311. Perth to Freemantle, Australia

2..26.2025

So far, my pedal around the world has been unsupported. No vehicle bearing food, water, and shelter has trailed me. Instead, I've carried a tent, sleeping bag, and enough eats and drinks to get me from one stop to the next.

But because the Nullarbor Plain and other long stretches of Western Australia are punishingly dry, hot, and barren, I decided to enlist a support vehicle. And no better crew exists on the planet than my dear friend Lera.

My previous adventures with Lera include 1) Traveling across Aceh, Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami, 2) Running around downtown Los Angeles dressed as Santa Claus, and 3) Swimming amongst the pregnant sharks that nest beneath her home in La Jolla. Through these escapades, Lera has dubbed me "Health and Safety" because, unlike her, I have a functioning amygdala, and so I occasionally experience fear.

In addition to her adventurous spirit, Lera brings experience provisioning the salilboats she captains, gourmet cooking talents, bushcraft skills, and expertise in Aboriginal Australian languages and cultures. She also loves the movie, "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," at least as much as I do. And so she is beyond perfect for this job, whose description includes keeping us in water, food, and fuel, finding places for us to camp (we will sleep in our rental truck's slide-on camper), cooking breakfast and dinner, and amusing herself all day while I am plying my bicycle.

Today, I met Lera at the airport, helped her pick out a vintage bike to learn to ride (she grew up in the Soviet Union, where bikes were rare), and retrieved our rental truck. We then went food shopping, where I realized that, for the next month, I will be eating better than I have ever eaten before in my life.

And so my days of living like a dumpster racoon are over for now. I will be crossing Western Australia in comfort and style.