Approaching Jogle

 This will probably be our last blog update before we set up for the next big charity fundraising event, because in 3 weeks, on 31st August, Ollie will start the cycle from John O’Groats to Land’s End. Jenny will be travelling with him, but by the much more reliable means of transport of Dino. The plan is to cycle between 70 to 80 miles each day, totalling over 1000 miles, and arriving in Cornwall on Friday 12th September. So far Ollie has managed one 70 mile training ride, in the howling wind and rain and survived to tell the ale. Pray for good weather the first two weekends in September, please!

The big question will be asked when he has to do 13 of these rides back to back, but hopefully a rucksack full of Ibruprofen will get him through it!

We are going to attempt to update a special Jogle Blog as we  go, which you can access here, although it will most probably be every two or 3 days. To the left you can see Ollie on his lunch break, looking particularly happy, during his 70 mile training ride. It was taking place admist gale force winds in August mind you! In the background you can see the superbike that saves Ollie's legs about 25% compared to his rusty mountain bike. Ollie loves this :)

Work on Dino

Now that we are back in the swing of all things jolly there is no stopping us. With the odd break for food and wine, we have become 24 hour a day trip organisers. Well we are certainly busier than we were, and the last few weeks have seen us back into the car boot routine, attending Billing land rover festival and also working hard on ironing out the last few issues with Dino.

Each day brings a new job to be done on Dino, the biggest being fitting a new galvanised roof rack, which we won on eBay for £100 – a bargain. In the last installment we were patching up the old roofrack with Jenny's brother Lee, well this week he helped us put the new one on, including using the ultamite tool, the forklift! We have also ordered a 2nd hand bumper from fellow travellers on the HUBB. This will be fitted, along with some tasty new spot lights, when Jenny picks it up whilst on the Jogle.

Decisions, Decisions

As well as getting new kit added to Dino we have also been considering a lot of other options that we should decide before we go, one of which is whether we should apply for residency of Australia. This is a decision that will affect us in 2 or 3 years, when we arrive in Australia. It is a long way in the future, so it's hard to be certain of what we will want, but we do know that at some point we are going to have to re-stock the financial larder. We are hoping to get to Oz with money still in the bank, but if we end up having a whale of a time we could be skint on arrival, and if this is the case it would be nice to get a job straight away. Well maybe nice isn't the word. Handy perhaps. But to get this visa costs about £3000 through an agency, or close to £1000 on your own. With so much still to organise, we are not sure we need anything else, so have decided to stay British for the time being.

This will mean we will have much more of an uncertain future upon arrival in Australia, but in many ways this is what we want. Obviously as the money runs out we may live to regret this, but hey, this isn't called JollyFollies for nothing!

Leaving Date

We have always maintained that we will leave on April Fool's Day, come what may - mainly to avoid any slippage in our trip, which would definitely happen without some firm plans. Well we have to announce our first slippage, although only a tiddler. Because we would like all our friends to attend a party in Cornwall when we leave, we have decided to leave just after Easter, which falls on the weekend of 11th/12th April. Having the party on that weekend will make it easier for all to attend, but especially those with kids. We are hoping to make the party a real event for our friends, and are looking into some special arrangements, including pasties, ice cream and fish & chips.