Risky Business

The Mawson Trail is managed by Bicycle South Australia. We contacted them a while ago to order maps and gather information about the trail. Of course it happened to come up during the conversation that we would be taking two young children along for the ride. You can imagine our disappointment when we were told that the trail was far too remote and dangerous to take children on, that we had better do some more research and ultimately rethink our plans.

Fortunately for us, research we did, and as a result not long after we stumbled upon an inspiring couple who did in fact, just last year, ride the Mawson with their two year old son. It was certainly a relief to know that our planned journey was still possible and also that we weren’t completely out of our minds!

Nevertheless, heading out on any adventure can be risky. Inevitably there will be people (and not just our Mums and Dads), who in the midst of imagining every possible danger, will rightly question whether or not the risk we plan to take is too high? Whether we may have been a bit too hasty in our initial judgment.

We’ve been reflecting on this for a while now and have concluded that chances are, we’re probably safer roaming aimlessly around the Flinders Ranges than we are at home.

Ironically, during our day-to-day lives, we are most likely in what Laurence Gonzales calls a ‘Permanent Vacation State of Mind’. The culture of plenty in which we live makes everything so easy. The sun goes down and we flick a switch, we get hungry and the refrigerator beckons, it rains so we stay inside, the temperature drops but we adjust the central heating. We really don’t have to give a lot of thought to our most basic human needs and apparently our brain draws the conclusion that our little corner of the world is safe, and as a result, decides that it doesn’t have to pay that much attention.

On the other hand (provided of course that we do in fact manage to snap ourselves out of this vacation state of mind) when we’re on The Mawson; shelter, food, water, warmth and light won’t exactly come so easy. The Flinders Ranges will be an unfamiliar environment for us and according to recent research we will have a heighted sense of awareness. Our primal instincts will return; we will be more attuned to the risks, aware of the dangers and a lot less likely to become complacent.

We weren’t going to mention the words ‘super hero’ or ‘special powers’ but if this phenomenon applies to kids too then the Fantastic Four does have a nice ring to it. Okay…. so we’ve gotten very carried away there. But seriously, seems like we’ve got to get out more; this staying at home thing is risky business!

Tahlia and Marty: back outdoors safe and sound!

Join the Club

I seem to be a club person. It appears to have begun while I was quite young, I can't pinpoint the exact moment but probably around the time I joined the Stamp Collectors Association in Kindergarten. I hate being alone and tend to get pretty bored doing anything by myself, even if it is something much more exciting than stamp collecting. Marty, on the other hand, fancies himself as a bit of a recluse, a hermit, a loner if you like. Quite happy in his own company, he's a typical candidate for doing some crazy solo adventure across the never never. We even have a term at home for when he needs some personal space: 'Marty Time'. Strangely enough this has become a more regular occurrence since children came onto the scene.

Over the years Marty has been dragged to numerous events, clubs, societies, associations and organisations and I'm glad to say that since having kids he is slowly starting to appreciate the benefits of such community gatherings. There is absolutely no doubt about it, kids look MUCH cuter when they're being held by someone else. With one set of grandparents galavanting around the world on a yacht and the other not quite ready for retirement and therefore unable to move into a granny flat out the back, we seem to be in need of community; some likeminded crazy people who will motivate us to get out of bed at 6am on an overcast sunday morning, to put thermals, gloves and beanies on, before getting lost running 10km around one of the local national parks. Luckily, such folk do exist and they go by the name of the 'Wingecarribee Bushies'; an off track running group who meet in a different location each Sunday morning for a 12 - 15km run through the bush. 

The Southern Highlands is also home to a great Mountain Biking Club and a pretty competitive Road Riding Club. Somehow this weekend we managed to squeeze in all three and we had a full on 48hrs of Bush Running and Riding. In true olympic spirit I even managed to win a Gold Medal! That's right, I'm the most recent NSW Cross Country Series winner in the 'Women's Sport' division. As it turned out it was actually a tad embarrassing, especially when I had to make a speech after winning the event in which I was in fact... the only competitor! But you've got to be in it to win it right? and I definitely deserve something to make up for the several trees I ran into and the pain my shoulder is in today as a result.

The Podium

It was really great to get out and about with other people and be surrounded by willing hands to help out with the kids. You know you've had an awesome weekend when you start off the working week in need of a holiday; thoroughly exhausted, worn out and sore all over! If you want help to get out and about with kids....Join the Club!

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Sleep

Since our last blog, we have come to the realisation that there is yet another way in which Zephyr will be asked to pull his weight on our Mawson Journey; and that is by sleeping. Sleeping in the chariot for his day time nap shouldn't be too much of a problem.... sleeping at night.....well.... that is the question on all of our minds. If Zephyr sleeps, we all sleep, and that can only be a good thing!

All this talk about sleeping prompted us to actually visualise our 'night time arrangements' for the first time. Despite sleep, and more to the point shelter, being pretty high up on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs,  until this point we surprisingly hadn't really given it much thought. We knew we would be camping, presumably in some kind of a tent, but now that we were forced to contemplate our shelter of choice a little more seriously we seemed to have a few decisions to make.

It's tempting to imagine one of those nice, walk in, three room tents, with a large awning out the front, a sizable blow up mattress inside, a few comfy pillows and a matching doona. Getting even more carried away I can picture a couple of camping chairs, a fold up table, a hammock hung up between two trees just off to the side and why not throw in a solar panel run portable camping fridge!

Unfortunately, given the fact that we will be somehow strapping and tying everything we need for our two week journey vicariously onto our bikes, that vision is nothing more than a complete fantasy. For the stark reality is that we are probably looking at a two man tent, a tent smaller than our queen size bed but just bigger than our coffee table, the type you need to crawl into, with a ceiling just high enough that you only need to duck your head slightly when sitting up, a tent with just enough space to fit our family's four bodies, albeit, as long as at least two of us are lying on our side!

On past adventures Tahlia adapted well to the
life of a 'tent dweller'; probably because she thinks
of them as her own personal jumping castle.