niggle that makes one check that all ’ s well . I had such a feeling in outback Australia when I was suddenly aware of a mental nudge to check that my sleeping bag was still properly attached . I got off the bike to look . It wasn ’ t there . I ’ d been riding on a dirt track for hours since leaving my last sleeping place . It could have been anywhere in the last forty kilometres . I turned back and had got no further than a hundred metres when I saw it in the middle of the track . Luck ? Coincidence ?
By this time , I hadn ’ t seen anyone for days in this remote part of the outback . I was a bit lonely and although I enjoyed my daily camping fare of tinned sardines , rice and dried peas , I longed for a proper roast dinner . There ’ s nothing like sleeping under the stars either but I thought of a nice soft bed rather than the hard-baked Australian soil . So , I challenged the Universe .
“ OK !” I shouted with head lifted to the wide Australian sky . “ If you ’ re there , I would like some good company ; a woman to talk to would be nice . Oh , and I ’ d like a roast dinner with fresh vegetables . Oh , and I ’ d like a nice soft bed under cover . Ha ! There ’ s a challenge for you !”
I rode on , ignoring a perfectly suitable camping spot just off the track by some trees and carried on against my better judgement as the fleeting dusk was almost upon me ; the road was potholed and covered in bull dust . Kangaroos , untrained in road safety , were coming out to graze . However , something drove me on . Soon , in the distance I could make out some large white boxes which , as I approached , reshaped into portacabins . At the sound of my motorbike engine , a door opened . A woman stepped out and seeing me , beamed and said , “ Oh , another woman ! Do stay ! I have a roast dinner on .”
She was the boss of a road-building operation and the workers were due in for their meal . She apologised that all the rooms in the cabins were occupied .
“ But ”, she said . “ You can sleep in the cab in one of the road trains if you like .”
Would I like ? It was a dream of mine to even get to look inside one of these massive vehicles . I had a wonderful evening at the road-building depot and a comfy night in a bed . What sorcery was this ? I could almost hear the outback gods giggling amongst themselves !
As the travelling years went by , I just KNEW that I would be alright no matter what . I learnt to trust everything and everyone even when I did silly things . People ran after me with my wallet and passport when I ’ d absent-mindedly left them somewhere .
I really did feel that ‘ all would be well ’ and offered my trust to others . If I needed to be in edgy parts of towns and cities , I ’ d ask a group of lads who were hanging around in the street to guard my bike whilst I did what
I had to in that area . They accepted the trust and responsibility with pride and I never had a problem .
With the right attitude , I found I could turn negatives into positives by looking at things in a different way . In Pakistan , my leg was broken when a truck came too fast round a mountain track and ran into me . Once the emergency treatment was done and I was waiting for the bone to heal so I could carry on , I was taken in by a family of comedy actors , ( Yes , everyone loves to laugh !) When on crutches and more mobile , I taught English at a local language institute in Islamabad . I had such an enjoyable and interesting time that I look back with gratitude at that experience .
Despite its hard life the bike is still going . It seems to do its best to get me to my destination . It is more than the sum total of its parts and , for me , although I know it is just a heap of metal , has developed its own personality . Sometimes , I have an almost supernatural feeling of being at one with it as on one occasion in Cambodia when I felt as if I were riding a low-flying dragon swooping through the trees alongside the Mekong River at dusk .
At the end of my seven-year odyssey my daughter asked , “ So , what have you learned on your travels , Mum ?”
Aware that journeys rarely disclose their true meanings until long after they ’ re over , I took a breath and replied as best I could .
“ After a while , when you ’ ve seen the highest mountains , the whitest sandy beaches fringed with palm trees and turquoise sea ; the most enchanting forests and the widest deserts , it ’ s people that are the most important- the stories they have to tell and the way they live their lives . Beauty is in the ugliest of places . Love is universal and under our noses . Most people in the twenty countries I ’ ve travelled through have been kind . If you trust people and believe that all will be well , it seems that positivity is attracted to you .” That ’ s what I ’ d learned . JF
TRAVERSE 34