TRAVERSE 115
From Port Augusta he arced northeast toward Queensland, riding the remote and rugged paths that connect Innamincka to Birdsville. That’ s where the crash happened. The rut looked harmless until it wasn’ t. At around 80 kilometres an hour the front wheel dropped, the handlebars snapped into a violent tank-slapper, and Jayde hit the ground hard.
“ It taught me a lesson,” he said, not dramatising it.“ About being alone. About carrying enough water and gear. The bike only had cosmetic damage. I had a few bruises. Good that I came off while I’ m young, so I can bounce and not snap.”
From Birdsville he continued east then north, eventually looping toward Cairns. Somewhere around 80,000 kilometres the speedo died. Jayde shrugged it off, keeping a rough mental tally.
“ I liked to keep track of the kilometres, but the speedo stopped working, so who knows.”
The DR650 looked rough by then. The front end had taken hits. The original Rigg Gear panniers had been ripped off and replaced with Rhinowalks. Cables were taped and retaped. But it moved, and so did he.
By late November he was travelling down the East Coast, weaving through lush rainforests and coastal highways that felt worlds away from the red centre. But socially, it was different.
“ East Coast travellers keep their distance,” he said.“ The big caravan crowd. The West Coast felt more open.”
He rode tracks he’ d heard about for years. Some were exactly as tough as promised. Others were surprisingly mellow.
“ Some of the tracks that get hyped up are actually pretty easy,” he said, not dismissing them, just stating it plainly.
And through all of it; the mud, the sand, the long stretches of silence, he found himself learning about people, about the way they treat strangers, about how curiosity and kindness often live in places most would never expect.
“ It’ s like the more different you are to people, the more they want to know what you’ re doing,” he said.“ People seemed impressed with me doing this at a young age, but to me it was just … I wanted to travel my country. I wanted to see the world for myself.”
What he didn’ t expect was how much it would influence the way he thought about resilience, anxiety,
TRAVERSE 115