could’ve been a total dud for all I knew.”
The bike came with a complete set of gear and with a
price of just $3,300 Benji couldn’t pass it up.
“I wanted something that I could ride up the street
and get groceries,” Benji grins as he explains he needed
something to use while his van as being prepared. He’d
had a postie bike (Honda CT110) that had failed a road-
worthy certificate test.
“I couldn’t say no.”
At the time Benji was going through a divorce and the
death of his father, the bike played a part in saving him.
“Buying this little bike was the best thing I could have
ever done,” there’s a grin forming again as Benji remem-
bers what they’ve achieved together.
“Riding that bike into the wildest parts of Australia
was like therapy for me. I was able to rebuild my shat-
tered self-esteem.”
The bike took Benji north, like most Australian ‘ad-
venture’ riders he headed to Cape York, a cathartic
experience that then flowed on to exploring Kakadu like
many others haven’t before. Taking the WR into areas
that most never see, Benji was able to become one with
nature and his mindset began to rebuild.
“Riding across the biggest floodplain in Kakadu with
the throttle wide open,” is how Benji describes one of his
most memorable moments on the bike yet he needed
TRAVERSE 46