I woke up this morning to Dylan saying goodbye. Dylan taught me some very important lessons about myself and about how I should treat myself. The time we spent together made me realise that I need to learn how to love every part of myself, not only the good and I need to be honest with myself. Dylan taught me about preparation of the mind. I’m so good at preparing for these massive trips and making them happen because I love it out here. I thrive with a routine and that is one of the things I need to keep my body and mind in a good place. ADHD is like the ocean, understand that it comes and goes in waves and if you’re prepared for the wave you can ride it like a surfer! If you’re not prepared you get rolled and held down. You need to learn how to ride that wave so even before it comes you can be confident and ready. Dylan has reminded me the value of friendship. What we have developed over the last month is what I would call a true friendship. It has been a awakening experience and I thank Dylan for that.
I ate my breakfast in the tent before getting up and packing up and loading my gear into the trailer. I went over and chatted to the people who were camping next to me, I find it fascinating just hearing about other people’s lives. It is too easy to get wrapped up in your own life and not talk to others and learn from them.
I got on my bike and headed into Kaltukatjara (Docker River) as I rode through town to the community store I waved to all the locals! There are always lots of dogs around at the shops in all the towns, it’s sad because not all of them have a home or get looked after. In towns they are often injured or have missing limbs so I always buy a few big tins of dog food and feed them. I got myself a toasty from the store, just before I headed off to climb up a cool mountain I stopped in and checked out the art studio/ gallery. I had a wonderful chat with a few of the locals. They told me the mountain that I spotted on a satellite view map was where the river narrows at livingstone pass. It took about an hour a to reach the spot I wanted to get to! I really enjoy going up and seeing everything from a new perspective. Coming down in sandals was not fun, my feet kept sliding out of the front of them. When I made it back to my bike there was a group of friendly ladies checking it out and they had lots of questions!
It was 1300 hours when I actually started riding back along the highway! The corrugations are so bloody terrible I would say worse than on the gun barrel highway. I bounced my way along the road for 30km and after travelling that distance the last of the light from the sunset was just stunning to disappear I turned off the road and rode to Lasseter cave. In 1931 harrold Lasseter sheltered in this cave for about 25 days when his camels got spooked and ran away so I thought it very appropriate that I used the same shelter as Harrold I will only be hanging around for the night however. I lit a fire in the cave entrance and rolled out my sleeping mat and bag. The dogs are all around my cave howling and talking to eachother I think there’s about 5 or 6 it definitely feels a lot more exposed when you’re not inside a tent! Fingers are crossed on one hand and my knife is in the other, just in case they are feeling particularly peckish.