Day 134 (Broome - Rest Day)

May 15 (Wednesday)

I have confirmed today that I will be finishing this journey. I have spent today searching the cheapest possible way to return home. I contemplated hiring a free relocation van to Perth so I could fly out from there to Melbourne, saving $200 on a flight from Broome to Melbourne. I realised I need a $1000 bond for that which I don't currently have. I then looked at gum tree for any share rides down to Perth or up to Darwin yet each one demanded shared expenses over two weeks travelling, in which case I'd be better off cycling north for the same money and same time (admittedly without seeing a thing and a lot less fun).

I booked a flight back to Melbourne. This was a very heavy feeling. It was very hardd for me to confirm it on the computer. I stopped and had another hard think about it. The main thoughts that I'm having are "Will I regret this when I'm back home?" "Will I feel that I wasted an opportunity to ride south to north?" "Have I backed down on my word and a goal that I made for an organisation?".

I justified all of these questions by thinking thoroughly on each of them. I won't regret it because its not about self or ego, it's about the people around me and trying to help troubled youth who may need extra support.

Will I feel I wasted an opportunity riding south to north? Yes I definitely will. The reason why this decision can be made easier however, is because I know I will have a drive to do something else perhaps on a larger scale at sometime in the future. Why would I ride north now and not enjoy a thing and then gain some false form of content with seeing this part of Australia.

Have I backed down on my goal and my word to Whitelion? I feel yes but others say no. Deep inside this is perhaps the most hardest to overcome. I have always been committed to delivering what ever it is I'll say I'll do. In this situation I feel it's magnified by a thousand times, yet it is still a word that was driven by my self and not under the expectation of anyone else. If a company would have sponsored the ride and said - I'll give a few thousand dollars to Whitelion if you make it to Darwin - then I would have something to fulfil. At the moment I have sent emails non stop to various newspapers and phoned radio stations only to receive false promises of publishing a story, and other times never receiving responses. I know this is also a failure of my time input, as if I called everyday and persisted with it then I would possibly have more coverage. As I've mentioned I'm not a salesman, I don't like hitting others up for money and I don't like giving off an impression that you only want to be polite with others just to ask them for money. I was hoping Whitelion as an organisation could of promoted that more, as I feel if someone else is to ask to fundraise on behalf of another person that feeling of being a salesman is somewhat diminished. In saying this I have no hesitation in promoting the reasoning of my ride in the hope of making people aware of troubled youth, such as those like my own brother. At this time asking for money to help the cause is a lot easier.

So then I felt content with my decision to leave. I realised without the support crew that the Sam fella had from yesterday I would not have a chance of fundraising to a large extent. To ride and manage the rest of the trip with out any services in the bush leaves little time to follow up on the promotion of the ride.

Talking about the promotion of the ride I received a phone call from a media partner of Whitelion saying they could do a story in the local paper in Broome. I thought this was great, would have been even more great in every other town as well. They explained there was a catch though. I had to provide a photo with my Aboriginal friend so they could do a story on it and how I gave him a football jumper. At this moment I reflected on Sam the man riding the unicycle. I saw a photo yesterday of him laying on the ground in front of 20 odd Aboriginal kids. The biggest thing I am always cautious of is trying to pump up my own ego and image by taking photos with Aboriginal or even Indigenous people that I've met overseas. If you think about it it's pretty demoralising when you single out one group of people for a photo, really not so dissimilar to taking a photo of an animal in a zoo. In addition I didn't want my friend thinking I only gave him a gift so I can get some type of self promotion out of it. I also didn't feel comfortable being the white saviour in the photo along with a few other reasons. I explained to the media organiser that I can give them any other photo, so will now wait and see what they say. I don't think they understood why I didn't want to do this..

Still no response from Sam either.. Not sure why he said he would meet me today. I haven't heard of any other cyclist out here so would be hard to get this confused.

Tonight a beautiful sunset whilst catching up with some friends I met in Kimba, South Australia.