Day 13 of Broome to Bowral

Lights, camera, action!

The alarm was set for 3 am.

Nothing particularly unusual about that anymore.

After almost two weeks on the road, ridiculous hours had become part of our daily routine. Get up in the dark, get the boys fed, get them onto their bikes and somehow get ourselves organised to follow them down the highway.

But this morning was going to be a little different.

We had a filmmaker joining us.

One of our media contacts had found someone in Katherine who could help us capture the story of Bob and Tom’s extraordinary ride.

His name was Ethan Grahek, from Infinity Prism.

Ethan lived in Katherine with his girlfriend, and at 4 am he arrived at Knotts Crossing Resort, ready to spend the morning filming the boys.

He was a quiet bloke.

Not someone who needed to be the centre of attention.

But he certainly knew his way around a camera.

And a drone.

The story behind the ride

Ethan wasn’t there simply to get some pretty footage of two cyclists riding along the Stuart Highway.

He wanted to hear their story.

He interviewed Bob and Tom about the ride, the challenges they were facing and what it was like cycling those enormous distances in the Northern Territory heat.

The boys had already covered an extraordinary distance since leaving Broome.

They’d dealt with headwinds, long days, early starts and the relentless business of getting up each morning and doing it all again.

The heat was another challenge altogether.

Starting at 4 am helped them get kilometres behind them before the day became too hot, but it also meant long hours on the road and very early mornings.

Now Ethan was giving them an opportunity to explain what that actually felt like.

Stop, start, and do it all again

Of course, making a film and riding 123 kilometres aren’t necessarily compatible activities.

Ethan needed footage.

Lots of it.

The boys riding towards him.

The boys riding away from him.

Different angles, different stretches of road, and drone footage capturing the vast country they were travelling through.

So there was a fair bit of stopping and starting.

And stopping.

And starting.

For Bob and Tom, who were accustomed to finding their rhythm and getting on with the kilometres, it made the day more tiring than usual.

When you’re riding those sorts of distances, you find a pace that works and keep going.

Stopping for a camera, getting moving again and then stopping somewhere else interrupts that rhythm.

But the boys understood why Ethan was there.

Although the interruptions made the day more tiring, the footage would help us share their extraordinary journey with a much wider audience.

Second breakfast, with a cameraman

Of course, filming or no filming, there were two hungry cyclists to feed.

So when it was time for second breakfast, we pulled over beside the Stuart Highway and got on with our usual roadside catering.

Mataranka, here we come

Despite all the extra stops for filming, the boys arrived in Mataranka in the early afternoon.

Another 123 kilometres behind them.

We’d been travelling south along the Stuart Highway, and Mataranka was our next overnight stop.

By now, we’d become quite good at turning up somewhere new, finding our accommodation and establishing a temporary home for the night.

This time, Bob, Jenny and Tom were staying in a cabin.

I had my van parked across the way.

It was a familiar arrangement. Everyone had somewhere to sleep, and we were all close enough to find one another when necessary.

The campground had its own distinctive Northern Territory character, including termite mounds along the road.

Not exactly the sort of garden ornaments you’d find in someone’s front yard back in Bowral.

But out here, they were simply part of the landscape.

The interviews continue

Ethan’s work wasn’t finished when the bikes stopped.

With everyone settled in Mataranka, he continued filming and interviewed Bob and Tom outside their cabin.

After a morning of capturing the boys on the road, this was an opportunity to hear more about the people behind the journey.

Because there was much more to Miles for MND than two bicycles travelling from Broome to Bowral.

There was Bob, at 82, taking on an extraordinary physical challenge.

There was Tom, at 18, riding alongside him.

And there was Jenny, who had been part of the adventure from the beginning.

Ethan was helping tell that story to people who weren’t standing beside the Stuart Highway watching it unfold.

And that mattered.

A visit to the Mataranka Pub

Of course, there was another important establishment to investigate.

The Mataranka Pub.

We wandered through the beer garden, taking in the atmosphere and the quirky things that make country pubs such interesting places.

You never quite know what you’re going to find in an outback pub.

Sometimes it’s the decorations.

Sometimes it’s the characters.

And sometimes it’s the bathroom.

Unfortunately, the bathroom wasn’t going to win any awards for cleanliness.

Let’s just say it wasn’t one of Mataranka’s more memorable attractions for the right reasons.

Fortunately, I had something much nicer in mind for the afternoon.

Come on, Tom. We’re going swimming.

I took Tom to Bitter Springs.

After days of long-distance cycling, early starts and endless stretches of highway, the opportunity to get into warm water was rather appealing.

Bitter Springs is a natural thermal spring near Mataranka, surrounded by tropical vegetation.

And the water was beautiful.

Warm.

Inviting.

A completely different world from the dry, dusty Stuart Highway we’d been travelling along.

For Tom, it was a chance to get off the bike and do something that didn’t involve pedalling.

For me, it was another opportunity to explore somewhere new.

These little excursions had become one of my favourite parts of the journey.

We were travelling through some extraordinary country, and whenever there was a chance to stop and experience a little more of it, I wanted to take it.

There would be another early start tomorrow.

Another long stretch of road.

Another day of finding two cyclists somewhere out on the highway.

But for now, we were in Mataranka.

And there was absolutely no reason to hurry.

Another 123 kilometres behind us

By the end of the day, Ethan had captured footage of the boys on the road and interviews with the team.

Bob and Tom had completed another 123 kilometres.

We’d made it to Mataranka.

And Tom and I had managed to squeeze in a swim at Bitter Springs.

Not a bad day’s work.

Tomorrow, the boys would be back on the Stuart Highway, heading towards Daly Waters.

Another 175 kilometres closer to Bowral.

But that was tomorrow.