About The Wandering Minds Walk -
The motivation to walk 5000kms across the east coast of Australia
The Wandering Minds walk is a one-woman trek along the east coast of Australia.
Commencing May 2022 and starting from “South Point” (most southern point of Australia at Wilsons Promontory in Victoria), Bailey intends to traverse along the eastern coastline of three states to the most northern tip of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.
She will follow foot trails through some of the most rugged terrain in the world motivated to join the growing movement and conversations around mental health awareness, with the intention of raising funds for the Black Dog Institute and their ongoing commitment to research, resources, and services.
Bailey is walking in comradery of people living with mental health conditions day to day. It is also for those yet to be diagnosed and treated and the tough journeys that they have ahead of them.
But it is especially in hope for future generations to inherit better acceptance, treatments, and managements.
Bailey intends to explore what mental health support resources are available and accessible to people along the east coast of Australia and advocate for people to access supports and treatments.
“The walk is a metaphor of life with bipolar and reflects my own personal journey.
It will be tough and long.
There will be good days and bad.
Uphill battles and downhill slides, with the mentality of just putting one foot in front of the other and taking one day at a time to conquer the bigger goal.
Just like in my own journey thus far, there will be treacherous moments and triumphs.
It’s a hard road.
I will be broken at times, and I will want to give up.
I will be exhausted, and I will want to die.
It’s about fuelling my body and mind to help me keep going.
Recognising my body’s and my mind’s messages to rest and recover when necessary and to enjoy the many little moments along the way”
It will be an individual journey that doesn’t follow established roads the general population travel conventionally along in life.
It represents the nature of bipolar and mental ill-health recovery.
“The walk to many, seems impossible to achieve. Just like recovery seems to a person who is diagnosed with a chronic mental health disorder. I want to show that if you have a mental health condition, that with the right treatment and commitment to surviving the tough times you can aim to achieve great things, both big and small, toward cumulatively having a long fulfilling life irrespective of it requiring a different roadmap or time-scale to achieve.”
“I know my end goal is to reach the most northern tip of Australia and I will do everything I can to achieve that goal but having bipolar I must accept ambiguity of a finishing date for the Wandering Minds Walk”.
Although ideal to be completed in 12-18 months, the open-ended timeframe will mirror the uncertainty that periods of wellness and sickness imposes on guidelines and boundaries for people managing mental health conditions.
“Having a chronic mental illness makes forming long-term plans in relation to careers, relationships, families, and travel very difficult. There is no certainty or guarantee of a healthy mood state at any time in your life. This is extremely frustrating and unsettling for people with mental illness including bipolar.
Therefore, there is no fixed end date for the walk, and I have planned the walk making allowances for my mental capacity and physical health issues at various times of the trek.”
Bailey is doggedly determined to manage her mental health with as much emphasis as is placed on physical health.
She is adamant to live with and manage her condition to the best of her ability toward living her best life.
