The Abyss
Sitting astride my bike, its motor humming and rumbling apprehensively, me admonishing myself: What were you thinking?! Ahead of me a bridge lies submerged in water deep enough to bring this journey to an unceremonious end. Behind, a few thousand kilometres of hard-earned road, the last five hundred or so unforgiving for its hardened corrugated dirt surface. I wonder wryly when the North Queensland Peninsula Developmental Road might reach completion. It’s hard to know exactly how deep the water goes; and I’ve never actually ridden through water before. If I’d considered every possible manifestation of seemingly insurmountable challenge, I’d not have left the house, I tell myself. I suddenly feel that familiar feeling of impending doom; like I’ve just been caught smoking or expelled from school; that feeling of climbing a mountain's edge, caught frozen with the realisation that I’ve climbed too high to safely descend and psychologically unable to go any further; like my l...