Posts Tagged ‘Australia’

Day 448. 97km. Olarinna Creek – Oodnadatta

Posted: September 6, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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‘I’m shouting you a cabin!’ said Alex.
I guess we looked a bit forlorne sitting in the Pink Roadhouse as the rain started properly – in the middle of the desert. We have made it to Oodnadatta – not a place known for its rain. We might be stuck here tomorrow. The Oodnadatta track doesn’t like being rained on. Alex has a good card game if the rain keeps coming down.

The Oodnadatta Track

The Oodnadatta Track

The last bushes have given way to nothing. Today we cycled through rolling fields of grass – grass that is usually not there. Normally everything is just red. Red earth. Today we had a sprinkle of rain and the headwind died off. An easy roll into Oodnadatta.

Our food was waiting for us at the Pink Roadhouse in Oodnadatta. Alex and Alaine offered to take the boxes onwards to William Creek. We have enough food to last us until Adelaide. I don’t know what we’ll do after Marree.

The Oodnadatta Track

The Oodnadatta Track

Day 447. 110km. Marla – Olarinna Creek

Posted: September 5, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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Headwind. But also good road surface. We left early today and cycled down the Oodnadatta track. I have never seen it so green. From little rises, the landscape looks like endless fields of grass with cows grazing. From close-up it is prickly thin grasses blowing in the wind. The desert in bloom.

The Oodnadatta Track

The Oodnadatta Track

When there is no wind there are zillions of flies. We had lunch out of the wind behind a little shed next to a communications tower. The flies were extremely friendly, and also glad to be out of the wind.

Lunch stop

Lunch stop

We are camping in a dry creek-bed. A lovely spot with lots of wood for a lovely fire. Tomorrow Oodnadatta.

Day 446. 67km. Indulkana – Marla

Posted: September 4, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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There they were on the side of the road – the beautiful Sturt Desert Pea. I’ve only seen them here in the far north of South Australia. South Australia – I’m getting very near.

Sturt Desert Pea

Sturt Desert Pea

With only 65km on a bitumen road with a tailwind we had time to sleep in and talk with John and his visitor Liz. Then we left the APY Aboriginal lands – after about a week in this beautiful place which has left our heads spinning with contradictions I need time to process.

Leaving the APY Lands

Leaving the APY Lands

We arrived in Marla and collected the several tonnes of food our friends in Alice Springs had sent. Having been invited to dinner almost every night in the APY lands, we still had lots of food, and there was no way we could possibly take this food with us on the Oodnadatta track. I did a circuit of the caravan park and found a lovely New Zealand couple – Wendy and Gregory – to take our excess food to Oodnadatta. Now we are all set for the next dirt road into the outback – one I have driven several times before.

Day 445. 67km. Mimili – Indulkana

Posted: September 2, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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The trip is complete. We were allowed to enter the APY Lands to visit Robert Stevens – the head of Fregon community – and now we have seen him. Bumping down the road to Indulkana a car stopped, and out he stepped. Thank you for this amazing opportunity!

Robert Stevens

Robert Stevens

We continued our tradition of stopping for a day in the aboriginal communities, and spent the day in Mimili with Helen and Kel. Another lovely day of talking and sharing stories, and of talking to the kids in the school. We spent the evening in the youth centre watching a debriefing of a football match in the Pitjinjinjara language, and meeting an energetic young aboriginal man that is in a new generation that ‘walks in both worlds’. He grew up with his aboriginal roots, but has studied and spent much time in the wider Australian society. He has a unique opportunity to lead, and improve the lot of the aboriginal people.

Helen and Kel

Helen and Kel

We are staying with a teacher from the school in Indulkana – a keen cyclist who will be joining us tomorrow cycling to Marla. Thanks, John for your great hospitality!

Car wreck

Car wreck

Day 444. 79km. Fregon – Mimili

Posted: September 1, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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‘They live in the now. More than any people on the earth, the aboriginal people live in the now.’
Matt – the headmaster at Fregon had hit the nail on the head. Living in the now was from the life philosophy described by Eckhart Tolle and lots of other writers that I have read. All focus of thought and deed is now – no worrying about the past, and no thought of the future. Living life in the only time that exists – now. What a way to live.

