Hello dear reader,
I have set up another blog where i’ll be making updates from now on: i decided (somewhat on a whim) to ride a bicycle around Australia to raise awareness of depression, anxiety and addiction. You can follow the adventure at Black Dog Barking, and i would really love to see you there: the more the merrier, and the louder the din we make about this epidemic of psychological (and spiritual) ill-being, the better.
Much love,
Ryan Bodhi Abhijan (Bodhi)
I just heard a large branch or small tree falling in the bush behind where I’m camped. Of course I put my head out and looked at the bush directly behind me, as though such an appraisal could identify potentially fatal limbs or trunks, but anyway, i thought, “If it’s my time to go, I wouldn’t be unhappy that it was at the hands of nature.” I’m living the way i want to live, and to die living what I love would actually be kind of an honour.
What does “wilderness” mean to you? Is there any true wilderness left in Australia? If so, where is it? The coast around here in Mallacoota is called Australia’s Coastal Wilderness, but they’re logging in the state forests and pulling abalone out of the sea. If we “civilise” everything, where do we go to escape from ourselves and get back to a truly natural environment?
I had a frighteningly real dream about the apocalypse last night, and wondered if dreams are a way of our subconscious fears expressing themselves to our upper-consciousness. What do you think? The worst thing was that I had a passive-aggressive friend with me, telling me where Massive was and that I needed to escape.
I am feeling truly blessed to be getting some much-needed TLC for Massive from a talented and passionate bike mechanarchist in Mallacoota … repaired rear derailleur, new bottom-bracket bearing (a cycling milestone for me) and and and and and … a three-piece chain-ring set to replace the two-piece set I was running … so we can chew up even bigger hills, steeper gradients, and generally increase our accessibility to the sort of off-road riding that will characterise this tour. Oh, and a dynamo hub so that my energy will go into charging my phone and powering lights instead of just going into the ground.
Flux Comb 