Long Ride 4 Life (LR4L) originated via a crazy idea about how to transport four horses from Queensland to Tasmania. Why not ride them, we thought? Four People, four horses, four dogs! It can’t be that hard.
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This idea then developed into a community fund-raiser supporting the Leukaemia Foundation (LF) and the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).
We started 16th July 2014 from the Australia Stockman’s Hall of Fame and Heritage at Longreach, and so far we’ve been travelling down through central western Queensland via stock routes.
We’ll soon be heading into outback New South Wales via more stock routes, and then down onto Victorian country roads.
We’ll be finishing this 3,000km long journey at Ulverstone in Tasmania, on 1st November 2014.
After approximately 100 days, we’ll be proud to say, “That’s a lot of sore backsides!”
Our LR4L Team consists of self-confessed city slickers; doctor and leukaemia survivor, Andrew Gibson who is the team roadie and truck wrangler and his interior designer, & leukaemia carer wife Terrill Riley-Gibson who coordinates the PR and community.
Terrill’s father Harold Riley, a life-long stockman, bushman, and Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) frequent flyer and Dutch architectural technician and experienced horsewoman, Anna Hoogeboom complete the human team.
So far throughout the 35 days in Queensland we have faced very hard yakka with plenty of challenges and the usual ‘behind the scene’ developments that beset any major adventure: poor or no internet/phone reception, equipment failure including torn shredded trailer tyres, a fatigued disintegrated trailer wheel rim, and a separating trailer wheel guard, gastro, a bucking bronco horse and now it’s raining!
There’s lot of happy farmers, but not so many happy horse riders. Just like the metal we’ve been suffering fatigue, breakdowns and blowouts as well.
In amongst these challenges we’ve experienced great community support from a range of people throughout Australia and beyond.
The heart and soul of our time in Queensland has been the amazing local people we’ve met who have overwhelmed us with their generosity and support.
These wonderful ambassadors have taken us into their hearts and souls in spite of the dire circumstances they face each day due to drought.
We’re proud to say we’ve reached 10 % of our ambitious $250,000 target.
We’re looking forward to achieving our goal of giving back to the wonderful charities that have helped us in our times of need.
What’s become very important too is the thriving group of followers we have on Facebook who have been cheering us on in the first 30 days of our journey. Community support whether online or offline is important to all, and especially so to those in remote locations.
To connect with us while we’re on the road, please visit http://facebook.com/longride4life or our website http://longride4life.com.
