Australia

Recount

The landing in Darwin was the sketchiest I have ever experienced. The plane was rocking from side to side all the way until right before we touched down. From the window Darwin looked beautiful with the beach and light blue water and bay. This was one of my most exciting times ever because after well over a year I have been in third world countries and countries that don't speak English, and now I was going to be back in civilization. Most of the people in the plane were Indonesians though, so I still had to deal with a little bit of problems with them butting in line. But when I got on the road and was riding down the dry and sunny landscape with different kinds of trees I have ever seen before, I felt perfectly at peace. I went to a huge youth hostel where there were a lot of young Germans and Dutch kids who all seemed to be in their own groups and not intermingling, but I did start talking to a Dutch soccer player kid who was fun and showed me where a couple places were where all the tourists go for barbecues and beer.

I went to the local bike shop the next day and bought the stuff for my trip like a bike computer and six clamp on cages that can hold two liter water bottles, that would come in handy later on. I rode out towards Alice Springs the next day, and to my pleasant surprise a nice bike path accompanied me for the first fifteen miles or so. After about fifty miles the vegetation gave way to bushy desert that was perfectly flat as far as the eye can see; and quite often the road went perfectly strait for as far as I could see also. I sure was glad I had some weed to go along with the Australian rock music tapes I bought in Darwin. I brought some Marijuana over from Bali stored in my but, but it wasn't that strong and was running out. There were a couple of towns between Darwin and Alice Springs, but most of the places I stopped at to eat and get water were basically one family owned gas stations on the side of the road. Some had barbecues, but most only had Australian style hamburgers to sell me for food, which were very filling. The outback Australian hamburger was the same in all the places I went; a big meat patty, beets, which they call by the full name which I can't even remember, and lettuce and tomato and the like. They were filling, but as I worked up an appetite I needed more and more to fill me up, which added up on my wallet as each one was like seven Australian dollars.

Right after I ran out of weed I immediately craved more. The magic of having weed on that ride was that I was all by myself in the wilderness, with a car passing me by only once ever couple minutes. So I was basically all by myself in a pristine wilderness environment that was perpetually sunny and dry with a healthy amount of fresh wind. And that combined with the constant sound of crispy unpolluted sound of music in my ears made for a very peaceful and hypnotic experience. But every once in a while I needed to take a break from the monotony of the riding and sit down in the dirt and just enjoy being alive under the sun. So sitting down in the dirt with all the endorphins produced by the exercise pumping through my body mixed wondrously with the weed that I smoked. I would just sit there and get blazed until I was in dreamland. I felt like an aboriginal on his walkabout. I could imagine how they had no worries for 40 thousand years. They just walked around under the sun without a single worry on their mind. I don't know how they did it, but I saw a dead kangaroo ever few feet on the side of the road. I saw so many Kangaroos that the sweet smell of death was almost a constant smell. But I got used to it and eventually started to enjoy the smell. But if the Aborigines had as many kangaroos as I saw, they had so problem staying alive, of course as long as they knew where the water holes were. So right after I ran out of weed I thought I could do fine for the whole time without smoking, but then I started to wish I had some dope to accompany me on my occasional breaks. But lucky for me I saw a metal detachable pipe on the side of the road that was highly resonated. So I scraped in and got nice and high until I arrived into Alice Springs 11 days after leaving Darwin.

I was very excited to arrive in Alice Springs because it has always been the oasis the the desert for me. It is a real city absolute middle of nowhere smack dabin the middle of Australia. It is in a river bed, probably one the only and the biggest in all of the Australian outback. The river bed I saw was just a big wide sand pit interspersed with trees. But the locals there told me that once a year in the rainy season it is a raging river and they have canoe races on it; sounds like fun. I remember descending into the river valley which was the first descent of any kind since I entered Australia. When I entered the city I went strait to the youth hostel, which was another huge one. I stayed in a big dorm room full of young kids who I felt like I couldn't talk to because they were all in their own clicks. But to hang out with other traveler kids wasn't one of my priorities, for I had resolved to buy a whole bunch of kind bud for my bike ride across Australia. I wanted to be baked off my ass for the whole time listening to music. So the first place I went to was the local pub on the main street. The town really was beautiful, it had a peaceful feeling to it. It had all the shops, restaurants, trees, and well maintained infrastructure that any first world city would want. I saw an group of Aboriginals walking down the road and figured that they would be the best people to hook me up with the weed culture here since they look so laid back. I asked them and the oldest tallest guy said he knew someone and that I should meet him at the pub on main street in an hour, so I went there and saw him and he introduced me to some old locals.

I had to hang out with those old fogies for three days before one of them finally got the motivation together to take me to his house and sell me a bag of nugget. So for three days I hung out with a group of four guys in their late fifties just hang out at the pub and buy each other beer. They would take turns buying ''rounds''. The preferred beer was called VB ''Victorian Bitter''. They hung out with the Aboriginal who introduced me to them, and another young ''Abo'' as they call them. The young guy was a hard core Abo, I mean this guy had his front teeth knocked out for starters. He said it was the traditional right of passage for Aboriginal men to get their two front teeth knocked out with a huge stick by their elders. Then he proceeded to tell me about how the Aboriginals are very territorial about their own area of land, and that they get violent with each other and especially outsiders if someone other than them comes into their land. I took what he was saying with a large grain of salt though, because the Aboriginals seem like the most peaceful people on Earth. But in reality only god knows what he was really telling me, because I only understood about half of what he was telling me because of his almost impossible to duplicate low guttural grunt of a voice that didn't have much volume to it. But I found it endearing how he was so eager to talk to me, and how mellow and calm and natural feeling he was.

