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Published: June 18th 2019
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My brother lives in a shouse* in the rainforest. They drive an old 80s series Landcruiser called Migaloo and cassowaries frequent their backyard. Their son’s bike was made from a mixture of three from the tip shop and within minutes he can be riding it along the beach with Dunk Island in the background. They can’t afford a yearly skiing trip or ocean cruise but can be cruising down the Hull River spotting crocs and catching Mangrove Jacks within 10 minutes. To my brother and his family possessions need only be basic enough to continue to enjoy the place where you live. It’s a lesson many families (including us) can overlook amongst the doldrums of everyday life and keeping up with the Joneses next door.
He has lived in the Mission Beach area for most of his adult life. This is where they’ve chosen to raise their two children. Immersed in rainforest, beaches and experiences that don’t need devices or credit cards. They choose to live in an area where they can walk 50m past their backyard to a rainforest stream and catch little fish and prawns. The kids have enjoyed uninterrupted cousin time and seeing multiple forms
of wildlife. White-lipped tree frogs as big as your hand, orb spiders bigger than an adult hand, cassowaries, crocodiles and multitudes of fish.
And we’ve loved sharing in this life for a few days.
Now as we spend a few days at my other brother’s house up in the mist near Malanda we are doing a stocktake of our equipment, leaving some behind to make room for other more essential equipment. It feels like we have slowed down and adjusted to life on the road. We are now ready to turn left, leave the east coast behind (many more areas to explore another day) and head west.
In the past few days Jason has been an apprentice bike engineer whilst my brother has lovingly assembled two adult bikes for us to take on our journey. Made from parts he has sourced recently and others he has had stored away because they were too good to throw, these bikes will hopefully take us on many family outings exploring towns and trails. We appreciate the time and care he has put into making these for us and will cherish the Purple Tiger and
the Black Panther for many years to come.
Watching my brother build bikes from scratch has taught me many things. The love and care that family provides: my big brother spending the time to make something for his little sister that is not only functional (it’s sleek, fast and has great componentry), but reflects my personality. He has been thinking this through for months. The bike he has made for me is a little bit lairy, a little bit retro and a little bit cruisy. It’s perfect for this “Stuntmum”, my new nickname given to me by the boys. On the contrary Jason’s is solid, reliable and made for purpose: mountain biking.
My brother has also taught me something about patience. Building a bike from old parts takes a lot of time, things go wrong and plans need to change frequently. Watching him I’ve been able to reflect on my own ability to take a step back when things don’t go as planned and just sit for a bit. There will always be a solution. Sometimes you need to take the time to polish every little silver ball in the bearings to make things
run smoothly again. When we can allow ourselves the time to do this the outcome can be something pretty amazing.
We’ve applied the brakes and now we turn left. We’ve slowed down and now it’s time to head west and continue this amazing journey.
*A shouse is a shed that has been transformed into a house.
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