The importance of purpose
Tom Dunn knows a thing or two about dealing with isolation.
In the past six years, the 24-year-old adventurer has kayaked 2,220 kilometres down the Murray River, travelled the length of the Australia’s longest river system — 3,750 kilometres along the Condamine, Darling, Murray — on a stand-up paddleboard, hiked 21-days in the Himalayas to Everest Base Camp, and completed Australia’s longest Triathlon travelling from Cape York to Wilson’s Promontory.
Just four weeks ago, when I spoke Tom, he was preparing to take on another monumental solo journey. This time Tom was about to attempt a world record triathlon, traversing Australia from the westernmost point of Western Australia to the easternmost point at Byron Bay — a total of 9,000 kilometres!
The quick spread of the coronavirus and the closing of state borders has forced Tom to delay his plans — and the original story I had planned to write — but he is not one to give up on his goal that easy.
“To actually make the official announcement was pretty disheartening,” he said. “There had been a lot of work that had gone into that start date, but, looking back on it, I'm pretty glad I was able to postpone the trip a couple weeks before it started rather than three days it or even worse postpone it five or six days from the finish line — that would have really hurt!”
I first met Tom in Bourke in 2017, around a third of the way through his stand-up paddleboard journey. At the time I was impresses by his positive outlook and dedication. It had been a dry summer when Tom started that trip and there was little water in the upper Darling tributaries. After a several days, dragging a paddleboard from waterhole to water hole, many would have given up or postponed the trip. Undeterred, Tom simply went into the next town, bought a pair of socks and joggers and ran for 900 kilometres until he could get on the water once again.
Following his adventures online ever since, I’ve seen that Tom is someone who always looks for a silver lining no matter what is thrown his way.
“I look at it from the perspective that it gives me another 12 months or so to prepare,” said Tom last Thursday, the day he had planned to start the bike leg of his journey.
Starting at Steep Point in Western Australia, Tom had planned to cycle down the coast, across the Nullabor through South Australian and into Victoria, where he would complete a 260 kilometre swim leg along the Murray River, and then run 1,700 kilometres up the east coast to Byron Bay.
“Now I have twelve more months to prepare, to get fitter, to know the trail better, to get more involved and hopefully have a greater chance of success.”
Tom had planned to try use his journey to raise $83,000 for the mental health organisation LIVIN, but given the world events that have overtaken us all, he now just wants to promote awareness of the organisation and share their message that ‘It ain’t weak to speak’.
“Now is the perfect time to be talking about a mental health organisation like LIVIN.
Coming out of this mental health is going to be a big issue — I've noticed with myself on a very, very small scale, but there are going to be people out there who are doing it much tougher,” he said.
“Hopefully, with the goal of continuing this trip at a later date, I'll be able to go out and take on this journey and really spread a lot of awareness about mental health. I've given up on the idea of fundraising through this and so instead of trying to raise $83,000, I'm now trying to reach 83,000 people. I'm trying to get them to donate a short video of them repeating LIVIN's mantra of ‘It ain't Weak to Speak’ and I'll collect all these videos and do something special with that.
“I want to show that there are all these people talking about mental health and sharing that message that ‘It ain't weak to speak’ and I think it will be a pretty amazing thing!”
For all of us who are looking at weeks, if not months, of continuing to practice social isolation measures, Tom has a little advice.
“When I was out on my trips, I always had a goal and an endpoint to work towards and aim for. Each day whether I was up in Cape York or whether I was on the Darling River, all I had to do was get closer towards the end of the trip and that gave me a bit of a purpose. If I completed 20 kilometres, 40 kilometres or 80 kilometres, I was always able to say I was proud of what I achieved that day,” he said.
“And I think that's what a lot of people are probably struggling with at the moment; now they are not allowed to go to work or they might have been heavily involved in a sporting club and they've all been closed down… So I would encourage people to get out and take on a goal, whether it is a big one or a little one, do something to give yourself a bit of purpose to get up each day and keep going!
“If you are progressing and ticking things off, you are going to be able to cope with the isolation a lot better because you can be proud of yourself at the end of each day.”
Tom is making the most of the isolation period to complete a book about his stand-up paddleboard journey down the Darling River.
“I'd love to be able to get that published and share it with the greater public. I hope it gives a good insight into how I got into the world of adventure and it might inspire others to go out and take on challenges of their own!”
You can find out more about Tom’s past adventures at www.whattomhasdunn.com or find him on Facebook and Instagram @whattomhasdunn