The old fogies that I hung out with for the three days obviously led a very satisfying life. I didn't even really understand how these guys made their money. I think most of them were handymen, the guy who eventually sold me the weed set up and took down event tents. I think most of the economy of Alice Springs was in tourism, but they must have done some mining of some sort also. These guys were so laid back though. For the entire three days I was with them at that bar they were there the whole day as if that was what their entire lives consisted of. And they drank beers all day long. It actually kind of took a bit of a bite out of my wallet, but I didn't sweat it because I knew they were eventually going to hook me up and they were fun to hang out with. But it was funny how this guy procrastinated for three days. He always was like: ''Ok after this beer we'll go over to my house and get the stuff''. But something always came up and he had to drive someone somewhere or do something and didn't come back for the rest of the day. I think in a way he deliberately procrastinated so they could hang out with me and to make sure I was cool. But they did do a good job of making me one of the guys. Once they went to a hotel room of one of them to have some drinks, and took me along. When he was finally ready to sell me the goods, he took me to his house in his old 70's big 'ol beater and gave me a huge bag of kind bud for $160 Australian dollars which was a great deal. Then he drove me to the bike shop and wished me well.

While I was hanging out with those guys, an old Aboriginal man joined the group and started talking to me. When I told him of my plans to ride through the outback to Perth, he told me he was the chief of the tribe that gives permission to the people to go through the Aboriginal territory, and that all I had to do to get permission was to tell the people at the Bureau of Land Management office that he gave me personal permission and I would be alright. But when I was talking to the guy who sold me the weed, he told me that that old Aboriginal man was full of shit and spent ten years in jail for killing a 13 year old white girl and eating her tits. When I went to the land management office to get the permission papers, I told the woman that I met that old guy and what he said, and she said she knew who he was but he didn't have any authority to give me permission, and all I had to do was notify them of my intentions and they would just give me the papers.

While I was hanging out with those old guys I also met another guy who was one of the gang. He looked like Bruce Willis, and took an interest in me, and told me it was his birthday. He latched on to me for the rest of the day, and bought me beers. Then as it got later we took a cab to another place and had some more beers, then we went to a disco. He was really passionate and told me about how he loved queen and about the life of Freddy Mercury, and about a good friend his who died of AIDS, and how he was like a brother to him and he was with him when he died. He also told me about his son who was a nurse and his job in Tasmania, but his profession was as a police officer in Alice Springs and was going back to work in a couple weeks. Then he insisted on taking me back to his house because he knew a girl who I met earlier who sold weed and she would give me a good deal, and we would go get it first thing in the morning so I should stay at his place that night. So we took a cab to his house driven by a friend of his (all the locals seemed to know each other there). He had a couple roommates. I met one old guy, he was like sixty or seventy. He was incredibly fragile, small, obviously a raging alcoholic, and so drunk he could barely talk to us. My friend said he was jockey and had a bad accident when he was like twenty, and ever since then he had been an alcoholic. And he sure looked like he had been an alcoholic for the last 50 years. After a few classes of wine my friend insisted that the only bed for me to sleep in was in bed with him, but not to worry because he wasn't gay or anything. So I got in his bed, which was just a mattress on the floor of a messy room. And he jumped in and grabbed my dick, so I jumped up and told him to settle down, and he freaked out and profusely apologized and said he was drunk and that I had nothing to worry about so I lied down again, and he tried to grab my dick again, so I jumped up and left the room and he begged me to give him another chance, so I told him no way I'll just sleep in the other room. I walked back to my hostel early the next morning and never saw him again. The guy who sold me the weed told me he thought he was weird, but didn't say anything about him being a homosexual.

After I bought my weed I left Alice Springs the next morning. I remember climbing out of the valley, which was the only time I would do any climbing until the Kimberleys a few thousand miles later. I packed the weed the guy sold me into four film canisters and smoked it out of the bronze pipe I found on the road. It was a cool pipe to conserve weed with because it had a swiveling top that I could cover the bowl with and suffocate the burning ember and not waste any smoke. It was great to get high behind that tree with all those miles in front of me and all that weed to smoke.

After a couple days I got to the turn off to get to Ayers rock, or Uluru as the Abos call it. I rode one day in on the turn off and got this huge and very painful boil on my left but right where I sit on the seat. So I had to take a couple days off at one of the roadhouse restaurants. I camped behind the restaurant and read and wrote all day in my tent. There were some English girls working there who knew my name, but I was so into my own world I didn't feel like talking to anybody. When the boil matured I popped it produced so much white puss that it just oozed down my ass and soaked my sleeping bag under me and made a mess. It was about the same size as the boil I got on my left leg in Nias, Indonesia. I left the next day, but I wasn't ready because my ass still hurt. The next rest stop was the last one before Uluru. It was a little bit bigger, run by a family. There was the place where the cook was the friend of the guy who sold me the weed and he had heard of me. He was another eccentric and slightly more rough around the edges old guy. I spent a whole day there also because my ass was still hurting me. On my day off I was taken on a tour of the families livestock by the young son who lived there. We drove out a long way, like five miles or something so the water pail where they feed their cows. He showed me where the cows were all scattered all over the place. He told me the Australian livestock was the healthiest in the world because they have strict meat importation laws there. That whole family loved that place and their lives there. The cook told me that was the perfect life, away from all the bullshit of the city.

But the people of the outback are definitely a strange breed. I remember I meet one bike tourist who stopped when I crossed paths with him, which is what all the bike tourists I crossed with did. And he told me of a roadhouse where I should stop by at who got him stoned and welcomed him. But when I went there the guy was really rude to me. He said something like about how if I didn't decide what I wanted to eat soon he wouldn't ever serve me anything, so I ate and left pretty quickly.

When I got to Ayers rock I was a little surprised to see that there was a whole complex of tourist buildings, museums, and camp grounds set up there. I had a couple of beers with some people I saw at the roadhouse before, and rode to the rock the next day. I was very excited to go to Ayers rock because I had always known about it. I didn't know, however, that I could hike up to the top of it. I should have run all over the top of it, but I just walked around the south part of it. From the top I did see some small hills way off in the distance, and of course the Olgas to the west, which are a series of like three rocks similar to Ayers rock but a little smaller. Then I rode my bike around the rock on the tourist path and read all the plaques of the Abo stories of the myths of the creations of each of the rock formations around the rock.

