Day 1 – Darwin to Adelaide River

Arrived Adelaide River

Comfort Zone

Stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to amazing experiences.

My first step was taken this morning, Lycra, sunscreen and “The Northern Express”. Goodbye Darwin, Broome here I come.

Riding down the road heading for my first of many nights camping alone was liberating. Not because I had 109 kilometres to go on day one (I have done many training rides further than that over the last few years), but because I realized being alone right now was exactly what I needed.

I truly took it all in today – the fresh air, well to start with then it got to 39 degrees. I caught up  with two guys riding to Brisbane (boy they will find that quite hard) This peaceful solitude didn’t seem to eventuate, came across another guy walking to Adelaide, not Adelaide River but the very bottom of Australia. He was pushing a three wheel contraption absolutely full of gear. The never ending distant view in front of me got a little tough with the temperature rising and the slow climb over the last 30kms.

From time to time being alone is exactly what we need, time to reflect and time to clean out the mind. I read an article once, that went something like this;

“Plan a cleaning or decluttering session. Get rid of things that are collecting dust or that you have been hanging onto because you’ll feel guilty if you throw them out. Only keep things that make you happy or are important.” This could be said of your storage shed/room or your mind.

One of my ‘Two Page’ stories ‘MEMORIES IN THE MIND’ talks about this removing of bad memories, ‘These traumatic memories of the abuse are keeping me awake at night, I don’t want to end up being a broken man. With that thought in mind, I went searching for the toxic boxes in my brain’s memory room’, and threw them out.

Of course there are some boxes I missed in that first cleanout and during ride I will be leaving those boxes on the side of the road as if they were ‘road kill’.

Kenny Mac

My hotel for the night

Only 78 km to go

The Northern Express