I woke my sister at 5 A.M. We left the house at 5:30. At the train station in Grand Rapids I was the first to arrive. Joe warned me that it was unnecessary to arrive early to the train station. We've had 4-6" of lake effect snow showers throughout the night and continuing in to the morning And this is the real beginning of my journey. Alone in the mudroom of the train station (the waiting room wasn't even open yet). I was just thinking to myself that God or Mother earth or George lessons really didn't want me to go on this trip so all this snow would cause the train to derail or something else terrible. But before my brain could wander too far 2 men came to the door, one older man with hospital-walls white hair and another scruffy factoring working ex-hippy/drug user looking man with one white pupil. They didn't enter the mud room they just took a quick peak then left. Then later the scruffy man returned with a whole-some lady with cigarette ash hair, saggy breasts, and a mustache. We exchanged travel plans. They were heading to Chicago to hit up some biker bars to celebrate nice saggy-tit lady's birthday. Factory man told me about his times in Australia when him and his factory buddies would go from bar to bar in all the small towns around Victoria and NSW and as he continued to tell me stories more people were starting to compile into this small mud room. First this elderly couple with an over adequate amount of baggage. The old lady was senile and talked too much, her husband had diabetes and a neat walker that he could flip around into this cozy looking chair. Next a "yuppy" lady with a REAL fur coat walked in and flashed us her expensive watch and told us how she was too good for life. More and more people kept piling in to this really small space. Eventually factory man and saggy tit woman decided to evacuate for a cigarette and some air. I jointed them shortly aft words because i was starting to feel nautilus from all the stinky old lady perfume. 15 minutes later the lobby opened up. the train showed up on time then i lost myself in a dream waking up in Chicago.
In Chicago I carried my bike box and all my luggage from the train station almost to Mary's apartment ( about 1 mile). I received many odd looks and comments including some ladies "girl, if we knew you were coming this way we would have helped you" Then Mary came and saved me by the time my arms stopped working. When we got to Mary's apartment she asked me to preform the simple task of putting the jars of salsa I brought her in the cupboard and my arms were so strained from carrying the bike box that i could not lift them. It was quit bazaar being incapable of preforming such a simple thing. So I took a temporary super-appreciation to my arms hours later when they learned how to function again.
Taking off on the plane from Chicago was extraordinary. I've never had stars below my feet. And when I realized I wasn't upside down the stars were above me as well. Then somehow I ended up inTungamah, Victoria (population 330) staying with some people I met at a small town pub. This far into my tirp I've been scared to tears, as well as left breathless by the wonderful and abundant unique scenery and the amount of people willing to lend a hand to this crazy American that wants to ride her bike from Melbourne to Sydney.
In Melbourne i was lucky enough to stay with one of the more beautiful personalities I've met, Naomi. She fed me and took me to the most magical places I've never seen before. One of those being Wilson's Promontory. Insanely beautiful and lush with green plants. Days of mountain hikes and countless secluded beaches with boulders at either and and deserted islands in the distance. Small wave pools in the boulders with neon colored sea creatures. Streams flowing off the mountain from the morning rain tinted brown with tea tree oils flowing over a bed of clovers. Water falls and Rainbows (no joke). A strong smell of eucalyptus and gum tress in the air. In the evening when going for a walk there is a guarantee to cross paths with a wombat or a wallaby or to site one of Australians many wild parrots. Although it was rainy and cold at times while i was there I still had the most amazing experience.
The day after returning from Wilsons Promontory Naomi recomended biking from her house in East Doncaster (suburb) into Melbourne (about 50 miles round trip). So I did this, and what an amazing ride. This path curved along the yarra river and took me over some insanely cool bridges, and past some lovely spray painted murals like I've never seen before. Even some anti-George bush tags. About halfway to Melbourne there was a boathouse where I picked up a chicken sandwich. And in Australia when they ask if you want salad with your sandwich they really mean do you want lettuce on your sandwich. And they don't put anything on it unless you tell them too. So i had this huge chicken sandwich with nothing but lettuce on it. Slightly disappointed with it because it cost me way too much. i really wanted/needed something messy like avocado or ketchup or mayo but I didn't bother because I was already difficult when i ordered. Anyways continuing on the bike back there was a 2 k climb up to the top of this hill with a kick ass view of Melbourne. There were some old people taking pictures of each other so I offered to get one of the two of them in exchange for a picture of me with my bike. So we snatched photos of each other and quickly exchanged our stories. They were from england on holiday. I told them my whole lot and they gave me a hardy good luck and we split. The next thing I new I was riding through Collingwood children's farm, which was divided in half by the bike path. Little kids feeding lambs from a bottle. Apple trees, brightly colored wooden fences, wildflowers, children laughing and learning organic farming culture. I even saw a couple dandelions (my fave). It was lovely. Then before i knew it I was in Melbourne. By the time I got their though I was exhausted so I fell asleep for a couple hours on a patch of grass in one of Melbourne botanical gardens. I woke up and I did not feel like doing much, so I rode strait back.
