Day 420 | 10 km past Laura: finally off the dirt
89 km | zzOz total: 12,507 km
I’ve been asked a few times recently about my motivation for these travels and I always manage to avoid the blunt question.
There’s plenty of complex reasons but ultimately many would see it as some juvenile quest for a type of adventure, the Little Adventure.
There’s no desire to take my bike through Tibet or Africa. At my stage of life I have not such great interest in close encounters with bears or tigers.
Australia happened to be where I was stationed and in truth it’s been the countryside I felt I most wanted to explore however unsexy it currently is on the groovy travel destinations scale, but it’s wild enough for Minor Adventure. It takes a while to attune yourself to the nuances of this huge and apparently barren land but after a while you recognise there’s plenty to see beyond the occasional kangaroo or vista of spinifex. Those who were born here can be quick to write off the merits of long distance travel here, particularly by bicycle.
It’s now almost exactly 4 years since I was roaming around the coastline of surprisingly remote Stewart Island, NZ, down at 47ยบ south, 85% national park, Christmas Village, American River, Long Harry, West Ruggedy Beach, realising my life could be, was, on a cusp, and that it should take a different trajectory for a while.
I’m still thrilled by my new direction and Cape York has been a huge highlight.