As you get to read this I’m out cycling. Peddling down dusty dirt tracks somewhere in the vast nothingness of the Northern Territory, slowly making my way south towards Australia’s red centre. Far from civilisation. Light years from a functioning wifi connection.
Writing though I’m still back up in Halls Creek, comfortably snuggled up in the couch of my host Shannon and with a router on arm length’s distance. So I figured I might as well make the most of it and set you guys up with a few nuggets from the road up until here.
What it’s like out here? Main keyword would be G o r g e o u s.
Powering through from north to south is best done along the great Stewart Highway reaching the 3 000 km from Darwin to Adelaide. If you want to get there, that is. I really, really don’t. Because however cliché that ‘it’s the journey, not the destination’-thing might be, it is still true.
I’m cycling around the world. If reaching the finish line was my goal, I could have just stayed there to begin with.
First chance I got, I took off for the smaller Victoria Highway. And from there onto the ever smaller – and virtually empty – Buntine Highway. Then I peddled.
Until the sealed road turned to dust.
And I was home.
Australia is big. Just like with China, that is old news. Intellectually knowing that a place is big though, is something completely different from actually setting off to take on the place on a pushbike.
You go, and go. Put in the hours, day in and day out.
You look at the map.
…& then you take one of those classic ‘I’m not moving anyways’-breaks
You see the signs? In between you find what we usually refer to as nothing. With the exception of one single aboriginal community Kalkarindji. A place the size of a thumbnail, with a 400 people population that is – let’s say – not very used to visits from blonde girls on bicycles.
Downtown Kalkarindji
The rest though? All of that nothingness? As always, this is where the magic lies hidden. Leaving Kalkarindji – stocked up on food, human contact and another 20 liter batch of water – I was off. Ready to officially let the games begin.
Oh yeah, don’t let me fool you. Sometimes I do wonder what the heck I’m really doing.
I could have another go at trying to tell you how much I enjoy the golden shimmer of these rides. How the feeling of being so small, but still having the world completely at my feet still makes me shiver from goosebumps. I won’t though. I’ve tried and failed too many times.
However, there is one thing I really want to say before wrapping this one up.
The termites here are God damn wizards.
Cheers!
Fredrika