Cooking kangaroo tails

Cooking kangaroo tails

Our minds have exploded in the last few days spending time in the aboriginal communities of the APY lands. We have stayed with the head of the community in Fregon and with school teachers in Ernabella and Fregon. We have talked to the kids in the schools about our bike trip and seen the excitement in their eyes. I always hope it might make a small difference to at least one. We have met many passionate people working in the schools, youth centres and art centres. These people do such inspiring work, living in a world of contradictions and questions where two cultures meet. We have stayed in more familiar homes of the non-aboriginal school teachers, and have seen the more outdoor life of the aboriginal people whose homes themselves are rather bare and a far cry from anywhere I have ever lived.

Art centre

Art centre

Art centre

Art centre

Artwork

Artwork

Painting

Painting

Aboriginal people don’t have a notion of ownership. If family asks for something you need to give it. This concept really is so different and at the core of aboriginal culture. The sense of ownership is at the core of the western culture, which means the two cultures must clash. There is little incentive to work, and material possessions only play a transitive role in people’s lives. If they can be used now they are. In the future they will use whatever is around at that time. I find this all very difficult to grasp – I realise how far I am from understanding these people, and am very pleased to also talk to non-aboriginals to try to understand it all just a little bit better.

Kid

Kid

Jude

Jude

We stayed our second night in Fregon with Claudia and Jessie – working at the school – a fun evening with lots of laughing. We spent all the morning and the first part of the afternoon continuing our walk around the community talking to lots of different people and finally managed to leave just before 2. Leaving Fregon we were passed by a youth worker from the next community Mimili. She invited us to her house to stay with her partner. With an outlook on more interesting conversations and encounters, we tried to race to Mimili – what seemed like almost impossible on these sandy roads when we left. The road was good, the wind was behind us (for a change), and we made it! Thank you Helen and Kell for a great evening in Mimili.

Road to Mimili

Road to Mimili

Road to Mimili

Road to Mimili

Road to Mimili

Road to Mimili

Day 443. 65km. Ernabella – Fregon

Posted: August 31, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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‘Bush tucker,’ he said as he slid off the little white dots from the eucalyptus leaves and ate them. They were some sort of mite eggs on the leaf and tasted sweet and a bit like honey. This evening we sat around the fire under the verandah of the village-chief’s house in Fregon and made damper – bush bread. Unfortunately we burnt it.

Bush tucker

Bush tucker

We left Ernabella after a wonderful day and second morning with Pat. She gave us many great insights on living in this remote aboriginal community, and took us around in her car to see the area. We went to the school in the morning before leaving Ernabella and spoke to the kids. It was fun seeing the kids, and they seemed to be engaged and interested. I hope maybe it might have made a small difference to one of them. They are the new generation, and I wish them all the best.

Water hole

Water hole

Red road

Red road

Ernabella school

Ernabella school

Kids at Ernabella school

Kids at Ernabella school

Leaving Ernabella we saw what happens to the cars when they die (if they are ever taken from the side of the road). In the local rubbish dump there was a field of burnt car carcasses. Along the road there was a car carcass every few hundred metres – sometimes on the road, and sometimes dragged off into the bush just off the road. Some were inverted or planted head-first in the soil. It must have been a spectacular crash to get them there like that.

Car graveyard

Car graveyard

Car graveyard

Car graveyard

‘Here is a coffee,’ said Pat as she got out of the car 30km out of Ernabella to give to me on my bike. She then drove forward to Clement who was ahead of me, and we had a coffee together in the middle of the bush.
We then had several cars pass that pointed us to Fregon. The head of the village was expecting us (a visit to him was the reason for us getting the APY land permit), and we were looking forward to meeing him and the community.

Day 442. 76km. Bush – Ernabella

Posted: August 30, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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So many stories from so many people. Today was footy day at Ernabella and the whole town was there. We are in the APY aboriginal lands in South Australia, staying with a teacher at the local school. This is such a different world to Uluru just down the road, and so so different to city Australia.

Red road

Red road

Standing on the side of the footy field watching the game between Ernabella and another community we spoke to several teachers and to a social worker. The clash of aboriginal and western cultures leaves the head spinning. In aboriginal culture there is no sense of ownership – everything that is yours is mine. People have to give money to people that ask for it meaning there is no incentive to work, and so most do not.

