Spirit of the Outback

As usual, I arrived in Australia with absolutely no plans and only on constraint, being in Darwin on January 9th to catch a flight to the Philippines.

First thing I noticed is that when you come from Hawaii, you loose a day by flying over the 180th meridian. Phileas Fogg did the same experience in Jules Vernes’s Tour du monde en 80 jours. Of course he was going eastbound so he arrived a day earlier in London. In my case, I paid for a night in a hostel I did not used… We might have iPhones nowadays, but the world sometimes still surprises us.
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Brisbane is where I landed, on the east coast, between the sunshine and the gold Coast. Sounds like dream places. After a couple days, cycling the top of Mount Coot-tha, relaxing around the hostel pool and drinking beers with Jacky (a friend I’ve met in Mexico), I had to escape to discover this giant island called Australia. I had my share of beaches in Hawaï so the only option for the backpacker I am was to head west to the wild dry lands, the Bush, the Outback. Sounds like dream places too, no?

And to make sure I have the real outback experience, I decided to go hitchhiking, because… well, I’ve missed hitchhiking. So here I am, stepping down from a Greyhound bus in Toowoomba, 100km from Brisbane, because it’s always easier to hitchhike from smaller cities. After buying a new bivy tent from a thriftshop and refueling the man with a proper bacon burger from a roadhouse, I was here again, thumb up, on the side of the road. Expect this time it was the left thumb and I was on the other side of the road. That’s what happen in the south hemisphere, everything is mixed up 😉

And here I got my first lift, after less than 15 minutes. She was in her twenties, a little fatty, with a baby on the back of her dirty car. Thanks to a not so strong accent, we had a nice chat where she basically told me I was crazy and I should be careful with all the wankers around here. It was a short ride and the one that followed was right as she said.
A silent driver with scary big workers hand, a skinny tattooed guy who looked he was just out of jail and a girl who was probably the reason why I accepted the ride. This time, I couldn’t cope with the accent and we didn’t had so much talking.
My third ride of the day was with an Irish engineer driving a supercharged Falcon. And he was very proud to show me that it was going from 0 to 100 in less than 5 seconds. But he wasn’t overspending and finally I arrived safe in Miles, my objective of the day. We were the 24th of December.

In Miles, I started to set up the tent in a park, and I was having my dinner (Chinese pastas, I’ve missed them) when the rain started to fall. I’m a tough backpacker and it was an opportunity to see if my new tent was waterproof. And it is. But it is certainly not lightning proof. So when the storm was getting too close, I packed everything and ran to the closest motel. What a pussy 😉

I was dry, I had a couple beers in the pub and I had a good Internet connection for a Skype with my family who was celebrating Christmas eve when I woke up on the 25th.

Around mid-morning, I was ready to go and the storm was fading away. I was probably hitchhiking in the wrong place because a bird started to airstrike me, hitting me twice with his wings. I was told Australia is home of some of the deadliest animals and that was the first proof.
Eventually I got a lift before I had to use the stone I had in my hand to give the bird a lesson. That’s when I met Craig, a cool guy, doing cattle trading and used to backpackers as he often host wwoofers in his farm. He even showed me a gigantic maze of cattle pinfold, where he comes to sell and buy cattle. Thanks mate, I hope you are having nice holidays in Vanuatu!!
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I was in Roma, it was 12.00 and the road was like a mirror due to the sun at its climax. I had to wait for two hours before another car stop, and it was the cops who were checking on me.
Shortly after, a massive 4WD stopped and Jeff stepped out of it. He was my Christmas gift! We had a great talk for 400km and he offered to invite me to his friend’s place in Emerald. On the way, I spotted my first living kangaroos, many birds of all colors and we arrived in Emerald under a pale rose hudge full moon. Awesome. I was ready for my Australian Christmas dinner, who finally turned into a full “outback weekend”.

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We had beers, a lot of beers. And we had good food (thanks Loretta), and a lot of fun. The next day, Jamie showed me his hunting bow and a few other games he keeps in his backyard garage. We went driving around the dam and in the bush, tried to find gems in Rubyvale and had more beers. I even had a lecture on cricket and I finally understood this game. At least as much as I understand rugby…
It was really great to share this time with them, a proper Australian friend’s catch up. Jeff and Jamie have been friends for more than 25 years and a lot of funny old friends story to tell, but I won’t disclose them here 😉
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On the 26th, after a light cereals bowl and a toast of vegemite, after hugs and goodbyes, I was back on the road.

A first lift to go out of Emerald, followed by the lovely Megan (that’s a woman, not a car) who did a 50km detour to drop me in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully there was a shelter and I waited under for two hours. I was hungry, and I definitely didn’t wanted to spend the night here.

And then this car slowed down, the driver, a white beared old man looked a me, and so did his wife. But they didn’t stop… And then I see them coming the other way, turning around and they stopped in front of me. I had my last ride of the day as they invited me for a BBQ and to stay at their place for the night.

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Greg and Marie have 6 sons, 1 daughter and 11 grandsons (number 12 on its way). I met 4 of their sons, all tall strong red haired bear-y rugbymen. Kids where playing in an inflatable castle in the garden while the mum was preparing the BBQ. You can imagine the quantity of meat we grilled. We had the traditional Christmas cake Pavlov for desert, as well as home made ice-cream and chocolate mousse. You have to feed the rugby team mate!!! When everything was done, I installed my mattress in a trailer. I was in a dry place and clean place, but the guys had scared me talking about deadly spiders. No spiders dreams though.

The following day, I had a ride with a 50yo mum in a hudge orange 4WD called Nemo. She was going all the way to Mount Isa, 600km ahead. But in front of us was the cloud front, and the rain was getting heavier while we were going west. By the time we reached Winton, the road was close due to floodings. She tried to go further, after buying some food and water, but I decided to stay in Winton, and to see how it will evolve.
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So here I am, with my backpack, under the rain, in Winston ghost town (it’s boxing day, everything is closed), in the middle of the outback surrounded by floodings. And that’s a hard time, because it is those moments where you need to take decisions, on your own. Waiting? Leaving? Going back? First, let’s have a beer.
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Then, I discussed with a few locals and finally took the decision to fly back east, considering the risk of being stuck here for several days. And hitchhiking under the rain is almost as hard as under 40°C sun.

So I stayed for the night, in the (in)famous Matilda motel, for a good long night before catching a small 18seats propeller plane. Over the clouds, and back to the east coast for more adventures!!!
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This is why I like hitchhiking and why I think people should do it more, like in the good ol’days, before we were spoiled by so much misinformation. Of course sometimes ones gets into trouble. Sometimes people get bites by a deadly spider. But think about statistics. We fear plane crash, deadly sharks, serial hitch-killers… But we keep smoking, drinking and driving too fast.

I like to think about risks and rewards. I met all these awesome people because I was hitchhiking, and I wouldn’t have had the same experiences if I had taken a train or a bus. Risks and rewards mates… Risks and rewards.

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  1. wtmat · décembre 29, 2015

    J’ai aussi repris, ça me manquait trop