(JD) I am writing this 5 hours into our flight, on the first
leg to Brunei. It’s a miracle we got here, but we did it! I still can’t quite
believe that this epic idea born so many years ago is actually finally
happening, The Great Australian Triathlon is go!

It was touch and go whether we would actually make our
flight today, the traffic was horrific and we were limited to driving below the
speed limit for fear of the bike box flying off the roof. A journey that was
meant to be just over three hours ended up being a 6 hour monstrosity, massive
respect to for Dad driving all that time with only one short break! We arrived
3 hours before the flight was due to leave, but it turns out Terminal 4 of
Heathrow airport were not quite used to dealing massive bike boxes, and so our
race across the airport began. The usual baggage scales were too small for the
boxes, and so we had to traipse across terminal 4 in search of a very tiny set
of scales (but importantly without barriers) to balance the huge boxes upon.
Through some wizardry, my bike came in at 10kgs lighter than we have weighed
the previous night, and Ben’s was a mere 4kgs lighter! You can use you
imagination as to how that happened… Back to the check-in station we went, big
grins plastered across our faces, we were one step closer to boarding the
plane. But wait, “we have to take your bikes through security, we will need to
open them up and swab them for contraband…”. Again we were rushed off to
another part of the terminal, and with just an hour left of check-in, 90
minutes before the flight was due to leave, we had to rip open and unpack them.
It was a pretty intense beginning to the journey, but in the end we flew
through the rest of security and even had time to try some Oban Little Bay whiskey
(would recommend!).

We are two films into our 27 hour flight, naps, snacks and
stretches have already been completed. We must say a massive, huge, colossal
thank you to our parents over the last few days for their unbreakable support,
for sure the packing and the journey would not have happened without you! Love
you all, JD, Ben and Emma.