The next day I took off on the sandy dirt road towards Perth. This was where the hard core bike touring

started. I arrived at the Olgas early enough but I

didn't want to waste any time checking them out. That is where the trek into the unknown territory began. At first the road was pleasant; maybe a little washboardy, but I was thoroughly enjoying myself because I only saw a car go by every three hours or so, so I was literally out there all by myself. And I was going slower because I was now on a bumpy dirt road so I felt more at one with the environment. But I soon found out that every once in a while I ran across a stretch of road that consisted of nothing but sand. And with the weight of my bike with the six two liter water bottles and food for two full days, I sank right into the sand until I could barely see my rims. But I tried to ride as far as I could when I got to those sections, but I always got exhausted after a few feet and had to walk the bike the rest of the way. Luckily enough for me though those sections never lasted for more than a hundred meters or so. But there were days towards the end of the outback trek when there were quite a few of those sand pits.

One thing I remember about that part of the journey is the music that I enjoyed listening to. I was really into that Rita Marley song ''One draw'', and my brothers rap tape he sent me. Especially the "Sitten with the crew just laughin, reefer packin, and a booty mackin" song.

Typically it was about two hundred miles between the towns where I could get a water and food refill, which was two days. So I would refill, and ride for a hundred miles and camp out all by myself in the middle of nowhere. And get up early and ride another hundred miles to the next place. I didn't want to deal with the embarrassment of having to bum water and food off of the cars that come by every three hours, so I made double sure to get my ass up early in the mornings so I could log in that hundred miles no matter what; but it worked out perfectly. Right at dusk I would arrive at the half way mark, and the next day I rolled into the town just before dusk.

The most interesting thing about the trip though, was the towns I refueled at. They were Aboriginal reservation towns. I had heard that the government made houses for them to live in in these town way out in the middle of nowhere, and instead of living in them like good citizens of a civilized world, they took them apart and made fires with the material in their living rooms. When I was there I didn't see any burnt down houses, but unfortunately I didn't give myself the chance to snoop around and I really wish I had spent some extra time there, as I am sure almost no one does because when I rode my bike through there the Abos there would wave at me excitedly like they have never seen anything like me before. They always had a pack of at least ten dogs following them around. The towns they lived in weren't very big, maybe about twenty houses or so.

When I came to these outback towns, the first thing I did was find the central store. In these outback towns there was always one central store ran by a white family. So if the store was closed, which it usually was, I would have to ask one of the wandering Abos where the white mans house is, and they would grunt (They didn't seem to speak English) and point towards the direction in an excited way towards the house. In this first town I went there and the guy drove me with his beat up car to the store where there was an Abo nearby who followed us in. The store was about the size of a convenience store, but had a very limited selection of goods; but had what I needed. After I got my stuff I had to wait as the Abo was trying to by his food. This Abo didn't seem to know English or even how to count because he put a pile of food on the counter and dropped a few crumpled bills next to it. The man said "OK Charley you don't have enough money for all of this stuff, you have to put some things back''. But the Abo didn't seem to understand what he said, so he picked up a couple things and put them aside and said. ''This is what you can by Charlie''. And the Abo took the stuff and walked off. That Aboriginal looked drunk, but I didn't recall seeing any alcohol in the store.

One weird thing about the Aboriginal people besides their strange physical appearance of spindly legs and arms, bulbous heads, afros, and protruding bellies, is how they seem like they are on super slow motion. In every outback town I saw Abos just walking in groups of half a dozen so slowly that I couldn't imagine that they were actually going anywhere. I would see other groups sitting down off in the middle of a dirt patch or next to a bush or tree not doing anything. And the way they walked was almost like they were staggering, and the structure of their faces makes them look kind of angry and stoned and drunk. Overall they give off a vibration of otherworldly ness like no other group of people I have ever seen before. They also dressed strangely. The women all dressed in really thin one piece floral dresses that don't look like they have ever been washed, and the men in short jean shorts and dirty tee shirts.

I remember Even though it was 200 miles between places where I could refill my water, I knew exactly where the places where because they were always at the base of the only hills in the whole area. Without fail I would take off into perfect flatness, and on the second day I would see a hill off in the distance and bet to myself that was where the place was, and it always was.

I think overall it took me like ten days or something to get across that part of Australia to where the paved road started again. I stopped at one camp sight in a place called Laverton and hung out with a couple of retired Australians in one of their mobile homes. They were panning for gold in one of the rivers. They seemed to make enough money doing that to keep going, but it wasn't clear because they also got their retirement money.

The first real city I arrived at was Calgoorie-Boulder, which was actually two cities, one Calgoorie with its suburb Boulder. This is an old mining town. I had heard about this place because of the restaurant where the waitresses are dressed in gee strings. I stayed in the youth hostel there, which was nice to be back in a bed for a night. One of my roommates in the dorm was an explosives specialist in the mines there. I went to the restaurant where the women dress in gee strings, and sure enough, the ladies were doing their thing in gee strings.

It is so funny how Australia tries to preserve its rough and tumble prostituting ways from the days of the countries conception when the English kicked all their prostitutes and petty thiefs out and took them to Australia to try to start a new country. And now a days they try to keep their reputation of being fun loving and free of any kind of stuffy establishment. But unfortunately along with that anti establishment attitude comes an attitude of reveling in ignorance in a kind of ''ignorance is bliss'' kind of attitude. One strange thing is that in the outback it is always the old men who are the wildest and most outgoing, and the younger folk are more reserved. But I would find out later when I got to Sydney that the Australian outback is different than the Australian cities.

Not too long after Kalgoorie-Boulder I entered a much more vegetated area of Australia, and I noticed that as I moved farther south it became colder. It was also getting more precipitous, and even rained every once in a while until the point that I had to start sleeping in my tent. It was also more hilly, so I felt like I was back in a normal country, and not in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

I was super excited to roll into Perth. The approach was exciting because there was a big descent into the coastal plane where the city was. I was also excited to be in the first big first world city that speaks English since America close to two years beforehand. I went to a youth hostel which was right in the center and was pretty big and consisted of a relatively large number of kids who seemed to be working in the city for a time. I went to the premier of Star Wars the Phantom Menace. There were lots of people dressed up as star wars characters. The theater was huge, it had two decks, and I was on the second one for the first time ever. The next day I rode towards the south of Perth were I could get a boat ride to an island one of the bike tourists I met told me about. The ride towards the south along the bay was nice along a nice bike path. But I got up late and it was a long way, so I turned around and went to the gym instead. I was surprised to see that at least half of the city was yellow Asians. And they were kind of annoying also, because they owned all the magazine shops and wouldn't let anybody look at the magazines before buying them. And looking through magazines was one of my favorite past times while traveling.

