tough day, but once again the riders supported each other to get everyone to the finish and did really well. Jason had another two flat tyres - I believe that is four now for him.

Normally the riders travel about 24 to 26 kms per hour, but the winds held them back and they were cut back to about 15 kms per hour. It is really hard going with head winds because they are peddling so hard to make up any ground.

Unfortunately it meant they were late getting into Gunnedah and were unable to get to Gunnedah Primary School. Our wonderful Puppeteers and several of us Support Team went along to do the Show, tell them about the riders and answer their questions. Another couple of funny questions from the kids at yesterday's Schools:

"Do the riders ever fight with each other?"

"How old is the Fairy King and can he fly?"

By 3.00 p.m. the riders had all finally arrived at Gunnedah Showground where they were treated to awesome steak sandwiches, cold drinks and homemade monte carlo biscuits by the wonderful Gunnedah Lions Club.

After this we all made our way back around to The Courthouse Hotel where Rob and his crew made us all very welcome.

Brad started his washing duties, MJ and Eden started massaging, Queen and Ash attended to people who needed dressings, panadol, etc, Thelma & Louise set off to get their supplies for tomorrow and the rest of my fantastic Support Crew carried on with all the behind the scenes jobs that just keep the event ticking along - they are an absolutely amazing Team.

The riders had showers, a rest and some down time before we needed to meet for dinner.

At 6.15 p.m. we all met at the front of the hotel to walk 10 minutes up the road to The Bitter Suite Cafe for dinner with the Gunnedah Mayor.

Unfortunately the Mayor got called to Sydney and had left an apology - not to worry, we still had a lovely night.

We then made our way back to The Courthouse Hotel were lots of socialising was done before heading to bed.