But that’s exactly what Wangaratta firefighter and former navy seal Gerard Reeves and Fitzroy-based music industry professional Brendan Ryder are preparing to do.

The pair, who both grew up in North East Victoria, will document their motor bike trip from Rutherglen to Birdsville through a miniseries, Through the Dust, and hope to raise awareness of mental illness and funds for beyondblue. 

They have already raised about $2,000 and hope to quintuple it to $10,000 by the time they pull into Birdsville.

Mr Ryder said they’d seen first hand the impact mental illness can have and wanted to do their bit to decrease the stigma surrounding it. 

He said both Mr Reeves and himself had worked in careers where you spent long periods away from home, without your support system. 

“We’ve definitely been exposed to the extreme limit of people’s ability to handle situations and felt its something that needs to not be stigmatised,” he said.

A novice rider himself, Mr Ryder said the journey and web series was about challenging himself, getting away from every day life and seeing who emerges on the other side of the dust. 

“We wanted to challenge ourselves, to get out there,” he said.

“You find yourself in places where you’re inside your head and not changing the situation which can exacerbate the issue.

“We’re not professionals, everything we express will our experience or that of people we’ve come past.

“At the moment, what I’m doing, I wanted to change something to see if I could do this.”

Mr Ryder said talking about mental health was especially important for men and young men.

“We’re a lot more closed off,” he said.

“It is changing and we’re hoping a project like this will try to show if you do something, anything, that can help change that mindset, even driving motorbikes through the bush, just do anything.”

The boys start their trip, where their friendship began, Rutherglen High School, on September 2. https://www.throughthedust.net/.