The next day Naomi dropped me off in Brunswick. This was a neat suburb. Lots of grungy second hand shops and college kids, knock off hot topics, independent art galleries, health food stores and 4 dollar pizzas. In australia you only get what you ask for on your pizza. So i ordered pesto with goat cheese assuming it already came with sauce and mozzarella (never assume in a different country). It came out super quick and it was fucking delicious but not at all what I had expected It literally only had the crust, pesto and goat cheese. haha From there I took a tram to the famous St. Kilda. i really didn't spend as much time as I should have in St. Kilda. But i did get to see the clock garden deal, then sat on the peir and listened to devendra banhart . The peir had a great view of Melbourne. It was cool because the sky was blue above me but I could see clouds over Melbourne and rain wisping through the air, like smoke signals being sent to the earth. From st. kilda I took a tram in to town. I walked around a bit, wrote some postcards. It rained a little and as I continued to walk around. Shortly after a rainbow was stretching across the city. About 5 minutes later there was another rainbow (very faint) forming below it. I've never seen two rainbows at once, it was astounding. Melbourne is a very well designed town. With parks and murals and sculptures all over. And and information building at its heart to help all of those whom are stranded. After another lovely day I took a bus back to my host home.
Day 3 of being in east doncaster Naomi recommended another bike trip to the Dandenong Mountain ranges. It was challenging to bike there, many hills and it was bloody hot out (about 100* F). The path Naomi mapped out for me was led me to riding on the shoulders of busy roads, which wasn't very enjoyable. So about 2-3 hours worth of biking and I end up at the bottom of a 7km climb to sassyfrass (a town on the ridge of one of the dandenong mountains). The climb was steady and gradual. The air was humid and smelt of eucalyptus. About halfway up I saw wild parrots in their natural habitat for the first time in my life. It was beautiful, about 3 different breeds radiantly colored. AMAZING. I stopped and took some photos. Then i continued climbing passing by native wildflowers and brush that only a person walking or biking could appreciate. The last K was terribly hard for me, the climb got a bit steeper and i was just getting tired I wanted to stop and walk my bike up. I was cursing under my breath. Then finally with about 500 meters to go, wanting to give up, i kept pushing... 200 meters.... 100... meters. Then i was there. I didn't think i could make it. I felt amazing. In sassyfrass, Naomi had recommended getting Hot chocolate at ripe cafe. So i hunted the place down. It looked like an average grandmas house, and smelt like home cooking and coffee. yumm... they were burning lavender oil in the bathroom. I had hot chocolate here, The best hot chocolate of my life. There was a choice of Milk,white,dark, or hazelnut hot chocolate. I of course had dark chocolate. At ripe cafe they make their hot chocolate by shaving chocolate bars then poring steamed milk on top. That should be the only way hot chocolate is served from now on anywhere. it was brilliant. After the hot chocolate and a sandwich and talking with some Tazzies while my food settled. I glided down the hill (this was the best part of going up the darn thing). I stopped to take a picture about a 1/4 of the way down (I told myself I would on the way up) because of a extraordinary view of the mountains. Then a girl stopped to check to see if I was alright. We got to talking and she ended up giving me her water bottle (which was about twice the size of mine) and adjusting my bike to make it more long distance friendly. She also lead me to a path that would shorten my trip back to Doncaster East. It's so amazing how people who don't even know my name will reach out to help out, without even asking for it. I've been impressed by humanity in my trip thus far.
Friday the 16th of February my bike partner and I agreed to leave for Yea. I was ready that morning at about 7 a.m. and she wouldn't even get up for me. The whole day she slugged around and dragged me with her. I undestood she had to get stuff done so I waited around half the day while she took her time at every place she "needed' to go. I was getting irritated because each task it felt like she was taking her time finally 2 O'clock rolls around and I tell her that we need to leave if we want to make Yea by dark. And she tells me no i just gotta do one more thing. So I confront her and ask her if she even wanted to go and she says yes and in my mind i really didn't want her to join me if she was going to be this immature and inconsiderate. So finally I tell her that her priorities are obviously not with this bike trip, so I will go alone tomorrow. After we got that sorted we pretended not to dislike each other and found a place to crash for the night through Couchsurfing. We stayed at Emma T's house on the south east side of Melbourne. Emma and her roommate were very sweet girls. They had mattresses out for us and sleeping bags and that whole bit. They even gave us pizza which ended up having a fly on it, but it was the thought that counted. they had a great view Melbourne and a shower surrounded by mirrors. I've never seen my body from so many angles. I woke up the next morning before anyone else and packed up and left. Free at least. But stressed out to tears as I realized I was about a 2 hour drive from Yea. And it would be a ridiculous and impossible task for me on my bike (I'm a slow cyclist). So I rode a bit in the direction until finally I just completely broke down. I didn't know where I was, how to get to yea, where I was going to stay in yea, I'm about a day behind. Finally in reaction to all the stress I decide to take the tram in to