Day 143 – 5/10/2019 on a Midlife Adventure.
Up at the crack of dawn and ready to start the day! The rounds of beer’s last night didn’t break my spirit.. today I am off on an adventure, as soon as my mate sobers up enough to come get me!
At this point other than beer, the last thing I ate was Larrawa Station about 36 hours ago and that was just a packet of 2 minute noodles I think this heat is getting to me.
Mid morning we’re heading off to the Fitzroy River in the Danggu Geike Gorge National Park, where unlike the section near the bridge there is still sections with 14m of water in it.
Cruising up river I learn that this entire area used to be part of an underwater coral system around 350 million years ago in the Devonian Times.
This is really unique for me, I’ve seen this kind of structure underwater in the corals around the pacific but to see it so far inland, and so exposed is really quite interesting.
We continue up stream and arrive at a fresh water stream.
We head up the hill to the source of the stream.
Absolutely pure water that bubbles up 365 days a year some of the cleanest water in the world (other than a layer of leaves on the surface!).
We then hit the banks of the river on the other side and jump in. I’m assured it only freshwater croc territory here… I do trust my mate… but he also got in the water first so I was pretty ok with following suit, plus is was hot!
Over the years just by the nature of things you loose touch with some people and what amazes me the most is how that even after all of the years have passed and so many things have changed… that they haven’t. Yes we’ve all got older but the connections made those many years ago still hold strong.
It was pretty special chatting for hours and catching up on our journeys over the years. It’s pretty cool reminiscing whilst drinking beer, surrounded by some remarkable scenery is a place so remote, yet so beautiful as this! From what could be a town so easy to drive through and never stop in.
The lifestyle of being so remote from so much actually makes life simpler. I’ve been listening to Mark Mason’s “The Subtle Art of Not giving a F**k” (available at all good bookstores, audio book libraries and probably illegally).
Other than it is an excellent book and a massive perspective shift, one of the concepts it deals with is duplicity of choice where the more options you have the less sure or happy you are with the decision you make. In short being so remote makes life easier, there is less choice so less confusion and more happiness.
Of course there are draw cards to this life but there is a something remarkable out here that has gone from the big cities and it either is, or is what builds a real sense of community.
So thanks mate, I’m still learning something new from you after all these years and your sales pitch on the lifestyle has taken hold… don’t think I haven’t already checked out Seek and found a number of jobs that I could apply for… it might have been a dangerous wick to light!
Well with much to re-consider, some great new memories and an amazing day behind me I’m back on the road again further west tomorrow so goodnight from this Midlife Adventure.
I’m happy to call this the best day of my trip so far!.
PS for anyone worried at this point, I hit the restaurant and hunkered down on a steak dinner… the appetite is back!
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