Oh, no! a little procrastination: ie postponement of departure

The bike’s stuck in the shed, and seems particularly friendly with the lawnmower. I guess there’ll be plenty of time for riding soon enough.

Ain’t I supposed to be treadling off today? That was The Plan.

Well, events have conspired.

There’s a couple of parameters afflicting zzOz: timing and cash.

Timing is a major issue once you strike deep in the Tropics, ie, the section heading up Cape York, that’s up at 10°S latitude. (The northern tip of the peninsular is a similar distance from the Equator as Venezuela, Costa Rica or Cambodia.) It’s only feasible to ride during the Dry Season, basically May to October inclusive. That ain’t going to happen this year, obviously, it’s going to take months to get to the start, but next year is looking good.

The itinerary logic is this: somewhere between Perth and CY I’ve gotta find a perch to sit out the summer hot period/ tropical Wet Season. Alice Springs looks a contender, there’s 25,000 residents so a few months work while I hang out is plausible. Working back from there, if I arrive in Alice at the end of November, before it gets totally roasting, and needing about 5 months to cut my wiggly woggly path to said destination I gotta remove myself from Perth by mid June at the latest.

A couple of months ago I created a speck of light at the end of the tunnel, actually I don’t mind my job that much, and a tentative, if somewhat early, departure date was set: ie today. Option 1.

There’s a hitch in the system. And worse, it’s about money. There’s this lingering feeling I just ain’t quite stashed enough cash. A couple of months more in the work department would enable freedom for a couple of years, that is if sitting on a bike with whirring pedals day after day equates to freedom.

Each day at work funds a week on the road, each week a month.

Vacillation. Option City.

Option 1, saddling up today, has now been extinguished.

Option 3a would be to stay all the way through until Christmas, spending next summer down on the south west corner. That would throw the whole return traverse of the continental landmass back another year. I’d still have to spend the following summer in Alice. Man, I’ll be an old bloke before I get back across the Tasman at that rate.

So with departure supposedly imminent, it’s postponement until mid/the end of June, Option 5, ie 8 more weeks, at the latest.

I’ve scratched in the more distant but by-then-at-the-latest-or-I’ll-be-confined-to-an-institution date.

For once in my cycling career I’m destination focussed but the view is somewhat limited. The eyes are longing only for that initial red asphalt section of the Kwinana Freeway bike trail heading out of Perth to the south west extremity of the continent.