27,000km into Sydney

Hi! It’s been a while. This time I’m coming at you from Sydney, Australia, aka. “basically home”. There’s just under 2,000km left to hit the record total and about 2,400km left on my planned route. I’m having a few days off to see lovely friends, catch up on posting, try to figure out how to do my own PR, and get the bike ready for New Zealand.

I planned the route so that the ride would get progressively harder towards the end until I crossed the Nullarbor plains, then easier as I started getting into places where all the friends live (Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Auckland) and more familiar terrain that suits my way of riding. In total I’ve managed 5,600km across Australia - a wee bit more than the 5,100km I’d originally planned.

The last day was a 228km ride that started at 3:40am. I woke up at the mountain bike park. I was packed up by 4:30am, and after descending down to the road I realised the gate at the other end of the park was padlocked. I had to jump the fence and lift over my 32kg bike - surprisingly easy these days, I guess that flogging across the Nullarbor into 25kph headwinds actually did something for my fitness.

Then it was a big climb up and over the Blue Mountains into Sydney. The conditions were perfect - dry, not too hot, light tailwind. The traffic was hell from Victoria Pass onwards. A little scary when descending on a winding highway through suburbs at 35-45kph. Then finally, through the never ending suburbs and industrial areas to get to the coast.

The Australian route took me from Perth to Albany along sections of the Munda Biddi trail, then across the Nullarbor plain with highs of 43c, to Adelaide and then on to see friends in Melbourne. Now I’m in Sydney it really does feel like things got progressively more “home” as I got closer.

The final route through Aotearoa takes me up the West Coast, then through the middle of the North Island, reversing the Tour Aotearoa, except for certain bits of trail that will be too wet to ride this time of year. The record will finish around mid-May, mostly dependent on the weather and which places I stop to see friends on the way back up the country.

I’ve been posting heaps on my Instagram lately, so to be honest, I don’t have much to write here that hasn’t already been written and documented.

I’m feeling pretty damn mentally well, with all the lovely new and old friends all my stress about things that happened in New Zealand has just gone away. A few days ago I’d been debating myself on how to post about that without implying that queer excellence is the only way to queer happiness (it isn’t).

Lots of other bike tourers have talked about how gratitude is probably the real key to happiness, and how a world bike tour changes your life because of all the gratitude you feel to people everywhere in the world. I agree! So a few days ago I realised I have closure for *so many things* - not in the sense that I forgive people, but that it just doesn’t matter to me anymore. Just because I know my international community of friends - from Aotearoa, to the UK, Germany, India, Canada, the US, and of course, all the sweeties here in Australia, and more, are with me.

I think it’s silly when people tell me, a transgender person, that I’d discover a lot about myself when I travel around the world, and I still think it’s true. I didn’t learn many new things. I’m still the same person, just calmer and more confident*

*99% of the time. I can survive snow, car crashes, heatwaves, police states, bears, snakes, and spiders, but I am still deeply afraid of cute queer adventure cyclists

I don’t want the trip to end, but it’s looking pretty certain after the record I will try to make a book before all the memories disappear.

Thanks for coming along for the ride. I’m doing an AMA on my instagram story today so feel free to pop over and ask me a question.

Peace x

Robbie