Jake Avila

‘Engine trouble on Australia’s vast Nullarbor Plain was the beginning of my path to publication. I’d been teaching for ten years, and to exorcise a growing restlessness, cashed in my long service leave and hit the road for a three-month solo journey to Western Australia. No surly teenagers, demanding parents, or meaningless box ticking! Surfing, fishing, and stargazing would revive me. With the blessing of my amazing wife, I took off in a mate’s old pick-up.

‘But three weeks in, the romance was fading. No air conditioning, thousands of flies, and a shark-infested ocean without a buddy to improve the odds, the final straw was losing power at the start of a 450-mile traverse of remote outback. With a heavy heart, I turned and headed for in ten weeks.