- All meals from start to finish
- Fuel on ride
- Sweep and recovery team
- MQ licence (if relevant)
- Some overnight accommodation
- Sunset cruise
- Access to luggage vehicle
- Tour souvenir t-shirt
- Camping fees & permits
- Gorge tour
- Souvenir hat
- Thursday 26th March - Registration Toowoomba
- Friday 27th March - Leave Toowoomba
- Tueday 31st March - Arrive Tasmania
- Saturday 4th April - Fly home
All overnight stops to be advised.
Katie Beeby
Technical and entry information
Trail ride secretary
Ph: 0402 750 900
Col Clifford
Special Events Manager
Endeavour Foundation
Ph: 07 4616 9312
Sign up for 2009 now. Grab the nomination form.
2008's East Coast to West Coast Ride Wrap-Up
A personal view from rider Brad Taylor
It all started after a few drinks and how I mentioned to a mate that there was a group doing fully supported long distance off-road rides for annual holidays. This year they were going to ride from Cairns to Broome (4,733km all up, in 14 days) and as a supported ride there would be no need to worry about logistics, fuel, food, camping fees, or the unexpected. A few phone calls to Katie, the Trail Boss, sealed our fates and left us only five months to prepare our bikes and raise the funds for the entry fee. (The event is a fundraising effort for the Endeavour Foundation.) "Cairns to Broome – you’re gonna have a sore butt!", was the standard response from our mates but they were wrong. I had a plan - an Airhawk seat was already in my Arsenal - no pun intended!
Being supported, I decided that a 450 would be a hoot, thus leaving the KLR in the shed for future events when I needed to carry my own gear. I grabbed an 08 WR450 and started organising a long-range tank, taller gearing and some long life tyres, finally opting for a set of MOTOZ Tractionators and heavy-duty tubes. Being a new bike, I would have no mechanical problems, right? Not quite…. Bikes were freighted to Cairns about a week before the ride, so all gear and bike preparation had to be done early…I think some of my gear ordered from the USA arrived about 4 days after we had left for Broome.
Twenty-six riders fronted for the rider briefing in Cairns. Katie reinforced that this was going to be no Club Med experience and that, while it was a holiday, it would involve some hard slog and discomfort. You don’t take 26 bikes across 4,700km of tough Australian outback consisting of bulldust, deep sand, rocky river crossings, muddy tracks, wheel ruts, and washouts without some hard yakka and teamwork. This was “Roosting for Endeavour”, Cannonball style! Fun was paramount and so was the adventure. We would do all this and still raise around $32,000 for the Endeavour Foundation. The excitement was at fever pitch and I am sure some blokes slept with their riding boots on, showing just how keen they were to make a start! Bikes ranged from XR 250s to KTM 990s and everything in between.
Read the rest of the 2008 Wrap-Up
(PDF 27KB opens in new window)
