Today Jon Le Tocq is setting off from Perth Australia, on his bike, and will ride 2500+ miles to Sydney over the next month. He is on a personal journey and is raising money for a Watipa Scholarship in memory of a dear friend, Claire Lee (Gaston-Parry). Read more from this latest blog to meet Jon and learn about his motivation…. and inspiration…

The idea to cycle across Australia came to me 10 years ago but it is only now that life has enabled me to finally live out this dream. I have just landed in Perth, Australia, having flown half way around the world from my home in Guernsey. I will be cycling across Australia with my friend Benjamin Krymis, setting off from Perth and ending up in Sydney over about 30 days. The journey will cover the famous Nullarbor Plain and some very remote parts of the Outback, and in total will be a journey of more than 2500 miles.

When people tell me I’m crazy for cycling across Australia with Benjamin, I often reply with, “Do you think you could cycle 100 miles in a day?” Often the answer is “Yes…but not EVERY day for a month!”

Cycling 2500 miles sure sounds a lot. Cycling 100 miles in a day doesn’t quite seem so bad. Cycling 50 miles before lunch when you have nothing else to do sounds pretty simple. Riding at an average of 10 miles per hour from 7am-Noon seems like a nice morning out in the sunshine.

So, if you ask this question enough times in a row, “Can I do this for the next hour?” and emphatically reply “YES!” you will eventually achieve something much bigger than you may ever thought was possible.

Obviously, there should always be careful planning and assessment.

This isn’t about being reckless, it’s about not trying to complete the whole journey at once, or having to know the exact blueprint from A to B. Until someone can physically prove I can’t do something, I like to believe I can until I try.

The key is to choose a goal, and then break the “big thing” down into small steps that you can do every day to get there. The magic lies in doing what appears small over and over and over again. The magic lies in consistency. The magic lies in doing the work and letting the results take care of themselves. The magic lies in what you do when nobody is watching. To achieve your big dream, just break it down to daily actions and get going with the ‘small things’.

Everything can be broken down to a step that isn’t scary and doesn’t seem to be insurmountable. Everything is possible, and I know Claire believed that too.

Jon Le Tocq

The photos below show Claire, training with Jon in Guernsey, and Jon taking time for himself and his thoughts.