Location photographer. Getting behind the scenes. Showing off the secret, and not so secret, treasures of the world.
Hands Across the Water charity bike ride 2024 with a crappy camera...
I did it! I’m ‘adventurous’ enough to brave Thailand’s hot, humid 40-degree days for five consecutive days. On a bicycle.
But do you know why? It’s for the incredible kids we support. Kids who need our help for shelter, school, and food – a life of choice, not chance.
And you know what keeps me going? The amazing people I ride with. This year, it was a lively group of nearly 70 (described by one rider as "bat-shit crazy") business owners from Business Blueprint.
The hardest part? The training. I don’t like riding bikes. It’s boring, especially on my own.
The best part? Riding through Thailand with a bunch of fantastic people. And especially the last day, riding in to meet the kids at the home. Those are happy tears.
Every year, I take my GoPro and a snap camera. They’re easy to hold in one hand and tuck away in my handlebar bag. Am I thrilled with the quality? Not really. But do I have fun with it? Absolutely.
Here are the pics…
Feel like being adventurous while doing a damn good thing? Check out a future ride here - https://www.handsacrossthewater.org.au/
Hands Across the Water for HomeHug children - tax deductible photo shoot offer.
Want a feel-good photo shoot?
In 2019, I rode around Kanchanaburi for five days, getting heat exhaustion, suffering knee pain and generally just pushing myself along in 45-degree heat.
It wasn't these memories I remembered when I signed up to do it again this year. It was the faces that lit up when we rode into the orphanage on the last day, the friendships I made while riding, the difference I could see I was making in these little lives that made me sign up again.
I'm also a sucker for punishment. I mean, 500km of riding a bike through Thailand's humid heat - who would want to do that? Don't we go to Thailand for the beach holiday?
In September this year, I am riding again. This time through the Isaan Region in northeast Thailand.
"Starting in the city of Bueng Karn, our riders will spend two days following the incredibly bio-diverse Mekong River before heading west through villages and rural communities not often visited by foreigners. Following a well-deserved rest day, the team will ride into one of our homes, Home Hug in Yasothon, to be greeted excitedly by the children they have worked so hard to support." - Hands Across the Water.
100% of the money I raise will go to the children. Hands Across the Water do not take any admin fees out. I have committed to raising at least $5000, and I'm doing this by offering 100% tax-deductible mini photoshoots.
The money raised will go to Baan Home Hug, a home to 130 children today, many of whom have HIV and do not know or have no connection with their parents.
Do you want any new photos? Of course you do! We always want new pics; it's just a matter of budget control.
Need more content? Let's face it, we all do. Always.
Renovated and need an updated pic? Brag about it.
New menu? How about you show off the new dishes to your customers.
Portrait? Let's celebrate you!
Family photo? When was your last one?
This fully tax-deductible photoshoot is a perfect way of getting more photographs to showcase YOU. Get in touch with me to organise.
500km Hands Across the Water Thailand bike ride
What it’s like riding 500km through Thailand, in April. One HOT week (or five days).
One day close to Christmas I get a message from my cousin.. ‘today is the last day to sign up’. She is talking about a charity bike ride through Thailand with her business mentoring group. I had expressed interest earlier but was undecided. But this email made something click inside me. I did a few checks to see if I could organise getting my children looked after on those dates and signed up. Eek. I wasn’t sure what I’d just signed up for - but I knew I’d be riding a bike 500km through Thailand. And that I’d be needing to raise $5000 plus pay my $2000 odd fee (not including flights and accommodations before and after the trip) for the privilege.
Guess I’d better dust off my bike then. She had sat in my carport for a few years without being ridden. I checked if it still worked and all but a flat tyre, she was good to go. For the next four months, I’d be getting friendly with my bike. We would spend anywhere from an hour to three with each other at least three times a week. We’d travel the coast, we’d cruise down to Willunga, and we’d push up to Old Reynella on the Shiraz Trail. And when I couldn’t get outside, I’d pop her into a trainer and spin for an hour or so inside once the kids had gone to bed, YouTube running.
Now, it's Anzac Day, and I’ve just finished up my 500km ride through Thailand. I arrived home today, took one look at her then kept walking. I don’t mind not seeing my bike for a little while. It’s not that I don’t like her, it’s just that I’m sick of riding. I’m not a cyclist.
One of our pitstops between legs. A great chance to meet the locals in the rural areas.
I’ll get to the ride in a second but here’s what I learnt in the last few months in the saddle (yep, that's what the seat is called).
1. Padded bike shorts are your best friend.
2. So is bum cream.
3. Drafting helps get you further with much less effort.
4. Good conversation goes a long way to making legs (a term for a component of a bike ride) feel shorter.
5. When cycling all day in 40-degree plus heat, you can never have too much water and ice.
So… to the ride.
The hardest part. The heat.
I am not sure I can describe what it feels like to ride 7am until 5pm in 45-degree heat. The sweat pours off. The headache is near constant. Bags of ice melt in minutes. The hot wind does nothing to make me feel better. Waiting to push off, sweat dribbles from my neck bandana of ice down my back. Sweat pools behind the knees and dribbles into my shoes. Sloshing water over our head that has had everyone's hands in it is welcomed. Icy water being tipped over me only startles me for a second or two before it warms up and melds with the sweat.