Journal

Testing testing 123. I like it. This journal is going to last forever and will be a gem when it is finished. Where I left off I was in Perth. After that on the way back I decided to ride to a gym and do dead lifts which is the best way to pump, never boring. I went to the gym and realized I wasn't stoned enough so I went to the shower and got baked and went and sweat in the sauna and soaked in the hot tub then pumped every machine dead after lift which is the bests way to pump, never boring, you do ten of your hardest and work you way down and that way you get to pump all the way. From the jerky, chi-powered heavy fresh style, down to perfect form yet with muscle burn with the lighter weights.

Then I left the next day but didn't get too far, rode down a beautiful bike path and then got lost and found. I went slow to Geralton, and rolled in with aching feet vowing to buy SPD. It was about time I stopped riding around in normal shoes in toe clips. Then while the guy at the shop was trying to take my pedal off I decided to get cranks suited for me as I have been riding on 165 millimeters, suited for someone under five feet tall. Getting the pedal off was wacky. We stripped the side, then filled a new notch with an electric sander and heated it with a torch and finally got it off after like 20 minutes. I ordered Deore XT 175 cm cranks at a special 300 bucks but had to weight two days for it.

The Dude James let me stay at his friends house who he was house sitting for with his buddy from London. I went there and when work was over they came and we went to the gym where they did their boxing. I thought I would see some sparing but they just punched their hands but Craig taught me. You keep your hands at your face and punch with your feet spaced one before the other and lead with the hand with the leading foot. He taught me how to use the double connected little guy for dodging. I just pumped for most of it for free cause the cop couldn't find no change.

Then we drank beers and saw a band for a little that was too loud and went home and watched TV and smoked it up with Craig but not James. I spent the next day reading magazines, smoking with Craig, watching movies and taping CDs and then went to the bike shop the next day but it hadn't come yet so he said he would take one off one of his bikes because it was the same one and charged me the same price, but I noticed the next day it wasn't XT but LX and he only gave me a 10$ discount for my cranks so he ripped me off. But I just figured it was an accident. Then I realized I need 48 teeth instead of 44, or even 50, but oh well.

I rode like 60 miles that day but double that the next day because I was trying to do my first all nighter but it got too cold so I quit and did it the next day. 300 miles in 30 hours. It was easy not like I expected. I felt like kicking myself for not doing it earlier. I woke up the next morning with 140 kilometers to go to the next town and one extra bottle and worried a little but saw a camper and got more water right after I saw 2 hitchhikers. And after I ate the last of the record 5 lot burgers I got the day before. My appetite was asunder. I rode 90 miles that day to the roadhouse that I camped at and took off the next day for 103 miles. 160 kilometers and then 70 miles into Carantha where I rested for two days in preparation for the big 50 hourer, but of course I didn't do it. I never do it when I specially prepare for it. I couldn't have done it anyway because I discovered my rear wheel was suddenly wildly out of true the rim cracked. I had to get it replaced at Port Hedland. But Port or rather South Hedland had shit for service so I took the bus 600 km's to Broom where I decided to cut the shit and get the super wheel I have been dreaming about for so many years. In a way I feel like I am finally liberated as a cyclist. Those God damn rear wheels have fucked with me so god dam much since touring. It prevented me from doing the Annapurna circuit as the rim cracked, and cracked again in Korea and cracked again now not to mention getting it rebuilt in Alice because the dude in Kathmandu put lock tight on the spokes and the 10 or so times I had to go through that pain in the ass spoke replacement sessions.

But now my money situation is fucked, me thinks I gotsta borrow money but momma don't got none because Mike borrowed 450 for car repairs for school tuition already and so my only hope is Wyndham, but he should have enough. I will need less than a thousand. I am zoned but comfortable, I don't want to hang with homies, just explore my own self. That suits my personality best but I feel truly comfortable with it.

I overheard another typical Australian conversation between two blokes last night while eating at the local hostel. Two dudes here on a watermelon picking vacation:

"I could kick your ass at footy"

"Bullshit, you fuckin wanker, I can even bounce it".

"Bullshit''.

"Yea, I play basketball a lot".

"But those are round"

"Man I could plow through you, you'd get hurt"

"You could never hurt me". Then the older guy asked my name and said. "I'm a bad person, you don't want to know me, last week I got in trouble,"

"What happened?"

"I don't know, I spend like 400 bucks a night just on beer, they would like to kick me out but I make them too much money"

"By bringing people here?"

"Yea"

"Do you smoke marijuana?"

"Yea, that's my business, it should be legal, I make more money in that than watermelon picking, 250 thousand, I'm sore, I picked up 40 tons of water melons last weak. Throwing them ye ya high, why, do you smoke?''

"Hell yea" then he left and I blazed and passed out.

Today I was just zoned. went to the museum, and bought an Edgar Cayce book. In Sydney I will get a Marx book, when I walked in the shop there was an old sleeping Aboriginal who woke up as I was standing next to him looking through bargain books outside. He suddenly started talking to me, I couldn't understand, I think he was saying, but I guessed, it was something like "Yea, look through those books and the lady inside will help". You, where are you going? Where have you been?"

I want to do the double dunch before Sydney. That's 50 hours. If I can do that I'm a double duncher. Do you remember the HH song? It is such a romantic idea just doing the dunch up mountains, Kayaking, running, dancing, whatever. I think our bodies are rigged to handle that good, its all mental, you don't get sore until you get grumpy, as long as you have a positive attitude you keep on trucking tough daddy.

It is Sunday night and I have been here for a bit now. The first sight I was in the first night was apparently too close for my neighbors comfort as they had the campground host move me to this dreamy spot under perpetual shade and privacy, and it ain't that far from the poopy house.

