 |
|
 |
| |
The Adelaide to Adelaide Adventure |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Adelaide Insurance Services brings you 'The Adelaide to
Adelaide Adventure' - Around Australia on a Triumph
In Spring 2010 Geoff Hill and fellow journalist and author Colin
O’Carroll will circumnavigate Australia anticlockwise - starting in Adelaide and
ending in Adelaide, using the legendary Highway One before the road is
decommissioned, taking 10-12 weeks to cover the 15,000 miles.
Highway One came into being with the Federation of Australia on New Year's
Day 1901, and is due to be decommissioned, in the same way as Route 66 was, in
2010. The longest national highway in the world, it covers practically every
major inhabited part of Australia. It includes large capital cities, busy
holiday resorts, dramatic coastlines, forests ranging from tropical through to
temperate gum forests and giant karri stands. Scrubland, deserts and huge
tropical swamps are some of the variety of landscapes en route.
Ironically, since the road is just about to cease to exist, in recent years it's
become a journey imbued with romance in the same way as Route 66.
|
 |
|
Geoff Hill (on bike), Colin O’Carrol (behind Geoff),
Sam Geddis (right) and Neil Jarvis (left) from Adelaide Insurance Services at
the Adelaide Motorcycle Press launch in Nov 2009, Kings Hall, Belfast. |
Since Geoff has only been to Perth before, and Colin was born in
Northern Ireland and grew up in Australia wrestling sharks, snogging kangaroos
and riding dirt bikes, the series and book will be written from two contrasting
and equally entertaining viewpoints: Geoff as a relative first-timer and Colin
revisiting the land of his lost youth. Colin started his career as a journalist
in his late teens for a local newspaper in Melbourne and has since travelled the
world writing for various papers, magazines and
broadcasters.
Geoff has also completed other notable adventures such as The Nambarrie Run
in 1998, when Geoff Hill and Paddy Minne rode two Royal Enfield motorbikes from
Delhi to Belfast, Miller Miles: Route 66 on a Harley in 2000 and in 2006 the
Nambarrie Run II: Chile to Alaska on a Triumph in 2006, when Geoff and
former Isle of Man TT winner Clifford Paterson became the first in the world to
ride the length of the Pan-American Highway from southern Chile to northern
Alaska, at 16,500 miles the longest road in the world.
All of the past adventures were extensively covered by the local press and
were also featured by the Irish Times, the Daily Telegraph and MCN. In
addition Geoff’s books “The Way to Go” and “The Road to Gobblers Knob” were both
best sellers.
|
|
As for this adventure; it has already generated a large media
interest and a book has already been commissioned, plus Matt Curry, the MD of
Bluebird Productions, has also been commissioned to make at least a one-hour
program on the trip, an interactive website, and potentially a full TV series
with star presenter.
The official launch of the trip will be made from the “Adelaide
Racer Awards” on the 15th January 2010 at the Ramada Hotel, Belfast and their
official send off will be at the “Adelaide Motorcycle festival” on the 12th
February 2010 with the anti-clockwise circuit of Australia beginning a week
later from Adelaide. Matt Curry and colleagues will be travelling and
filming the entire route sending feeds back to websites on the journey.
The intention is that the content will not only appeal to the motorcycling
fraternity but also the general public, such as; Daniel Day Lewis’s already
filmed send off, a trip to see local riders at the MotoGP on Phillip Island,
interesting Australian places and people with an Irish connection and
entertaining banter between Geoff and Colin.
On their return to Belfast in May it is intended to have a large
Welcome Home party.
A sponsor of the trip is the Institute of Advanced Motorcyclists
(IAM), the UK’s largest road safety charity who will be using the event to get
across the message to bikers to increase their riding skills by taking advanced
training. In Northern Ireland we know the cost of poor motorcycle riding
and anything that raises the profile of this worthwhile charity is worthwhile -
so Geoff and Colin have both prepared for the journey by passing their IAM
Motorcycle Test as has Sam Geddis, Director, Adelaide Insurance Services who is
accompanying them for the first 2000 miles with his wife Gloria as pillion.
As stated earlier, this Adventure has already generated a great
deal of interest by the media as did previous trips with considerable interest
from the general public as well. As it is being filmed and edited by
professionals and the riders Geoff Hill and Colin O’Carroll are renowned
journalists, so there is an obvious opportunity for a broadcaster to get
involved.
Contact Matt Curry: matt@bluebirdni.com |
Sponsors
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
