TRAVEL FEATURE - AUSTRALIA
CRAIG BALDWIN
ONE DAY , ONE EXPERIENCE , ONE ADVENTURE .
I
hadn ’ t realised when I set out on this trip that it was RUOK day . A good friend had reached out to check in halfway through my first day when I realised .
It ' s quite fitting and it was fate that I ’ d chosen to ride out on this day as the last four years had been rather tumultuous for me and my mental health battle . This trip was a short getaway , I ’ d just discharged from the Defence Force after a 20-year career and now it was my time , my time to move on , my time to regain a level of happiness and my time to regain my spark .
My original plan was to head out to Charelville and loop back around to Carnarvon Gorge and explore for a few days but with the shortened trip I ’ d decided to just head straight to Carnarvon Gorge and spend days hiking before returning home .
It was just my luck that the first days ride was met with pouring rain . It seemed fitting as all of my trips so far had started out rainy and also finished the same . Thankfully , it was meant to be fine for the few days I ’ d get to spend at Carnarvon Gorge .
Most of the first day was spent on some long stretches of boring highway but there were glimpses of beauty about with wildlife along the way from a myriad of galahs and cockatoo to a soaring wedgetail eagle in flight banking about 10 metres in front of my bike before flying off . There were crazy and unpredictable kangaroos that always seemed to head toward the bike and a cute little lizard that needed help crossing the road .
Originally I ’ d planned to camp the first night around Yuleba but as I was getting closer to the destination the clouds had started getting darker before finally unleashing a deluge of rain . I was forced to have a change of plans and decided to make my way into Roma and book into a cabin for the night to dry out before jumping
TRAVERSE 77