However I must note one of my old man neighbors who was traveling in a group of seven had on individual tent and was snoring super loud for a couple of nights. He was sleepy time very early, as if he could just close his eyes and zonkify, my other neighbor the drunken Scotsman was snoring one of the nights so I could hear two snorers at once. I think it interesting to note I haven't seen any of my neighbors, just heard them as I am always in my tent. Turned away to the other side is this older man in a super big canvas tent and goes to I think work in the morning on his motor bike and comes back at 5, he didn't leave today Sunday. He drinks with drunken Scotsman and they talk shit and make fun of each other which is an Australian sign that they are friends (a reason to be nice to someone is that you will never see them again). One night I heard drunken Scotsman come back with his friend:

"I don't drink for looks, She drinks for looks". Then he was talking shit about someone and his buddy left. Australians are always talking shit to each other, for example today:

"Hey Burt give me a cigarette"

"Don't got one"

"Bullshit"

"No really, this is my last one, your in a mood".

"Bull shit, I'm not in a mood, your in a mood".

"Oh, keep dreaming".

Behind me are a couple English birds and I think they drink with drunken Scotsman, I've seen them from a distance, one short blond hair and the other stocky short black hair, maybe they are dykes. who cares. After old timers moved out a couple moved in and next to them momma with the loudest baby I have ever heard in my entire life. It is always either laughing or crying. It honestly switches over, who knows how. And mama always talks to baby:

"No, you get to sleep baby, otherwise you will be grumpy tomorrow and bother mommy like you did today". I actually like to hear its noises.

Behind me beyond the girls is a big group of middle agers who laugh a lot and make much noise and play the radio all day long, they are laughing now as I eat my 2 liters of tri flavored ice cream. In front of me beyond baby is the school of high group that came today in a double Decker bus. The group of 30 or so is presently sitting around a Willie Nelson type dude playing classic camp fire songs of which I admire but not mommy and baby. The laughers are too far away to hear as guitar man is also beyond a road of which a car just passed.

I went to the beach and stuck my toes in the ocean for the first time since Darwin and boy was it cold! I bought an astronomy book and a big idea series book on Neils Bohr and quantum physics. After this one I shall do them all. I am presently plotting a map of the cosmos in my head so I can fit the Aliens in and then explain the entire phenomenon to all beings. I'm putting the ice cream away in the handy camp ground icebox to use as ''breaky'' No ice box just threw it down toilet.

Not only can I hear momma and baby perfectly but I can see mommas silhouette perfectly against her tent as I watch her eat nuts or something out of a bag as I can hear the rumple of its plastic ness. She just drank something. I saw her mix there, now she is looking down doing something as she sits cross-legged facing her baby in the carraige She was rolling a joint, now she's smoking it. Now she's leaning down as if reading and sipping tea as I heard her slurp. She just checked the time and had a sip. Now she's just sitting there and drinking out of a can. She is definitely reading. and definitely smoking a joint because of the frequent shallow tokes all the way to the end of the but. She is about 10 feet away from me on the other side of a fence and it is 9:20 on Sunday. Now she's holding the magazine up and reading it. I can hear every move she makes. She coughed a bit ago, I can hear the burning of the magazines pages, so she can hear all of my moves and so I try to be quiet and become glad I am writing and not recording. She is in the outer level with the crib where the test has only one layer, I can't see her when she retreats back in the tent which she just did turning the light off at 9:24. But I can still hear her and am tuned in to her every move as she got in the sleeping bag and ate more out of the bag and drank some. But now she is silent in the grips of the night and I am left with something else to report.

The laughers are still at it. Men joking and women laughing. They're cockneys. They are actually the girls behind me and drunken Scotsman I think. No it is the older ones. I heard an old man laugh. Oh, someone just walked buy the road and I heard a car door shut somewhere. I feel sick, a nutritional deficiency it feels like, but I think just too much junk food and pot. It's not that bad. I actually have a nice pleasant relaxed feeling from the stoniness. I actually experienced a warm wind enter my body after having a booster hit today. Praise Jah I said, the woman just left the tent out of a door on the other side of the crib that I didn't even know existed. This is the coolest campsite ever. Just reading and writing all day and night in the comfortable day seaside weather.

Hallelujah, I think its happy happy buy buy time for me. I have been having sweet travel dreams, but of course I cant remember them so I shall keep a dream journal when the dope runs out in one more canister. For I am at the end of the 3rd out of 4 film canisters. They are going faster than I thought when I first got it. I didn't take into account that you get desensitized and need more to stay in never never land. Anyway sweet dreams. Thinking cosmically as you let the warm winters enter The therapeutic use of drugs -The new media.

7-3-99

I went to the bike shop and the wheel came in on Friday, but that's ok. Maybe I wouldn't have become interested in Astronomy if I hadn't have had that weekend. I started riding at 1 pm. I rode until sunset at five. The next day I fought the wind, the hardest ever, and rode 100 miles until like 9:00 pm. And the next day was another brutal day. I got to Fitzroy Crossing at 8:40, and a raid train driver who doesn't just drive the 120 toner, but 170 ton rock hauler with 3 1/2 trailers who wants to do a 4 year around the world bike tour gave me a ride for 30 Ks. But I forgot to fill up my water. Luckily he had about 2 liters for me and I rode until ding dong 4:20 AM. It was a beautiful clear night. I stopped after reaching the top of a beautiful hill with cliffs on either side of me. It was the biggest hill climbed in all the ones before Perth. It was head windy but not half as bad as during the day, it seemed to be getting stronger and stronger and I got genuinely tired because of all of the hammering into the fierce headwind I had been doing. I figured it would be wise for me to rest now, after all I had been riding 10 hours straight and would have needed to stop and rest before getting to Hals Creek anyway. I stopped with 190Ks left of the biggest gap yet of 290Ks. Although I think I remember passing a place at night that is in the Lonely Planet book, but I was too macho at the time. I very efficiently went to sleep in less than 10 minutes and woke up and got out making that only a 4:30 hour break.

