Dedicated to a wonderful Mother Jean Noble 31/5/1929 - 20/8/2007 - may we never take our mothers for granted. - Goodbye Mum

MAL & LEE

OUR STORY ON WHO WE ARE AND WHY WE STARTED CYCLING

Our travels are devoted to our unsung hero's, those fantastic people, so often forgotten. The Prison Officers of Western Australia. We respect our Australian and all other countries Prison Officers that, like ours, function with due regard, for the dignity of a human being.

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HELLO! WHO ARE WE? WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT ? ARE THEY NUTS?

A LITTLE ABOUT US
Our full first names are Malcolm and Sumalee. Lee was born in Thailand, hence the Thai flag on our site and Mal was born in England, I have lived in Australia since 1972 and identify 100% as an Australian. Update: May 2007, Lee was proud to become an Australian.

We met on the “Internet” in 1999, after I needed translation services for some official documents that had been written in Thai. I was fortunate enough to secure the services of Lee. We exchanged emails and my doc's were completely and accurately translated. I continued to email Lee for a further 6 months or so and eventually asked her if we could meet. I went to Bangkok and Lee met me at the airport, we both found we had much in common and we married in February 2002.

She has both a Mother and Father living in Thailand, plus a Sister and Niece. She also has a “step” Brother and Sister. Lee is well educated with a degree in business administration.

Mal is 19.5 yrs older than Lee and has four “Children” Three Daughters and a Son, all of whom I love dearly and am very proud of. Update: As at May 2008, I have 10 Grandchildren 5 girls and 5 boys.

My four sisters all of whom I love and miss, are British and live in Britain. Update: My Mother Died on the 20th August 2007.

Lee and myself have developed a goal, to circumnavigate our country Australia, then the World, by bike.

THE DREAM MAY 2006.
Our dream began after years of VERY long hours in our Computer Shop, where we made our living. More often than not we worked 16hr days and some even more. Our skin, was becoming pale and due to the sedentary nature of computing, fitness was at an all time low. Mal was morbidly obese.

We made a comfortable living, BUT, we had to change. Whilst we both enjoyed business, we yearned for something more. We often discussed change but had not yet found the “way”.

One day whilst surfing the net, I stumbled across Andrew and Joanne Hookers website. They had circumnavigated Australia on a recumbent trike... Unbeknownst to me, Lee had been reading “The Walkingman”, a site about a guy that is walking/cycling around our world. Lee and I talked, we exchanged ideas and both of us said “lets do something crazy - we only have one life”.

THE REALITY
When anyone wants to make a substantial “Quantum Shift” in life. The questions we all face are "what, where, how and when can we do it"? So began a monumental change in our lives. In the coming weeks we would sell our Computer shop, rent our home, store our gear and sell what we had no more use for.

We have both never done any serious cycling, no more than a few K's on an upright bike. Lee had an upright that had done a few (About 5) K's in two years. I bought a cheapie from K mart and off we went “training”. It soon became “painfully” obvious that we would die a horrible painful death if we tried to cycle on these bikes... The seat is designed to cripple people.

We then did as much research as we could and finally decided on the “Catrike” Trike. Our journey began on 22nd October 2006 from Bunbury in Western Australia, the rest is now our history.