Mountain Biking in South Australian Outback

My husband, Mark and I had visited Oz back in 1990 and had rented mountain bikes to ride the Flinders Ranges with our buddy, Gaz. The way we had met Gaz was a story in itself. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Mark and I sold hundreds of our video titles all around the world. In 1990, we decided to take two months to travel in Australia.

Then, in 1994, our crew of four climbed aboard a Quantas jet bound for Australia.  And none of us had a clue that we were to become the pre-eminent mountain-biking tourism pioneers down under in a land called “Oz”. We were literally on a “roll” with our video production called “Full Cycle: A World Odyssey,” the “endless summer on mountain bikes.” We’d been to India and Costa Rica. Consequently, now we set our sights on the Australian outback. Kangaroos, emus, galahs and koalas awaited.

Our jet descended through an amazingly long pink-striped sunrise into Sydney. Mark, Marco, Steve and I felt a mounting excitement about the mountain-biking adventures ahead of us.

VHS Days

We wrote letters to two Australian guys who had purchased out mountain-bike videos. We informed them that we were coming for a visit to their beautiful country. Both immediately wrote back and invited us to stay with them. Consequently, we had a great time in Melbourne with Alan, and then in Adelaide with Gaz. Our trek with Gaz to the Flinders Ranges planted a seed in our minds.  We would someday return to mountain bike there again.

Now, in 1994, we were traveling with 900 pounds of gear. That included four mountain bikes, video equipment and products from our sponsors, Coleman, Blackbottoms, Klein and Canari.

The 7:30 Report

We spent a few days in Adelaide assembling and riding the bikes around town, shooting footage and informing the television stations that we were there in Australia in search of the world’s best mountain biking trails. And thus it was that the 7:30 Report interviewed us and featured a story about our project on television.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and therefore a video is worth ten thousand, at least. So I have decided to embed that very broadcast right here in this blog post. Just to give you a little taste of the riding “down under” back in those days of yore.

Fairy Penguins of Phillip Island

Australia: Adventure of a Lifetime

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Patty Mooney and her husband, Mark Schulze, via their company, New & Unique Videos, produced the first-ever mountain bike videos (“The Great Mountain Biking Video,” “Ultimate Mountain Biking,” Battle At Durango: The First-Ever World Mountain Bike Championships,” and “Full Cycle: A World Odyssey.”) These award-winning and highly-acclaimed shows from the 80’s and 90’s are now considered classics. Visit New & Unique Videos at www.NewUniqueVideos.com.