I rode strong the next day until sunset at 5. A solid 7 hours of pedaling of the 8 on the road, but I only managed to cover 70 Ks because of the wind. My mood and water was getting low, but I knew there was a camp ground just up the road where I could bum more water. I got off at 7:30 and was riding surprisingly strong; stronger than the day before. I went from 120 to go to 65ish to go before noon. At about 1:00 AM the road turned to the left a little bit so I wasn't riding directly into the wild anymore, so I was riding 8 mph instead of 6 which made a noticeable difference and boosted my moral. Than it got better to 10. I got a flat with 10 km's to go and pumped it up, then an aboriginal woman coming at me stopped her car at me staring at me so I thought she wanted to talk to me, but she was just having car trouble, that is the second time that has happened. I magically rode into town right as the sun was setting and went to the grocery store and caravan park. That night I was feeling sore and feverish all over. I know that feeling, physical burnout. I haven't had it that bad since Morocco. I kind of knew my chances of riding today were bleak, but I still planned on it, but when I got up, I said ''no way" and just futzed around kind of dazed out all day. It is sunset now and although I feel a lot fresher than yesterday, I still am sore all over and feverish. I will ride tomorrow though no matter what. I have 160Ks to go tomorrow, if the wind is like it was for the end of yesterday I can do it. I have a feeling I have a fever now because I ate so much junk food in Broom. I bought a two liter triple flavor and ate half of it and munched pizzas and candy for 4 days; but mostly it is because of the riding. I feel a bit of pressure to get there quick before I spend the money I have. Plus me wants to get to Sydney quick so me don't run out. I have a feeling I will feel good tomorrow. I am almost out of nugs, I don't have the money to buy more, and I want to bounce back to sobriety; I hope it goes smooth. It was so nice being so stoned so long. All I feel is intensity, so I just need to remember to keep up the intensity and I will be fine. It will be interesting to see if I can keep up the brilliant thoughts. Its amazing, on nugs I am all knowing, I should write about that.

7-7-99

Well I finally did it, bonked. I left Kununera without enough food and reaped the consequence. I could have made it here or close last night but I was kind of spooked by the darkness seeing that I was sober for the first time in two months. The reason I didn't bring enough food was because I lost 5 bananas out of my bags. I meant to put them in a good place but I forgot. For some reason I also didn't realize it was 230 Ks to the next place but only got two more sandwiches because I was stingy because I just spent 22 bucks on 2 new tapes $10 on a tire and $85 on new shorts. I was stoned and just figured I would motivate through the night but I stopped at a wee 9:00 and figured I would star gaze, but there were too many stars to star gaze without a map so I fucked off and went to bed. I knew I would be fucked the next day. I slept ok, but the dam piece of shit sleeping bag is always soaked. I turned it inside out so I wouldn't suffer but the dew made it worse. I got up late and was off at 9 after eating just crackers. I got to experience bonkness for the first time in years and it sucks. I was super week and couldn't eat to replenish my energy because my stomach shriveled so I bought a six pack of beer. This'll be the most beer for me since Alice springs. It brings back memories of Alice. Which seems like a ways off now. I wonder if my writing style is any different now that I am sober. Anyway, my day was fucked so I stopped early at 2:00. Tomorrow I shall try to get up bitch-silly early and try to get my ass 280Ks to Katharine tomorrow.

I was having many thinkings today about the "universal theory", which I call it. The conglomeration of truths about the evolution of humans and heaven. It is fully fortified in my head as spinning truths forever mine as the netherly spirits try to pump them to me. All I need to do now is sit down and write it and converse it. For example here are some:

1) The spirits say I must travel before speaking.

2) The young rockers in my tapes of top 40 rockers are very spiritual but negative and pessimistic which will lead to optimism which I will capitalize on.

3) The youth are too smart to be able to communicate with their parents, the old cant grasp it.

4) For me to write the book I need to address all angles of view:

a) The close minded freedom lovers.

b) The Christian right.

c) the pessimistic loaf.

d) The uneducated believer.

e) The scientific thinker.

f) The native.

5) Marijuana is truly a bringer of genius, without it you need to really quiet down the mind before insights come.

10) People want a leader.

16) Don't judge lest be judged can be a great scale to decide how to react to specific people.

17) alcohol and pot have the same effect on me when I am by myself, only alcohol makes you share your soul with your brother even if it means pain, the pot will avoid pain at all costs, the alcohol is more noble, and better for your mind although bad for your body. Why does the reason for non drugs and sex changed now than in Paul's time? Because it detracted form them working to get here, but with all the sexes and drugs elevate. you must always take the situation into account. people hate drugs because they don't believe in their brothers who are the sun of God as well, and that is the first step, by brother.

18) people love you more when you are honest, even if you are out of line isn't that strange. people love emotion, but only when there is no negativity. This old couple gave me a soda today and it really helped me as I was suffering form malnutrition but now I am fine form the beer calories, the Christians need to realize this drunkenness why? If every thing that's good comes form positive things, was slavery positive? Because it was a different world in the past, this is transition time

Fuck alcohol. I was buzzed a bit but that turned to a hang over and empty still fucked stomach so I woke up malnourished, feverish, and tired. It was slow going and got off at 11:30, the latest yet, second to Kununura at 11:00. I didn't have much fun riding today because I couldn't hammer because my chain was skipping. It started after Kununura with a weird sound in the smallest cog and then quickly got so stretched that I could barely ride hard enough to keep the bike moving at a reasonable pace. So after 92 Ks I stopped at Victoria river and will get the bus to Darwin tomorrow.

I saw a dead four foot long lizard on the road today and a wallaby I took a picture of. The book about Neils Bohr and Quantum physics is great, but exhausts my brain.

I saw a UFO the other night, I was riding and saw a shooting star in front of me, and then a couple seconds later I saw another shooting star to my left. I looked right at it. It was going slower than a normal shooting star and was very bright. Then it split into three pieces connected by a haze and disappeared, it looked like this. It was definitely not a meteor, unless it exploded, I don't know.

I just talked to this river guide about crocodiles. The largest one caught was 30 feet long and they can be more than a meter wide easy and can out run horses for short distances and live up to 80 years. The fresh water ones can live 50 years. Saltwater crocs can swim 50 kilometers up river. They have brains the size of a quarter but watch the patterns of land animals like fishermen and know when someone is coming when they are predictable so they can eat them. The only place to kill a croc by hand is by sticking it in the back of the head or through the eye. The guy gives tours on the river the restaurant is on. He said if you go down to the bridge fifty meters down the road you can see the eyes in the water; but for some reason I didn't do that.

