For some reason, Australia has always held a place in my imagination as someplace I'd like to visit. After several false starts, I finally realized my dream. In 1989 I spent 6 months (to the day) in Australia - which was as long as my visa was valid for. I met a wonderful bunch of people, did things that I had previously only dreamed about and survived the trip!
What was it like? Well, this is a short overview of my adventures.
We all have dreams of what we'd like to do and see when we visit a new place. For me it was the traditional tourist stuff - dive the Barrier Reef, see Ayer's Rock, visit Sydney. But there was also another dream I had, to ride a motorcycle in the outback. I can't say exactly when this dream originated, for it really was a dream - one that I had one night when I was 15 or so. I remember waking up with this sense of excitement and awe. That memory was filed away in my brain and it kept gnawing at me now and then.
How does one go about seeing Australia? I chose to take Greyhound and follow the coast north to Cairns, then head inland to Alice and then south. I quickly discovered that I liked the "Deep North" as Queensland is referred to (outside of Queensland that is) for its weather and wealth of scenic places. My first stop, Brisbane, turned into a week long stay as I visited the friend of a friend and toured the environs. I enjoyed just walking around the various neighborhoods, looking at the architecture of the houses. I grew fond of the bull-nosed roofs and the wrap-around porches.
One of the nice aspects of Australia is that the road system basically forms a large circle around the country. Therefore you have the option of travelling either clockwise or counterclockwise around. The significance of this is that you tend to meet the same people time and again. After awhile on the road, you are bound to run across someone else who is headed in the same direction as you. For the solo traveller, this proves to be quite convenient.
From Brissy, I moved on to Rockhampton. Most towns and cities in OZ have nicknames, and for Rockhampton it was "Rocky". Walking back to the Youth Hostel one evening, I saw my first flying fox. It was large - especially for a bat. Rocky is a cowtown and there was a rodeo going on while I was there. Close your eyes and you could almost imagine that you were in Wyoming. Well, almost.
Next stop, Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world. I spent several wonderful days here, camping among the trees and being woken up before sunrise by the incredible noise that the cockatoos made! Bring earplugs! I never imagined that birds could be so noisy. The days were spent walking along the sand roads and exploring the deep cold pools of water on the island. The evenings were spent visiting with other campers and with the ranger who was a wealth of knowledge about the island.
For all my time on the island I saw very few animals - some brumbies (wild horses), a dingo (turned out to be the Ranger's pet), and a centipede that I managed to knock out of a tree when I pulled on a vine. Well, few creatures besides the hundreds of birds that live there. Travelling through the Pacific region, you learn to appreciate birds since they seem to be the most numerous non-human life that you come across.
Long before I had grown tired of the island I had to return to the mainland. My ferry ticket was turned in and I returned to the hostel. Time to take the bus north again. Next stop, ???
Great Keppel Island certainly was one of my favorite stops on my trip. The hostel itself was good fun to stay in as the manager organized a fish fry once a week. We all pitched in and helped with the cooking, I learned how to make mayonnaise! (It came out perfect.) There were places to hike on the island, wonderful fruit popsicles to eat and birds that hung around the bird feeder near the hostel. We wandered around the island, taking in the sites and eating our quota of popsicles when we got hot.
At each stop, other travellers told wonderful stories about places they had seen. I heard about Cooktown and Darwin, Alice and the outback. And I kept pushing north because of these tales. Cape Trib was the ultimate destination according to many travellers. I decided I had to see it for myself.
For a diver, no trip to OZ is complete without spending time on the Barrier Reef. I reached Cairns and started making plans to dive on the reef. Many people were taking dive lessons in Cairns and I discovered that for nearly the same price as going on an overnight dive trip, I could get my advanced open water certificate! Done deal. The training would do me good and I had a dive partner now.
But after overhearing a man talking about riding a motorcycle to the tip of Cape York, I knew that there was one thing I wanted to accomplish before I left - I wanted to ride a motorcycle to the northern tip of Australia. Or at least part way. Years ago I had a dream that I rode a motorcycle around Australia. I was only 15 or so at the time, but the dream seemed so real, so necessary, that it became a part of me. I even told my Mom about the dream (probably not what the mother of a 15 year old girl wants to hear). And now I had a chance to make the dream a reality.
What started out as a random firing of brain neurons ended up being the adventure of a lifetime. In some ways, nothing I ever do after that trip can compare. It was the first time I was truly out in the wilds, exploring and experiencing adventure. It was fantastic!
If you really want to do something, life has a way of helping you make it happen. One morning when I was heading to the kitchen at a hostel, I saw a motorcycle set up to carry luggage, parked in front of the hostel. I stopped and looked at it, making mental notes about this dirt bike with a license plate. I wondered who owned it. I soon discovered the answer.
While eating became reality slowly, over the course of several days and some good luck. I was staying at a Youth Hostel and when I walked over to the kitchen to fix breakfast I noticed a motorcycle parked in the yard. It was all setup for touring, a dirt bike with panniers and an oversized tank. I looked at it, walked around and looked some more and then looked around for the owner. No one was in sight. Too bad.
As I was eating my breakfast, I overheard a conversation at a neighboring table. A young guy was explaining his journey - the owner of the motorcycle! I went over and started talking to him. He was from Italy, and was on a trip around the circumference of Australia. The motorcycle was a Cagiva 350. I'd never heard of the brand before but it looked like a nice motorcycle. And he had all the gear.
