Jan 2007

After a cold, restless sleep I awoke at 4:30am and hiked up to a nearby peak to watch the sunrise. I made soup for breakfast and curled up in my sleeping bag as the sun created pink zebra patterns in the forest fire smoke, and then emerged in it's full, burning red glory.

I hiked back down and was on the road again by noon. Through the high mountain ranges (ugh... bike struggling... thought I might have to adjust the carbs but made it out OK) into smaller mountains on the edge of Kosciuszko NP where the curvy road was cut into the red, red hills... Look out for debris!!!

From here the landscape started changing drastically. The start of the Murray River Valley was full of charred, dead, yet massive trees; black ghosts emerging from a river which had half dried up.

Somewhere between Tintaldra and Granya I stopped for a drink at a hotel/winery. Two friendly country men were the only other patrons, and they played pool as the jukebox sang out a country song about a man in love with his UTE (as opposed to his pick-up truck)! How classic!

This is where it started to get hot... I suppose one of my reasons for coming this way was curiosity about the vast expanses containing little but the heat. I've been in heat in India, but that was a crowded, smelly heat. This is different. Here it's neither smelly nor crowded; it's just hot!

From Wodonga to where I turned off the main road (~30km past Cobram) was quite straight, with continuous farms on either side, separated from the road by rows of huge gum trees. To my suprise, the landscape became quite lush and many of these farms were fruit farms!

I felt the fatigue coming on at about 6:30pm so turned off towards Bearii to try to find a place to camp along the river in Barmah State Park. 4 wrong turns on sketchy dirt roads later, I'm camped 20m from a gorgeous, slow-moving section of the Murray River.

I don't think Gael Garcia likes these bumps and dust, but I'm quite glad we came out here.

Since I didn't start the climb until 4pm, I didn't think I'd make it to the summit before dark. But I did, in time to see the sunset completely obscured by Victoria's forest fire smoke. It was as if the sun was just swallowed, suddenly and unexpectedly, by the smog which had already taken the surrounding mountain ranges captive in its veil.

It was kind of cool to think that I had climbed Australia's Highest Mainland Mountain (ha ha, yet only 2228 meters). Such a great feeling, to hike and hike until you're surrounded by nothing but mountain ranges!

The past few days have been some great riding:

After a few days of rest and an attempt at recovering (still sick from a week of no sleep and constant dancing) consisting of much reading, crib with Jamie and researching the next leg of my trip on the net, I'm off on the second half of my journey.

I accompanied Simone and Jamie to his cousin Scott's place at Jervis Bay, a beautiful home with dolphins and sting rays swimming 500 m in front of the house, where I also got to meet Scott's wife Shelli and their children Oscar and Charlie.

On the way to Jervis Bay I rode through the fun curves and hills of Kangaroo Valley, stopping to explore the trails around Fitzroy Falls and lookouts surrounding the gourge. A Canbewerra lookout gave me a view of the land out to the coast, including my destination of Jervis Bay!

The next day was some more great rides (especially from Bateman's Bay to Braidwood) out to Canberra and an exploration of the parks and museums of Australian's Capital City. Canberra, although not party central, really is a beautiful and interesting city.

My third day in a row of beautiful roads took me south from Canberra into the mountains of Kosciuszko National Park. I feel at home in the mountains!!!!!

Bike Gear:
- Jacket, Pants, Gloves, Helmet, Boots, Raingear

In My Tank Bag:
-Map
-Documents (passport, bike stuff, etc)
-Tinted Visor
-Snack food
-Water
-Flashlight
-Wallet, phone
-Journal
-Rag/handkerchief
-Knife
-Small Tools
-Camera
-Small sunscreen
-Toothbrush/paste, deoderant
-Small first aid kit
-Toilet Paper
-Harmonica

In My Backpack:
-Tent (17$ at CrazyClarks... we'll see how this holds up...)
-Tiny Stove, Matches, Butane, a billy, utensils
-Food, tea, water
-Sleeping Bag
-3 Shirts (one to wear "out", one to wear riding, one for hiking)
-1 pants that turn to shorts
-1 skirt/sarong
-a thermal layer
-a zip sweater
-3 pr socks/underwear
-bathing suit
-hat
-1/4 of a beach towel
-sandals
-hiking shoes
-plastic bags
-books (right now i'm reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Bhagavad Gita, Watership Down)
-laundry soap
-toiletries
-phone charger
-small tube for siphoning gas (hopefully this will go unused)
-spare set plugs
-spare engine oil

My mind state today has been fairly negative.

I suppose it began yesterday, which was an anticlimactic, slow recovery from New Years Eve.

On the 31st we had a slow start, with the knowledge that it would be a full-on night, and attended few shows, although we did see a tlk on Climate Change and civil Disobedience, and hung around the Greenhouse tent for a while discussing the dangers of building a dam on the Mary River and the f*cking USA army coming to test nuclear weapons at a bay north of Brisbane. Shocking!!! It seems so unreal; so rediculous and i just have so much trouble understanding their blatent disregard for life and the environment!

Ashley and I had an increadible night! Possibly the best NYE yet, and definitely the best NYE sober! The bands were phenominal and we danced from 8pm until 4:30am, except for the 3 minute silence prior to midnight (a magical experience, as 20 thousand people who had been singing, dancing and playing hard all week stopped in a candle-lit reflection). Two days later, my feet are still aching!

Everyone who was still awake at that early hour in the morning trecked from the temporary city of tents and music up the hill to watch the sunrise as monks played magical flute tunes which seemed to drift down the hills and throughout the valley before floating up and up and up...

And then the following day was a mass recovery. Those who weren't hiding in their tents were milling around lethargically, many hung-over, most with a half-off-somewhere-else stupor on their face. Mine was still painted with blues, greens and silver from the night before. Although the music remained fabulous, few found the energy to dance. It seemed so hot I couldn't sleep until that evening...

So I sat around, chilled out, played guitar with some neighbours (beautiful people; friendly and generous) before catching a few last shows and finally falling asleep on the floor of the Chai Tent as my friends danced into the early morning.

The tarp above my head was playing the music of a light rainfall this morning, but soon the sun came out and dried up the tarps just in time for us to pack them away and say goodbye to our temporary Woodford home.

I caught a ride into Brisbane with Dan and Brit (thank you!) making it just in time to catch the bus. By this time the day had become grey, I had eaten a bit too much for my lethargic tummy, my sinuses were clogged, my cut foot throbbing and my allergies contributing to a seemingly endless sneeze festival. I was not looking forward to sitting on a bus for 4 hours and then a train for 10...

But then I began reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair" and regained some of the perspective about life and travelling that I had lost in my absolute exhaustion. I remembered (this realisation tends to come and go quite often) that this is all part of the journey, AND it's only one small part of it: temporary and passing like everything else.

Living in the moment is easy to do during celebration, with beautiful music and passionate dancing. It's not so easy to embrace life in the "now" when I feel out of tune. But when I can just begin to understand the nature of impermanance in this situation, there is a small amount of peace to be found.