The sun was shining in Sydney as our group gathered at Coogee for the start of another amazing adventure!  16 women from the UK, US and Australia ready to take on the challenge of 1,000 miles on aussie roads on the back of Harley-Davidson.

We met at our hotel for a first night briefing on Tuesday night before heading just down the road for a group dinner at a Thai restaurant.

The next morning we were up bright and early to travel out to the famous Eastern Creek Racing Track where we were to pick up our bikes and participate in a one day practice session with the Harley-Davidson team.

The sight of those beautiful bikes gleaming in the sun brought smiles to everyone’s faces that lasted the whole day.  Paul Bailey and his team divided our team into our three riding groups and set each of us on a specific training task – riding around witches hats, u-turns and hill starts and parking.

No matter how many years you have ridden, the first day on a different bike takes you right back to scratch, getting the feel of different clutches, throttle controls and foot positions.

The girls rode beautifully, and those who had come back to motorcycling after a long break, and those who had learnt to take part in this ride showed the hard work they had put in past months had paid off.  They handled the obstacles beautifully and we knew for the week ahead we had a solid, skilled riding group who would only get better.

After only a few hours on the bikes even the van drivers were succumbing to the spell of Harley-Davidson and thinking about which one they’d like to take home for good!

For lunch we rode out as a group to a café down the road, then back for a photo session and interviews with the Daily Telegraph which will appear in Friday’s paper in Sydney.

At the end of the day we took off as a group and negotiated 40kms of freeways and Sydney city roads as a group at peak hour, never separated for long and arriving at our hotel in a single well drilled group!

Tomorrow we have a second practice ride but our day will start on national television with Meredith, Megan and Donna interviewed and featured at the start of Kerri Anne Kennerley’s national talk show at 9 am!


Liz, Ruth, Gail, Jo, Donie, Chris, Lizzie and Michelle enjoy Coogee Beach


Tuesday night briefing


First dinner together


The first look at our bikes!


Watching the demonstration on the practice course


Our turn...


A sydney photographer lines up his shot