He offered to let me try out the motorcycle when he discovered that I rode. I took it for a spin and was immediately captivated. Wow. It handled nicely. As we talked more about our respective plans, he suggested that I join him for a few days of travel. Gianpiero was heading out to a mine to pick up some rocks for his relatives. I was heading north with some people I'd met along the way. We talked for a while and he said it was too bad I couldn't join him. Maybe we'd meet up again, further up the road. I mentioned that I was heading to Cairns. So was Gianpiero. Let's meet there! Plans were made, though he wasn't certain when he would arrive. While his schedule was a few days behind mine, our final destination were going in the same direction.
One thing I've learned in years of travelling is that people change plans. It's understandable since you are dependent upon public transportation that may not be too reliable. You meet people who know of a great little place that's off the beaten track, etc. So when I arrived in Cairns and looked for GP and he wasn't around, well, it was fun to think about the trip even if I never got to go on it. But just in case, I kept an eye out for him.
By chance, we did meet up, nearly a week later but in Cairns. As I was walking out of a private hostel, in walked GP! What a surprise. We quickly made plans to get together later and discuss the potential journey. He was heading up Cape York to Bamaga and he decided that we could ride there two-up! We had to pack light since the bike had to carry both of us and our gear. Fine with me! It was about 1000 Kilometers of mostly dirt track. Sounded like a wonderful trip...
We arranged to leave our excess gear at the hostel and off we went. The trip was exciting, boring, scary, beautiful, tiring, exhillerating and over way too soon in many respects.
In preperation, we did some pre-trip riding up on the Atherton Plateau. Rain had turned the dust into a slick, sticky mess. GP slide out a few times before he got the hang of the surface. We rode along sugar cane fields, crossed over train tracks that had little covered platforms with old-fashioned crank telephones in them and visited the rainforests the area is famous for.
The first day took us thru Cape Trib. We spent the night at the hostel and I was surprised by a wild pig when I took out the trash. It was BIG! We rode up the coast towards Cooktown, where we visited the museum and had lunch at a pub. We headed out on the dirt roads thru Daintree - a lovely place that I would have liked to have spent more time in. The roads were muddy and rutted. Riding was a challenge as we got used to the way the bike handled two-up.
We crashed time and time again in the bull dust. We camped out by rivers and swam in clear streams. We ate the best hamburgers I have ever tasted at little petrol stops in the middle of nowhere. We met other travellers heading up and others coming back. We dodged road trains, potholes, flies and dips in the road that could have swallowed the motorcycle and us. We baked in the heat, basked in the sun and were so covered with dust that we became part of it.
We also got lost. Well, lost is relative. Since we only had the destination of the tip of Cape York as our goal it didn't really matter how we got there. We took side roads that meandered for a while until they joined the main road again. Like Rome, all roads seemed to lead to the tip.
Our road took us across numerous streams and finally it ended at the Wenlock River. At least it seemed to end as the ferry that would have taken us across had stopped running for the season a couple of days previous. Hmm. Seeing the Australian Territorial Army pulling one of their vehicles out of the river didn't do much to bolster our confidence that we could make it across. But Gianpiero was undettered and tried to ride the bike across the river. He made it halfway before the bike stalled. We pushed it out of the river and then he spent several hours getting the water out of the engine.
I amused myself wandering the river bank looking at plants and trying to find an alligator.
Back on the bike, we were relieved that the road was vastly improved. It was a easy ride into Bamaga - where we happily visited the pub and the store for supplies. Ice cream rarely tastes so good as after eating dust for a week!
We decided to camp outside of town and found a suitable location where there was room for the trucks that we had joined up with. We had a pleasant evening sitting around the campfire cooking dinner and talking. I was glad to be off the motorcycle for a while! It was a chance for my body to rest from all the pounding I had experienced.
We still hadn't reached the "top" and in the morning Gianpiero wanted to ride there. I had no interest of getting on the motorcycle for awhile so he rode to the top by himself. Looking back on it, I should have gone with him but fatigue makes poor decisions. I later visited the top with the guys in the comfort of a 4-wd truck. We swam in the surprisingly warm water, ate fresh oysters off the rocks and took a picture (of course). We had succeeded in our journey!
After such a long trip to reach the top, we weren't in a hurry to leave. GP had to go as he was racing the wet season so we bid him good-bye and he retraced his route to the south. It would be a long time before we met up again and he would have many adventures by then.
The group got along quite well. We camped out, went sightseeing and ate fresh fish that Collin caught for us. Fresh baked fish over a campfire for breakfast along with baked yams could be one of the best meals I have ever eaten! We would gut the fish and then put onions and lemon slices in the cavity, wrap it in foil and bake it on the coals. Meals were a group affair with everyone pulling the cooked fish of the body an eating it while seated around the fire. This was outdoor living at its best!
Our money was slowly running out so we headed back to Bamaga to replenish our supply. Surprise! The closest bank was on Thursday Island! It never occurred to us that there wouldn't be a bank in Bamaga. So we hopped on the ferry and spent a day on TI. It was fun and we managed to get the money (well I managed to get some money out of my account and share it with the others) and we stopped at the pub for a drink in Australia's Top Pub.