Doing It For My Ladies Riding Free of Domestic Violence Words & pics - Ivan Phillips
Ten years ago a tragedy that many of us could never comprehend set Ivan Phillips on a path of discovery .
Sixty-three days , 16,000 kilometres , one Suzuki V-Strom 650 XT , and a ' lap ' of Australia . Away from major civilisation Ivan discovered his country , he discovered his faith in others ... he discovered himself ...
We humans are
a funny lot . We do things which have no common reason or rationale behind them but still it seems to make sense and fulfil personal desires .
I ’ m no different . I got on a motorcycle and I rode , and rode , and rode , until I could ride no further , back to where I had started . I ’ d ridden solo around the circumference of Australia to tell a story , to tell Tashy ’ s story .
Why undertake such a torturous and epic ride ? Why ride almost 16,000 kilometres , the distance between Adelaide and Stockholm , just to end up where I had started ? Questions asked many times , questions I often asked myself . I felt that I had unfinished business and I desperately needed to do something positive to ensure that Tashy ’ s legacy lives on in some form or another .
January 22 , 2007 . My step daughter Tash was brutally murdered in a savage and sustained assault by her partner .
How can a person tie another human being up for four days , abuse them and then beat them senseless until dead ? Then continue to walk around the murdered body for four more days . In addition to this already unfathomable act , Tashy ' s last moments were sadistically captured on video .
Six years late , such a short space of time , my wife , Di , developed brain cancer and passed away . Both loves of my life had been taken from me far too prematurely . My only modicum of comfort is that Mother and Daughter are now together somewhere up there .
I desperately needed a purpose in life before I became mentally ill . An opportunity to become a White Ribbon Australia Ambassador was presented , I saw this as a real opportunity for me to grab , and hopefully do
something that would make Tash and Di proud .
Wearing the White Ribbon Ambassador badge was an honour but not
TRAVERSE 28