Organise a solo kayak expedition of 2400 kilometres on the Murray River and you probably need to tell a few people about it.
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But this also made it easier for Marc Nieuwenhuys to add another sentence he hopes will help start more conversations about the reality of depression.
Mr Nieuwenhuys, 43, of Canberra, began his trek, Talking About A Lonely Journey, on Saturday at Bringenbrong and is due to pass through Albury by the end of the week.
Alone with no support crew and camping by the river each night, he plans to travel 30 to 40kms a day in an adventure that evolved from a paddle on the river with friends.
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Mr Nieuwenhuys had suffered clinically diagnosed depression for several years and was exhausted, mentally and physically, from dealing with it.
Learning a marker on riverside trees indicated the distance to the mouth of the Murray, "I just said out loud, straight away, 'I'm going to do that' and that was it".
"As soon as I said it out loud, I just went, 'This is it, this is my challenge, this is going to break me free from this horrible reign of depression, I'm going to beat this and this is going to be my purpose'," he told The Border Mail while camped near Walwa.
"Everything felt right about it."
Telling people about his depression in the context of this project encouraged others to mention similar personal or family struggles.
"It was almost every person had a relatable story and said, 'Wow, it's really cool that you're talking about it, maybe it will help others to start talking about it'," Mr Nieuwenhuys said.
"I felt like it would be really selfish of me not to try and get these conversations started."
Although a solo expedition over about three months, Talking About A Lonely Journey hopes to involve people through its website, which includes a live tracker monitoring progress, Facebook page and a future book.
Mr Nieuwenhuys said saying goodbye to his wife and family on Saturday had been hard but already he'd experienced benefits.
"I've definitely never felt this emotion of connecting and helping someone, it really is an incredible, powerful being, which is also incredibly therapeutic for me," he said.
"I know I'm beating my depression and I've only just started."
