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'You're going to die,' wrote one man. 'My friends and I are taking bets on how many days it'll be before you end up in hospital with dehydration,' said another. Charming.
 At the beginning of 2005 the idea of pushing a skateboard across Australia couldn't have been more foreign. It wasn't that travel to far flung lands was a strange concept, I'd done plenty of that, but it had often been so very normal. Oh, and back then, I'd never been on a skateboard, I hadn't even registered the few longboards that occassionally drifted past at Swansea University.
Two years later, I was pushing a carbon fibre longboard along Eastern Australia's Pacific Highway, Sydney behind me and Brisbane in sight. BoardFree had already been the first time the length of Britain had been skated and then, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the first time anyone had skated across Oz, too. An awful lot can happen in a couple of years, but an awful lot can't happen as well. I suppose it depends what you do. For the first time in my life I'd really pulled my finger out and done something that seemed to be worthwhile, and my goodness, at the very least there were some stories to be had.
Luckily, there were more than just stories. The Australian journey was the most wonderful yet devastating thing I'd ever done. Every day there were seven highs and six lows, incredible people, outstanding genorosity. Furious arguments blemished some of the expedition, but underlying the cabin fever that occurs on these things there was a sense of passion and achievement that ensured everybody who started the journey - and then some - made it to the end.
The photographs, almost all taken by Holly Allen (please look at her website here), are shown extensively in three parts in this section of the site, and I hope give an accurate impression of the scale, diversity and colour of the journey.
All of the money we raised on the 5823km road went straight to Sailability Australia clubs around the coastline and we're glad to report that it's all been used wisely, going towards things like sails, personal flotation devices, hoists to get people into boats, and such like. We even had a boat named after the expedition in Sydney's Kogarah Bay, which was brilliant!
Most of all, we have endless people to thank. From everyone at Sailability, to Kate Goodanew in Rushcutters Bay, everyone who met us as strangers on the road and became friends, to old friends who travelled from afar to meet us on the road. These things don't happen because of one person alone, and they only succeed as optimism overcomes pessimism. It was an individual's dream and a team achievement, which ultimately reached the homes of millions. It was something everybody involved can be intensely proud of, may the memories live forever!
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