Being on tour for so long, it’s nice to meet up with friends and family along the way. So I’ll arrange some dates that will probably suit my schedule or I’ll fit in with theirs. Inevitably, the date is set, and immediately I have a priority, a mission, a deadline, …. And I regret it immediately.
That sounds terrible, but as soon as there is a deadline, there are things I simply have to do. Things like: don’t have an extra rest day here, ride further today or you won’t make it, don’t go to that place, you won’t make it, get a train, you’ll be late.
I love catching up, but there’s always a moment of remorse for what I’ve missed out on along the way. Again, I’m writing about a problem that I’m very lucky and thankful to have.
I enjoyed the Mawson trail in South Australia with friends, but to make it, I needed to take a bus from Sydney to Albury. I even went along the Mallee Highway to get ahead of schedule. For the most part, this isn’t the most exciting part of the country.
It’s not all bad though. Getting to the Mallee Highway involved going to the absolutely stunning Lake Tyrell near Sealake, and the pink salt lakes not far away – two fantastic places to visit but then it was back to the highway.
To catch up with Timo and Kath in Puglia, the date set was so easily achievable that I ended up having the best part of a week, marking time in the region. That turned out to be a nice time but along the way, I really wondered what I would be doing to fill in my days. Initially though, I didn’t expect it to be so easy to get there.
I don’t have a solution, but Utopia would be travelling to wherever I wanted, then pressing a button and friends and family would appear 😁