My world walk blog Australia 81 - Nearing the finish of Australia.
Nearing the finish of Australia.
One day I
met a Swiss man called David who was doing somewhat of a world tour on a
solar powered electric bike. From what I could understand it wasn't
really working out for him and he was having so many problems. He had so
many solar panels that his trailer was a few meters long. Apparently
many countries refused to let him travel on their roads and it was
costing a fortune to ship. Besides the solar thing wasn't really working
out. He mentioned that when it's too hot, like now, and it's winter
here that the solar panels don't charge up. The day I met him he was
looking for a campsite to charge up. I left him and wished him luck but
didn't really understand his project.
A couple of
days later I met a nice family who were taking a year out to cycle
around Australia. They are from the Goldcoast and he was originally from
the Netherlands, hence serious bicycle DNA
Their
two children a girl aged sixteen and a boy aged fourteen sure were
getting to know their country close up at such a young age. Their
mission was to raise awareness about motorone disease as his father died
from it a year to the day that I met them. They were celebrating his
memory with a big meal at the Adelaide River roadhouse.
Then with another big 47 kilometre day I made it to Manson Dam Wall Rest Area.
On
the way I met a man who was getting paid for living his dream. For many
years he wanted to travel in the Northern Territory. He also worked as a
service technician for pokey machines. He wanted to take a year off
work but his boss didn't want to let him do it. But it seemed there was a
logistic problem for the company in so far as machines were breaking
down in so many remote areas and the company didn't have the manpower to
cope. His boss said that he couldn't give him time off because of the
problem and the shortage of manpower. Then the man I met suggested that
he does his trip and services the machines at the same time! The boss
thought it was a great idea and now he is travelling in a caravan owned
by the boss and petrol and expenses are paid too!
I
had another chat with a man called Philip from Victoria in the south of
the country. He says that he comes up north at thus time of the year
for some sun treatment for his cancer. He has Urticaria Pigmentiosa and
according to him his doctors back up north didn't know much about the
condition. After researching it himself he discovered that constant
sunshine is key.
He also mentioned that his house
was burnt down in the deadly bushfires about ten years ago. He was still
pretty beat up about it, a big loss was all of the personal stuff,
letters photos and all.
It seemed there were a lot
of people scamming insurance companies. People whose houses were
untouched by the fires just took photos of Phillips house and told the
insurance companies that it was their house that was burnt down.
Overwhellemed, many insurance companies just settled and paid out.
That day I walked on many minor roads. It took me off the busy highway but added an extra six-kilometres to my day
All
in all it was well worth it. Around seven pm I made it to Humpty Doo
town centre and met my friend Terry Cleary who commuted me to his Darwin
home.
We returned in the morning and after an
interview with the ABC radio Grandstand sports show I walked 35
kilometres mostly along bicycle paths and finished at the junction of
Route 1 and Bagot Road. I had only seven kilometres left to walk in the
continent. I would walk them in three days time, on July 10th to honour my late brother Brian who died from a heart attack when I was on the road in China.
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