The concept of money is also different to the western attitude – it is like a river – it flows in and it flows out. In this community there is fresh food, but, going to the shop after the footy match, the whole community had descended to buy chips, hot dogs and coke. The people working at the shop were white. The teachers and social workers were white. There are aboriginal helpers at the school but they often don’t turn up. There are so many facts and so many questions I don’t know what more to write.

Footy

Footy

The APY Lands are beautiful. Red red earth and a sandy road passing through a land void of people. It is such a peaceful place – you feel like you are the only person on the planet.

Skid marks

Skid marks

Shadow

Shadow

We had half a day of headwinds and half a day of tailwinds – and many fewer flies compared to yesterday. Thanks, Pat, for your great hospitality and conversation. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the area!

Day 441. 108km. Curtin Springs – Bush

Posted: August 29, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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We sat in front of the fire under the starry heavens listening to the crackle of the wood as it disappeared in flames. Beneath the sound of the fire silence reigned. We were miles from absolutely anywhere in the middle of the Australian desert. Then the white ute with the floodlight headlights passed our fire, music blaring from the windows. The car stopped, reversed, and turned into our little side-path, and out jumped Quentin.

The sand was soft

The sand was soft

A big black fella with a beard and jovial face lumbered up to us and lit a cigarette. His massive dog jumped out of the ute and sniffed around. Quentin was from another community and was driving to Ernabella for the footy. He works there herding camels with the ute and helicopter. He had his wife and kids in the car.
A high-pitched stream of unintelligible syllables streamed out from the car window.
‘Me wife,’ chuckled Quentin.
She tooted the horn.
‘We might see you in Ernabella.’ I said as he returned to his car.
The floodlights were on, and the music thumping car reversed, returned to the road, and drove off into the night.

Not many cars ply this road. A red, sandy road that heads south into endless nothingness. The country is green from the recent rains and very beautiful.

Mt Connor

Mt Connor

Wreck

Wreck

Mt Connor

Mt Connor

Flowers

Flowers

And the flies were bad today. They can keep up with me while I am cycling, and are dreadful when passing through deep sandy stretches. Both hands are required on the handle-bars as I slide and wobble through the sand. One extra hand is needed to shoo away the flies. The lack of a hand has led to stacking the bike on several occasions.

Flies

Flies

We were passed by several people that mostly stopped to chat. A couple from Ernabella, and also the teacher from there. We are cordially invited to drop past for a cup of tea. I’m looking forward to Ernabella.

Day 440. 75km. Uluru Sunrise – Curtin Springs

Posted: August 28, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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Today was a day going back along the same straight road through the featureless desert. I put on music that brought me back to my time as an exchange student in France, and my childhood in Australia. I was brought back to the hospital room where I said goodbye to my mother for the last time in 2005. I could hardly see forward for all the tears. I am getting close, mum.

Breakfast

Breakfast

Our breakfast was scrambled eggs and sausages taken from the rubbish bin at Yulara. Nine eggs and three sausages. Maybe I’ll try the garbage tin exploration next time. I am still a novice at this. It’s a shame to see the food go to waste.

Day 439. 69km. Kata Tjuta – Uluru Sunrise

Posted: August 27, 2016 in Australia, Cycling
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‘I’ve found some chicken!’ exclaimed Clement, holding up the plastic bag he’d found in the rubbish bin. We dined on that before a second visit resulted in eggs, sausages and bread – all ready for breakfast tomorrow. Dumpster diving in Yulara.

Uluru from a distance

Uluru from a distance

I had already reached 39000km before even leaving the carpark – so – the required selfie.

39000 km

39000 km

Camping next to Kata Tjuta, we were the first to enter the Valley of the Winds, and could pass through in total silence, admiring the massive red domes looming above us on all sides. The slopes were covered in green, with huge carpets of purple flowers.

Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta

The return to Yulara and civilisation was slow against the headwind we had used as a tailwind the last few days. After a big shopping spree and dumpster diving effort, we headed off into the night to our camping spot – our sunrise viewing spot of yesterday morning.

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