Thirty Countries 4 Three Cancers: Australia here I come!

I am sitting in Vancouver airport waiting to board a flight to Sydney, Australia today from Vancouver, Canada. I travel there to continue my cancer charity cycle circling the earth. I look into the cockpit window and see one of the last familiar views of Canada, Timmy's. 

As far as distances go the YVR to SYD is the 17th longest flight on earth.

Its quite ironic that I am flying 1/2 way around the world; almost exactly as far as I have cycled so far (7,757 miles or 12 484 kilometers). A distance that took me five years to cycle will be accomplished in 14 hours in this Boeing 777-200.

My Air Canada jet waiting to take me away makes me reflect on the 14 Countries I have crossed so far. I am quite honestly a bit apprehensive as this will be one of the most difficult legs of all. Not only physically by psychologically as well. Sports medicine people will tell you the mind is as much of a part of excelling in a sport as the body. Many elite athletes rely on sports psychology techniques, skills and tools to get a mental advantage over the competition and learn how to improve their focus. Cycling around the Earth and doing 100-180 km each day you have to be focused.

I will cycle across all 6 of the Australia's climatic zones: equatorial, tropical, subtropical, desert, grassland, temperate. Starting in the Daintree Rainforest jungle in Northern Australia, I will make my way south Melbourne, roughly 4500 km. I hope to keep you all informed of my journey by posting a blog every several days if I have an internet connection and am still alive. The challenge will be on a bike carrying water, equipment and adapting to these different climatic zones, the weather and the wildlife that is associated with them.

I am also carrying the extra baggage of worrying that my recent blood tests were not as expected and my cancer cells could be multiplying while I am cycling 12,000 km. But this is a journey I promised to finish, and my Oncologist gave me the thumbs up to go for 60 days. Its funny, I'm no longer concerned so much about the long flight, traffic in strange cities, camping with all the wildlife, running out of water or getting lost. I hope I made the right decision. I am concerned about missing my friends, family and my home here in Canada like never before as soon as those wheels go up.

Thank you for joining me. I am very fortunate the great people at The Province and News1130 will be posting my tweets,blogs and doing live interviews by radio each week to bring you my journey across Australia.  My next post will be in several days from the Daintree Jungle north of  Cairns, Australia.