Bike It In A Dress: Melbourne to Adelaide
In 2019, I undertook a huge challenge that I’d never even dreamt of before, let alone attempted: I rode my bicycle from Melbourne to Adelaide, wearing a school dress for the charity One Girl (One Girl Australia, 2022): One Girl — Educating Girls to Change The WorldOne Girl At One Girl, we break down the barriers that girls face in accessing an education. We do this by running girl-led programs in Sierra Leone and Uganda to drive positive change for girls and their …’s 2019 Do It In A Dress campaign, raising money for the education of girls in Africa.
The charity runs this campaign every year as their major fundraiser, and the idea is that participants come up with fun and/or challenging activities whilst wearing a school uniform dress (in honour of many African school-aged girls who can’t) and their respective friends and family sponsor them and donate to the overall cause. I had the idea in February 2019 to do something a bit hard, a bit different, and came up with Bike It In A Dress, my effort towards the campaign. In June, I became an official Ambassador for the One Girl team, and set out planning and training for the big ride.
I raised $3,482.93 for the charity, who collectively raised about half a million dollars to help educate girls. It was so rewarding, knowing that I’d personally helped 11 girls go to school for the year, as well as being a fantastic physical and mental challenge that years later, I’m still buzzing about.
I created a blog at bikeitinadress.org (since retired) to help me track and post about my own journey. I’ve duplicated some of those blog posts on this site as well so you can still read about my journey…
Before I undertook this ride, the farthest I’d ridden my bicycle was a few kilometres. By the time I rolled into Adelaide, I had awoken something deep inside me, and set myself a path for the coming decades. It literally changed my life.
Prologue — Media coverage in “The Courier”: Ballarat father of two preparing for ride of a lifetime...in a dress!
A bit of media coverage this morning went a long way to help drum up some awareness of my ride. Big thanks to The Courier for the article.
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From Melbourne CBD to Ballarat
Distance: 118km
Climbed: 1047m
Day 1: Up the hills!
I arrived at the Royal Exhibition Centre in Carlton this morning with no small amount of nervous trepidation, as well as some weary eyes, after catching the 0520 train with my partner, Danielle. We said goodbye with a big hug at Southern Cross Station, and I rode from there to Carlton, and parked at the big fountain to the south of the Exhibition Centre.
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From Ballarat to Ararat
Distance: 86km
Climbed: 411m
Day 2: The second departure
Slept in slightly, then as I was leaving from home and not coming back, needed to double-check that everything was packed into the trailer and the gear was all ready to go.
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From Ararat to Horsham
Distance: 111km
Climbed: 275m
Day 3: Horsham
I awoke early this morning to the sound of kookaburras laughing, and then cockatoos having a screaming match, so much better than an alarm clock! I love the bush!! Enjoyed a beautiful sunrise through the gum trees as I packed up camp and had a muesli breakfast.
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From Horsham to Dimboola
Part of Leg 4 (Horsham to Bordertown), which took three days due to a snapped rear axle and bad weather — see Day 6 for the combined distance/elevation for the whole leg.
Day 4: Dimboola
I started this morning in the worst possible way — disaster struck my rear axle. I snapped the ‘Burley Balls’ rear axle bolt, which was made out of cheap Chinesium, as I went to depart the Darlot Motor Inn! I was devastated — this could easily have been the end of the adventure right there.
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From Dimboola to Kaniva
Part of Leg 4 (Horsham to Bordertown), which took three days due to a snapped rear axle and bad weather — see Day 6 for the combined distance/elevation for the whole leg.
Day 5: The silent ‘h’ in Nhill
Today was a very hard day. It started off nice enough — awoke to kookaburras and cockatoos once again, and as I packed up my hammock I saw a little possum mother climbing the tree my hammock was on, with its baby on its back — unfortunately, the possums had also taken the liberty to piss and shit all over my tarps during the night.
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From Kaniva to Bordertown
Distance: 162km
Climbed: 553m
These are the combined figures for the whole of Leg 4 (Horsham to Bordertown), which took three days — see Days 4 and 5.
Day 6: Watching Toby get chewed up and spat out by a Tiger
After the hard day yesterday, today was brilliant! Awoke refreshed, with not a lot of distance to cover to finish off Leg 4 — about 40 km to Bordertown, SA. I left Kaniva early and headed out for the border between Victoria and South Australia at Serviceton.
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From Bordertown to Coonalpyn
Distance: 111km
Climbed: 83m
Day 7: A hangover to Coonalpyn
I woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover, but nothing too bad, and got my laundry done pretty early. I wandered around town for a while, checking out the Bordertown train station, a stop for the Overland Train I’ll be taking back to Melbourne this coming Friday.
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From Coonalpyn to Murray Bridge
Distance: 94km
Climbed: 215m
Day 8: The Mighty Murray!
I left Coonalpyn this morning feeling pretty awesome. I’ve gotten a large portion of my journey out of the way, I’ve stayed at some great places, met some lovely people, and seen some beautiful sights.
Keep readingFrom Murray Bridge to Murray Bridge
A rest day at Murray Bridge — no distance covered.
Day 9: Resting in Murray Bridge
Today was scheduled as a rest and recovery day, to allow me to a) recover from the past eight day’s journey, and b) rest in preparation for tomorrow, which might turn out to be the hardest day’s ride yet.
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From Murray Bridge to Adelaide
Distance: 89km
Climbed: 1108m
Day 10: Pushing beyond the limit, and arriving in Adelaide
Today’s ride was by far the toughest, most gruelling bicycle ride I’d ever undertaken, and pushed my body to limits I hadn’t exceeded for more than ten years.
Keep readingEpilogue — Media coverage in “The Courier”: Ryan Moore bikes in a dress to raise money for girls charity
A bit of media coverage this morning went a long way to help drum up some awareness of my ride. Big thanks to The Courier for the article.
Keep reading