The physical.
Riding 135km in one day in this heat is something I still can't comprehend how we completed. I think it is just a matter of pushing the pedals round and round like the song 'the wheels on the bus go round and round' but for a bike.
Taking it one leg at a time. Cruising while having a chat or pushing myself to keep pace - knowing that by getting to the next rest stop, I’d have time to sit in the shade and recoup. Attempt to cool me down, rehydrate and prep for the next leg. After all, it was only an hour or so in the sun at the one time.
With a buddy to rely on, and a buddy relying on me, we push on. Looking ahead, eyes up. Heck, sometimes we’d even have a chuckle. People fall. People pull out. People slow. People power on. Everyone suffers, or are pushed through, at a different level. Even the fittest of cyclist, the seasoned Thailand riders, struggle at times. People grow quiet, then silent. We all cope in our own way. The jokers quieten. We all agree, it isn’t the physical nature of the ride taking its toll on us, it is the heat.
Seriously, at home, we’d be cooped inside with air-conditioning blasting, not out wandering around in this heat. We wouldn’t even dream of exercising in it for just an hour - and here we are now riding all day in it. Crazy. But crazy with a cause.
The landscape.
From highway to dirt. We rode them all.
Each day is different. Some days we have undulations. Some days are flat. Some days are 75km, and we finish before lunch. One day is 145km, and at dusk, we are still riding. It is decided we have to cut 10km off our ride this day, to avoid riding in the dark. Safety first. Haha. That sounds funny… we can’t ride in the dark, but we can ride all day in this heat.
Early morning to late afternoon, we rode. I loved the legs before lunch before the heat set in.
There is a lot of farmland, burnt out paddocks and shanty towns. Flat (ish) plains turn into mountains, dirt roads and leafy sided roads. Highways thin to concrete single width country lanes to pot-holed dirt tracks. At one stage we have to dismount and walk our bikes through a section of road being resurfaced. The sand sinking our wheels as soon as we hit it.
Sometimes things were unexpected. Like re-building a road once the reccie had been done. No worries.
The riders.
Riders are from all over Australia and New Zealand, and one lady coming from the USA. We are used to all different temperatures. And our fitness levels are just as varied, as are our ages. Our youngest is 16 and the oldest is Dale’s dad in his 60s (from memory - eek). But one thing we have in common is our reason for doing it - to help the kids. And we all possess the mental can-do attitude that helps push us through our dark moments. We have one girl that does zero training through to our every week cyclists.
How do I go?
Good conversations make the km’s fly past.
Physically - I am fine. Well, apart from tingly toes and one pulled muscle in my left leg which voids that leg of doing any pushing up hills. It's nearly a week since I have finished riding and I still have tingles in my right foot.
Heat - so-so. I get heat exhaustion on day three and think I’m going to have a hospital visit. I spend the night barely unable to lift my head from the bed. I am trying to hydrate as much as I can but clearly not enough. After this night on my bed and head in a toilet I ensure I always have water within reach. I enlist a second bottle to stick in my back pocket while riding. That way I don’t have to ration. It helps. And when I get a headache, I drink even more, rather than thinking it’s normal. Obviously, there is no such thing as too much water on this ride. And I also eat more. More fruit, peanut brittle, chips and sweets. The first few days I was only stocking up on fruit during breaks - having more substance makes me feel better for the second half of the ride.
Riding into the Kanchanaburi orphanage on the last day completes the ride in many ways. Not only are we physically finishing it, but we are also seeing the reason why we have gone through all the pain right before us. Bright, smiling kids that are being given a chance of choice because of us are waving us in to the song of 'We are the Champions'.
The money we have raised through doing this ride will fund Kanchanaburi orphanage for a year. This orphanage that has given life back to over 50 kids that have, in one way or another, have no family to give them life. Spending a few hours with these amazing children is the best reward I can receive. And dancing with these energetic, happy souls in the evening is the icing on top.
Here is some video from 'in the saddle' of the trip... plus the wonderful night of celebration with the kids. Non, the child I was 'riding' for (when needing mental support on the ride we thought about a child we were helping) is a cheeky, small 12-year-old with an infectious smile. I loved meeting him and will remember his beaming face always.
500km, 5 days, $5000 - and your chance to WIN!
Fundraising and prizes! Lots of good vibes.
Why the raffle?
Because it’s a fun way of raising money! Read below to find out why I’m fundraising…
About what I'm doing...
I'm going to ride 500km in 5 days through Thailand to raise money for the New Life project in Kanchanaburi, located near the Thai-Burma border in western Thailand. More than 50 children call Kanchanaburi home.
Children at Kanchanaburi have come from difficult situations: sexual abuse, substance addictions, or they have no family to care for them. Others have been used as exploited labour.
I need to fundraise $5,000: 100% of donations go directly to the children in Thailand. Yes, that’s right - no admin, marketing or whatever is taken out of your donation.
Hands Group is an Australian social enterprise that gives at-risk Thai children and their communities a helping hand through our charity Hands Across The Water.
You can purchase your raffle tix by donating via my fundraising page (click on image above). I’ll then send you your raffle tix. OR you can buy them at La Bomba dance studio in Adelaide OR from me direct.
Every dollar counts. Every dollar helps these beautiful children - so please consider buying a ticket (or more ;))
