Movie stage XX & XXI

I paced fast in the Snowy Mountains but these extra pushes in the snow blizzard or 130km walk in three days paid off - I managed to reach Sydney at the end of the school year. How wonderful it was to be father and husband for a while. Assemblies, performances, competitions, birthday parties - the first week at home was very intense, and my son was bursting with joy.

For the first time in life family home was on my travel route. Of course this did not mean condition's change - I was still completely banned from using the engine. I went to the city centre or to the beach once only, because Sydney is not super friendly to cyclists. I only visited my friends if they didn't have a lift or opened fire stairs for me, and in shopping malls I ran around avoiding escalators.

And everything was perfect until I went with my family for a weekend bike ride around our suburb. When crossing the tram station we entered the lift with our bikes, went down and continued the fun. None of three of us switched on an alarm, lit a red light, no one noticed, no instinct worked. It was after 5 days when I was riding there again, as I was walking up the stairs next to the lift, that a feeling of horror strucked me - then I realized the unforgivable mistake of last week. I was overcome with tears, sadness and regret, because then I already knew that I didn't make 100% unmotorised journey. After 263 days without a single second of engine use, I lost everything. Friends comforted me, but I know that I screwed up my own dream, and I can't undo it.

The fall was painful, but there's no need to feel sorry. I will not start again, and on the other hand, I do not intend to end the challenge because of this. I will not give up easily, I will continue under the same conditions as before, i.e. still without using the motor, including the ban on using the lift. I just won't be able to say I crossed Australia without using an engine anymore. The only consolation was that this lift wasn't intentional and didn't move me a meter towards my destination if you look at the aerial map of the route. A few days later I went back to the hated lift, walked the stairs twice from top to bottom and my son measured the time of the ride - stupid 6 seconds, miserable 6 meters. Apparently only less than half a millionth of the distance of entire route, not much, but actually too much. Such a pity.

I had to forget about it, stand up, and for the next two weeks I intensively prepared the rest of the trip. Earlier, I prepared only the basics because I did not know if I would get successfully to Sydney at all so that I could continue north. Besides, I had to change a lot, mainly means of transport, dates, shipments, meeting places with family, etc. Again, I filled the living room with cardboard boxes for shipping, but I managed to send most of them before Christmas.

Christmas Eve with the family was wonderful and the whole holiday stress free. It wasn't until the Boxing Day that we started packing the car, because after 19 days at home it was time to continue the journey. The plan is that I do my job, engage Ewelina and Natan in activities as much as possible, then they come back for the car and we meet for the camping together every evening.

The first day was visiting Sydney's icons - walking through the CBD and riding my minicycle on the Harbor Bridge with a view of the Opera House. My son was bursting with laughter seeing my fight on this tiny bike, but I say that it was fun. Then it was time to walk along the rivers stretching in the national parks, so we passed practically all of northern Sydney in two days in silence far from traffic. On the way we had paddle boat, it was also a fun. Finally, after a few days, I stood on the shores of the great lakes - here my adventure was to gain a slightly different angle.

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