Dylan woke me up at about 7 to tell me the moon was going down as the sun was rising, it was wonderful to watch. We packed down the tent and made breakfast. Before we set off for the day I cleaned Dylan’s bike because his gears were playing up. Honestly I’m not a bike mechanic, after fiddling around with them for a bit they we’re still no better than before I started trying to fix them. The bike still works fine but it just makes a very loud clicking sound because in low gears the chain doesn’t quite line up with the other moving parts. Dylan is going to avoid his lowest gears for now.
We charged off into the morning. I was excited for what was to come as we were no longer on a road. In the first hour we rode 12km stopping only once to make sure everything was attached to the bikes properly. It was very bumpy compared to the roads we had spent the last 7 days on and I really didn’t want to lose anything. At about the 2 hour mark we passed a bore that had been forgotten about. The big black water tank was dry inside and the pipes were split. It’s a very harsh landscape now that we’re in the desert, we saw a dead dingo a dead cow and a dead camel. I rode over to the camel because I hadn’t seen one up close before . I couldn’t believe how big it was! A bird had made the mummified carcass into a home, it popped its bed out to see what was going on.
The wind was driving pretty hard, straight in our faces as we rode along. Everything is so vast, big long open stretches of open shrub then nothing but red dirt. As we approached the time we normally stop for lunch I spotted a camel having a rest, I got the Lumix G9 out as it has a 100-400 zoom lens attached to it and started snapping photos of it! It then stood up and started walking towards us, I realised it was a male and because I have done my research I knew straight away we were being sized up by a bull camel. I was thankful to have Dylan with me at this point as it was unlikely to show dominance toward two people. It came within 100m and then turned off and walked into the bush.
The spot we stopped for lunch was an abandoned stock yard. I walked around looking at all the broken cars and building remains, I also saw some cows had managed to get themselves stuck in one of the yards, (I hope they hadn’t been there for too long). It looked like they had gone in to get water and must have crowded the water trough and bumped the gate shut. At first I was worried the farmer might have put them in there on purpose but it didn’t really feel like he had so we decided to the gate. I figured if I was a farmer I would have preferred to come to my cows and find them out of the yard alive and well than dead because they couldn’t get food.
During the afternoon riding period I was treated to 2 flat trailer tyrws! The first I fixed with the pach repair kit and when it went flat a second time I decided the goo needed to be in the tube, so I spent a bit of extra time doing that, hopefully it saves some time later. Dylan and I rode until 1900, as the moon was rising we set up the tent, lit a fire and started to wind down for the day.
You won’t believe what I had for dinner though, I dug around in the bottom of my front stealth bike bag and fished out a pie in a can. I used the can opener on my multi tool to remove the top of the tin before putting it into my pot and covering it in embers turning it into a little oven, 25 minutes later I was enjoying a puff pastry steak and kidney pie! Life seems pretty good at this point! I’m out here doing what I love to show the world that you need to take care of your own mental wellness. Nobody is better at looking after you than you. Get up and get out into nature to start a conversation with yourself. It’s always okay to ask for help when your down, but you need to help yourself! I want you to treat yourself today and do something you love. We are all very aware of mental health so let’s start consciously looking after it and helping those around us to do so too! Make your own luck.