Outback Adventure

I've been back in Australia now for a few weeks, we've moved house and are settling in. Shortly, I'm off on my next big adventure, the ride through the Outback that I've been blithering on about all this year.

The initial plan is, I leave on Thursday night, ride up to Mum's place in Boat Harbour, and then early on Friday morning, I head for Brisbane along the coast, getting there in the evening.

In Brisbane, I'll spend two days, staying with my sister and her family, visiting friends and going for a ride around Mount Glorious (I think that's the one), a renowned ride. Then on Monday next week, I'll be headed inland. On Monday night I hope to reach Blackall, and on Tuesday night I should reach Mt. Isa.

I'll take a day to look around Mt. Isa, wash clothes, etc., then push on to Tennant Creek. I'll stay overnight in Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, and take two days off in Uluru, visiting my cousin.

Once I've explored Uluru, I'll head down to Coober Pedy and stay overnight there, then on to Adelaide where I'll spend a day with San's aunt's family, and ride through the Adelaide hills. Then on to Melbourne, and I'll spend a day there with friends, and finally a day spent in Canberra, before back home to Sydney.

I had to leave my bike out on the street one night on the weekend (long story), it wasn't stolen but someone did drop it on the ground and damage quite a few components, snapping a mirror off, bending the clutch lever, damaging the fairing, and ripping out the electronics I'd added, possibly in a vain attempt to hotwire the bike. I had it towed to the bike shop yesterday, and it is being repaired now... hopefully it will all be set by the time I need to leave. I need to take it for a ride before I go though, in case there's some other problem with it... I want to know now, not halfway to Brisbane!

So it's all up in the air right now a bit. My schedule may slip by a day or two, we will see. I likely won't update this blog as I go... I'm going to try to avoid the internet for a bit, because that is partly the point of this journey.

I want to get some psychic space, get away from everyone and everything and allow my thoughts to foment for a while. I feel ideas there that never get a chance to come up, because of the pressures of everyday life. I've been wanting to get away for a few years now, and this gives me the opportunity. I hope it is constructive.

The other part is that I've never seen the interior of Australia. I did a two week trip by myself once, down from Berrima to Narranderra, Hay and Finlay, driving a truck to farms there and working on boreholes, taking videos of their interiors using a special downhole camera. But that's the most I've seen of inland Australia... so this will be a new experience for me, one I am looking forward to doing.

I'm excited, scared, and relaxed about it, all at once. I'm not too concerned about what will happen, because I always seem to make it through every adventure so far... sometimes through planning, usually through luck... I never rely on luck to survive though, I just don't let worries stop me from proceeding.

I'll post afterwards though, transcribing from the journal I intend to keep for the trip.