At last, the 2010 Cannonball Charity Ride in the name of Endeavour Foundation had arrived and preparation was in full swing in Dalby, Queensland. This 4th running of the event was heading to Darwin some 11 days and 4500km later. Previous rides had included Mt Isa to the Gulf, Cairns to Broome and Toowoomba to Tassie. The riders, many repeat offenders, again armed themselves with a full array of weapons. The obligatory enduro bikes were there for the masochists, so too the big BMWs and KTMs equipped with everything bar an espresso machine. All of the bikes would be loved or hated and that position would change as the terrain did! I was about to christen my new 990 having never actually ridden it, but having ridden a similar bike, I thought it couldn't be that different.

The Cannonballers started to arrive with riders registering, fixing last minute issues, packing and repacking support vehicles. S ome slipped downtown to visit legendary adventure rider and all round good bloke Craig Hartley and the Dalby Moto team for last minute tyre changes, parts and a few of those 'oh crap I forgot to bring' items. Others sought out balaclavas and thermals as the day had started at 3 degrees and sent a strong message about being prepared for all conditions.

The beads of sweat were forming now, his concentration absolute and all around him time seemed to slow. Sounds were absent from his consciousness except for the big V-twin that was alive, like a wild beast, looking to bite the very hand that fed it. A tight right-hand turn across the face of the hill, leading into an immediate climb. Get it right and he would sleep well tonight. Get it wrong and he would experience immediate pain and suffering, until the cartwheeling 950, which would inevitably follow, came swiftly to provide a merciful knockout blow. The decision was made. With a slight, ever so slight, twist of the grip, man and machine inched forward. A sense of euphoria washed over his mind and soul at the thought that he would indeed survive the gauntlet, but just then, his world imploded! The Pirelli squirmed, breaking free of its precarious bite on mother earth. The big beast spun up and forward motion halted. Then slowly, ever so slowly, gravity took hold and doomed our man to a downward trajectory. He scrambled for ground and finding none, fell, fell with a crushing blow that knocked what seemed like all life and being from his worthless (and overweight) body. Was that the fabled light he now saw? Should he go towards it? Should he have had paid more homage at the altar of the orange god? No....Craig, as the Cannonball Charity's lead rider, this is a pink tutu and it's what you get for crashing your bike in the driveway before even starting what will become an epic 3,500km ride from Toowoomba to Tassie!!

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.

Dual Sporting is a funny (read U.S.A) way of saying recreational trail bike riding on registered bikes, but however you say it, Dual Sporting/Trail Bike riding, the news is all good. More and more organisations are recognising the growing demand for non-competitive trail bike riding and are entering the market. This has come at a time when bikes are flying off dealers’ floors as the average Aussie is using up some of that fat equity in their recently inflated property value and getting back into the sport and wanting more adventure in their holidays than any theme park could provide!

2007 saw the inaugural ride for the newest entrant in the long distance recreational trail bike market, the very adventure driven 'Cannonball Charity Ride' crew. A down-to-earth group, who set out to do two things - run the best ever holiday adventure ride for the average punter and raise a bit of coin for the Endeavour Foundation in the process. In my mind, both are very worthy causes however you look at it and, by all accounts, these guys were right on the money for their first attempt. The ride was a huge success - a not-so-easy task when you're organising a ride not just around the block, but from Mt Isa to the Gulf and back - a total of 2200km of largely unsupported remote back country roads, station tracks and cow trails.