AN Aberystwyth man has described his gruelling experience after completing an 8,000-mile solo motorcycle ride through the Australian outback in memory of his late father.

As he rolled into his home in Melbourne on Saturday, Wayne Jenkins, who is originally from Llanfarian, was coming to the end of a mammoth 12,500km motorcycle ride which had started at his home on 1 April, raising almost £7,000 for charity in the process.

A former Ysgol Penweddig pupil, Wayne, 30, now lives in Australia with his partner Lisa and their dog Toffee, where he works as an overhead linesman, building and maintaining power lines.

Speaking to the Cambrian News this week, Wayne described the lonely and “mentally testing” experience of driving through the Simpson Desert to the northern tip of Australia, where he then headed down the east coast back to Melbourne, at the south-eastern tip of the country.

Wayne completed the epic journey to raise money for the Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis charity after tragically losing his dad to the disease in 2005.

“One of the hardest days I experienced was day four,” said Wayne.

“This was travelling from Cameron Corner — at the corner of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia — to a small outback town of Inaminka, and from there my target was Birdsville.

“But I chose to take the long way, visiting a Bourke and Wills historic site, and the largest and oldest woolshed in Australia.

“The first 100 kilometres was easygoing and relatively easy to navigate, but after riding down a road for nearly 40 kilometres, I noticed my GPS was trying to send me in a circle.”

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