7-17-99

I started riding yesterday. The last time I wrote I was in Victoria river. When the bus came two hours late the driver said he was too late and didn't have time to put my bike in and that I should have reserved a ticket, so I reserved a ticket for the next day. But that night I met a 66 year old man who bought me coffee and hung out with another man who sung a long Aussie poem. He offered to drive me to Darwin the next morning to get there the next day so that night we stayed in Pine Creek and he invited two young Belgian girls for a beer and then I met a cute girl traveling with her father, from Tucson, he went to school in Boulder. This guy Patrick kept talking on and on. He was a ten year old in the concentration camps in Japanese occupied Java during World War II. At the end of the war he had the choice to go to Holland, Canada, or here. His two sisters went to Canada and Holland but he came here.

I had to stay in Darwin for 5 nights because for some reason my card couldn't get any money out. Wyndham loaned me $3500 to get to Sydney. I only got $850 for the last quarter which is the worst quarter ever next to $1200. Two quarters ago it was $2000. I am curious to know what the next one will be. I guess she just finalized more logistical stuff. I was eager to make a move so I didn't feel like doing anything but moping and watching TV and movies. I bought a book about science, a new chain and cog and two tapes.

When I got my money I took off but after 10 miles down the road turned around to get weed because my heart was aching. I asked a couple of people and these dreadsters said I should go to Mindel beach or something and it was jam packed with people. I asked a couple of stoners and then this guy who was selling coconuts and he had a $50 quarter bag. As I was walking down the beach right after sunset I saw this feminine looking guy in a dress with bloodshot eyes, he was holding a lighter and what I thought was a pipe so I said:

"You got anymore?"

"What"

"weed"

"oh, no"

"I just got some but want more''.

"no, just this little bit, let me see what you got". So we walked down the beach a little bit and I showed him.

"Is this a good deal?"

"Does it matter?"

"Have you been to America?''

''Yes, in Tucson once for a spiritual workshop"

"Oh so your spiritual"

"Aren't we all?"

"Well yea, but not all interested and open minded about religion" So I gave him my spiel.

"Is you name Jonathan?"

"No".

"I like to guess, maybe I will get it right some day''.

"Guess again".

"Eric".

"Yes, well it used to be in Sydney, it was Erica. Because I was feminine".

"Are you gay?"

"Of course what kind of silly question is that?" Then I went off some more and started talking about my past lives.

"Do you have any idea what any of your past lives were?"

"Of course I think we all know, what kind of silly question is that?" Then I talked to him about Aliens.

"Do you know anything about aliens?"

"Yes"

"Tell me, but he was quiet for like 20 seconds''.

"Well do you?"

"What do you reckon just happened just then?"

"Well I asked you what you knew about Aliens and you just were silent while I was enjoying the sound of the tide coming in. What were you thinking?"

"I was looking at the moon".

He said: "Is the tide coming in or out?" But I didn't know.

"Are you from here?"

"Yea I grew up here, but I just moved back after being gone". This guy was out of it and incapable of having an intelligent conversation, or even answering questions.

"What is your job?"

"I'm a performer"

"Oh, at these night markets?"

"Everywhere". For some reason I didn't believe him. But now, I could see it. He asked me my star sign and then I guessed his at Cancer, but he said "guess again". So I dwelled on it a couple seconds. ''Sagittarius?" "Yes". Whoa! I was feeling psychic. He asked me if I had ever expressed my feminine side, so I told him about the homo cop who tried to touch my dick in Alice Springs. That's when he said he was thirsty so we went back and I saw these performers.

They rapped, juggled on a tall unicycle, break danced and did the ''super duper'' trick, where the guy on top juggles three flaming sticks. Then I saw tapes for only $10 bucks.

Then saw a motorized glider that could hold two people. It had a range of 300-400 KM, and could go 4 hours at 100 miles an hour, and costed around 20K Aussi bucks. Man I want one. It could climb a thousand meters a minute. The guy was charging $5 for 25 minutes. I should have gone for a ride. That would be so cool to fly over the Rockys.

Then I saw a Christian video and these fundamentalists asked me if I believed in God.

"Yes but I don't believe in hell, which is what you people are so infatuated with, and they said all the classic fundamentalist stuff about how you need Jesus and everything else belongs to the Devil.

"If God is all powerful and Created us, why could the Devil get almost everybody?"

"Well you have the chance"

"And you are saying I am blowing mine by believing in reincarnation and thinking scientifically?"

"There are scientists with PhD's who don't believe in Evolution".

"Can you name one we have all heard of?"

"No".

"I bet they are like one percent".

I told them all the reasons and facts, but what I missed and should have stressed the most was that if you see anything but God in your brother the Devil has you. I made this point too harshly with this girl and made her cry and shake all over. I was telling these guys about meditation, Vipassana, and she said.

"Are you talking about TM? Because in TM they focus on an object and meditate on it saying a chant and it hypnotizes them into the Devil and that is scary stuff, all that Eastern religion, this is serious!" and I said,

"You just brought fear and worry buy saying that the world is so dangerous"

"You need to ignore all the negativity of the world, all of the environmental problems are just side affects, but everything is going as planned". And she tried to interrupt me and I said "let me finish" and went on, my voice was raised and I was waving my arms around, but she was too petrified to understand. She thought the devil was in me because I was being so honest with her, even though right before I went off she said

"Sometimes you need to offend the tell the truth" Well she got what she asked for. I would have been a lot more affective if I had of come up with a long lasting song that praised gods creation with a main theme stressing that there is nothing to worry about and you are what you make yourself so you should be an environmental activist. That way they will be forced to hear me out. I also need to stress that scientific thinking is good by showing what it has done and exactly how it is opposite from superstitions.

After I talked to them I went back to the disco but I didn't feel like dancing, so I went back and this old Aboriginal dude asked me for money so I sat down and talked to him and have him two bucks. He said he got on the last bus to go home 10 KM away and had the money but the bus driver said he was too drunk.

