Otford School's Outback Odyssey
As we go to press, a group of pupils, parents and teachers are cycling 1500km through the desert to raise money to purchase laptop computers for their school.
The intrepid adventurers hail from the rural school community of Otford in NSW and they are aiming to pedal 100km per day along the Gunbarrel Highway from Wiluna in Western Australia to Yulara, near Uluru, in the Northern Territory.
The outback odyssey will see the group negotiate hundreds of kilometres of bulldust and corrugations under extreme conditions in some of the most remote and harsh terrain on Earth. For safety reasons they will be accompanied by Mitsubishi 4WDs.
Following in the bike tracks of her parents, Rosie O’Brien, aged five, says: “I’ll cycle 10km each day, and then maybe I’ll jump in the 4WD and have a rest.” Her younger brother Tom will ride on a tag-along until, in his own words, he feels that he’s “had enough.”
The epic trip has been dubbed ‘An Otford Cycling Classic’, suggesting another behemoth bike ride might follow, and there has already been talk of a subsequent cycle trip from Amsterdam to Budapest.
Watch their progress at www.ridethegunbarrel.com.au or help them reach their goal of raising $75,000 by donating to Otford Public School, BSB 012-074, account 140018421.