"Do I look drunk to you?"

"No".

He said he was going to file a complaint.

"Why don't you have money for a cab?"

"I gave it all to my 13 kids and six grandkids, I don't even have enough money for another shirt''.

''So you spent all of your dole money, how much is that?"

"$390 a fortnight (two weeks)''

So $780 a month. Like $500 us a month. That's so much, no wonder these Abos don't work, they don't have to. But from the sound of it they couldn't get a job if they wanted to.

"I have been here two hours, and nobody gave me anything, they're just rude, walk on buy. I feel like just sleeping here on the sidewalk but someone will come buy and tell me to get up. These people are ass holes, they couldn't sleep here on the sidewalk if they had to. I'll tell you, they call this civilization, but it isn't, we're more civilized. It isn't easier to live like this. Before when you are hungry you spear a kangaroo, when you are cold you make a fire. I'll tell you a secret, my grandfather had a vision and told us that this year a comet is gonna come and almost hit earth, and will make earth spin off its axis and the poles will melt and there will be a giant flood, and that people came from the bright star and interbread with us."

I was too stunned to try to have a reasoned conversation with him. Then I got a burger at McDonalds and went home.

I left the next day and got a blow out at 43 miles out and put a bunch of patches over the tire and sowed up the $10 dollar tire and put it in the front, and the tire I got in Thailand in the back. Then I got picked up by this guy and driven 300 or so kilometers to 25 kilos before Katharine and his car ran out of gas so I rode the rest of the way and bought food and water and rode for a couple more hours. I was gong to ride all night but I got sleepy and the sky was good for gazing so I stopped but fell asleep and was cold which surprised me and I slept in and took forever getting out. I rode a couple miles and decided I was too tight and needed to stretch so I stopped and then decided to make this my spend all day in the desert day that I have been planning for a month or so. I shouldn't fall asleep instead of star gazing tonight. I am camped in this sand dune runoff following the shade. I want to write this song today. But I need to finish the notes from quantum physics books so I can throw it away.

Recount

After Katherine there was a turnoff to the left where I would have my biggest stretch without water. But during the night my strap came loose and locked up my rear tire, and the skid was enough to burn away enough of the rubber to allow a hole large enough to let the tube come through, and a the next day the hole was so big that I couldn't continue and had to thumb a ride. The first few cars didn't stop, but eventually a guy from Belgium stopped and gave me a ride to Mount Isa, which is officially the largest city in the world according to land mass. In reality it is just a small town of a couple thousand people. I got a new tire and camped in a camp site there for a night. I rode for another couple days but got really sick because I went to a roadside gas station and asked the old man who worked there where the bathroom was so I could fill up my water bottles and he said the hose had good water for drinking. But when I smelled the water it smelled like gas, so I asked him if he was sure it was good for drinking and he assured me. So I did something really stupid and filled my water bottles up with the water and as soon as I left and was riding down the road I noticed that the water really did have gas in it, but I had to drink it because it was the only water I had to get to the next place. But by the time I got to the next town I was so sick I had to stop at the local camp ground and take a day off. I rode for another couple days and realized in a town that I was low on money. So I decided to take a bus to Brisbane and try to get a job there.

I spent a couple days in Brisbane. It is a really nice looking city. It has a big river running up through it, and a nice bike bath running along the river that I rode up. It also had a nice pedestrian mall and cool big buildings. The hostel I stayed at there was a cozy house and consisted purely of traveler kids who were working in Brisbane. They would all get together at night and watch TV together and talk shit about the American shows they were watching. We were watching Dawson's creek and one guy said. ''It's so stupid that 15 year old kids are talking like they are 40''. I didn't get a job right away there so I took the bus strait to Sydney.

When I got to Sydney I went strait to kings cross and started looking for a hostel to stay at, but the first few I checked were full, but there were hostels all over the place and I eventually found one. Overall I was in Sydney for a month, but I didn't make much money and decided to go home for a little while after more than two years away. I had trouble finding work because I made the mistake of telling the truth that I didn't have a work permit when I should have lied and given them a false number starting with the digits that Americans have, then I would have been fine. I did get a job for a couple days canvassing houses selling a service that puts numbers on houses. The neighborhoods we went to were beautiful. They were hilly and had little lakes in the canyons. But I wasn't in the mood to sell door to door. I was offered a job selling office stuff door to door but I didn't want that. I was also offered a job in a coffee house, which I really regret not taking. I worked for a few days in construction via a job placement agency, but the ass hole refused to pay me for my last days work because he knew I didn't have a work permit. I wish I had reported him to the authorities. I did report him to the construction guys I worked for though. Then for a couple weeks I worked in construction building some millionaires house right on the south side of the harbor. But because I didn't have a work permit, I had to have them send the money to a Kuwait kid I met In the hostel, but he left to pick fruit in the north and said he never got the money. So I had the new job placement agency I worked for put the money in my roommates bank account. But I left Sydney before he got the first check, and for some weird reason I never called him to have him send me the money.

My hostel situation in Sydney was kind of strange. Two of my roommates were kind of living there. One guy was an Irish kid who was stuck there for some reason and working moving furniture with one of the guys who worked their who didn't seem to like me and didn't want to hook me up with a construction job. My other roommate who was the guy who I had the agency put the money in the first time was this Kuwaiti kid who had Australian citizenship and owned an apartment there but preferred to rent it out and live in hostels and travel around. He left not long after I got there though. there was another Japanese roommate I had who left with the Kuwaiti kid, who was cool. He told me that he studied the writing of Ken Wilber in Japan, and I told him that Ken Wilber lives in Boulder where I am from. The Japanese kid wanted to buy weed one day so we went to a coffee shop a couple blocks away that I heard you could get weed and and I asked them people who work there if I could get weed, and sure enough they brought out weed for me. That was cool, so it basically meant that weed is basically legal there in Australia. My roommate was cool, but he freaked out yelling at the Irish kid one morning because he was screwing his girlfriend right there in the hostel room with the rest of the people who were there. There were some cool French girls I had as roommates for a little bit who were fun to hang out with also. But one day I just decide that I wanted to go home. So I bought a ticket and rode down to the airport and came on home.