town. So i waited around for the tram and they told me i couldn't take my bike on the tram. I was soo stressed out for some reason that i couldn't hold back a couple of tears. I thought to myself... why am i even doing this... this is stupid... I can't do this... what am I trying to prove?...you can't do this alone...you don't know what you're doing... After a couple of deep breaths I walked up to a shop and asked if there was any other way to get into Melbourne. He told me where a train station was, I felt a bit relieved. Took the train to Flinders Square (downtown Melbourne) where i could transfer to just about anywhere (including sydney). I chose to take a bus to Bradford (about an hour out of down town Melbourne. A little disappointed I didn't stick it out, but very excited to actually get out of Melbourne to start my journey. In Bradford they dropped me off at a pub/hotel. Even the Smallest towns in Australia have 1 pub that doubles as a hotel. Here I filled up my water and I got some tips from some of the 1pm bar flies. One of them even gave me a pair of sunglasses. He was about to give me his bike lights as well but I stopped him. haha. In the bar they were glad to top off my water supply. Everyone was interested in why this American girl came to this small town. Most of them were doubtful whether or not Americans even existed. So i got some Directions to Seymour and I was off. It was 38* c/ about 100*F. This was my first biking experience along a highway. Most of the time the semi trucks would move to the far lane but occasionally they were not able to and the wind would nearly knock me over. About halfway to Seymour I stopped at a truck stop and topped off my water bag again. while traveling along the road I saw many branches that appeared to be snakes. But eventually one of those branches really was a snake. A brown snake " are considered to be one of the most dangerous snakes in the country, even juveniles are capable of delivering a fatal envenomation to a human" (wikipedia). I was tempted to take photos of it but I chose my life. I soon reached the Seymour exit.
In Seymour I called Naomi's ex-boyfriends parents Norma and Allan (they said I was welcomed to stay with them) and got directions to their house. As soon as I walked in the house I was offered a cold drink and If i would like to go for a swim in her daughters pool (about a 5 minute drive away). This was the best thing I've heard of after a bike ride in 100* F temperature. I think my body is designed for warm weather. The jump in the pool was sooo refreshing. The family had Chooks (chickens) only hens though because they weren't aloud to have a noisy rooster. They also had this giant dog that was tall enough to slow dance with me. hehe. I played pool games with Norma's granddaughter, where we would throw all of these colorful objects to the bottom of the pool and whoever collected the most won. I was annihilated by a 9 year old. After swimming, went back to Norma&Allans where I had the best salad of my life(tomatoes&cucumbers&onions from their veg garden) with a glass of Allan's homemade wine. They shared stories with me in exchange for some of my stories. Very lovely, well-humored, happy semi-retired couple. In norma&allans house it is mandatory to have desert after every meal. So norma scoops up some ice cream (3 large scoops per person) and Allan goes out back and collect passion fruit from their passion fruit vine. Then Allan sets the bucket down next to Norma and she cuts them in half and scoops the passion goodness over the ice cream. It's simple, yet brilliant. This is their routine, it's the cutest thing... everything is routine for them. They set the table up for breakfast before they go to bed. In the morning Allan collects oranges then reads the paper and tells norma all the exciting the exciting things happening in the paper. while Norma makes coffee and squeezes orange juice from the citrus tree. They do the dishes together after every meal, Norma cleans and Allan washes. This couple makes me excited for osteoporosis, gray hair, arthritis, and wrinkly skin. After desert we walked down to the river, where i saw gala's for the first time. Beautiful and abundant birds with a pink belly and a silver/white wings and back. There was a rope for 'the kids' to jump in the river. Allan hopped on and nearly gave norman a heart attack. He didn't jump into the river though he just swung back into land. The water in the river is clean enough to drink. And at about 9:30 pm we were home, the sun wad down and all 3 of us stuffed (tired) so we all wen to bed.
My second day at Norma&allans I went to the alternative farming expo (this is a huge event for Seymour) where I volunteered to help raise money for the girls guides (aussie version of girl scouts). I pretty much made sandwiches and arranged Devonshire tea. Devonshire tea is very popular, it is two scones served with real whipped cream and a berry jam with Tea(with cream) or coffee. While volunteering i learned it was acceptable to say shit, and dicklips to small children, as the parents I was working with told there kids to casually "go fuck off somewhere else" regularly. At the farming expo I purchased some comb honey (natures best desert). I also got a free electric pulse shoulder massage which was amazing, even though i don't understand how that would not kill brain cells or making you grow extra limbs or something weird. In the evening I went for a bike ride on a bike/walking path that ran along the river, past a vineyard, a cattle farm, and an impassable bridge. There was a horse drinking from the river I imagined it being wild even though I'm certain it belonged to someone. But what a well spirited animal. I wish to see wild horses some day. I returned to Norma&Allan's for dinner. Then went to bed early again.
Allan had to be to work at the winery early so he offered a lift to shorten my 80 ride to shepparton into a 60 k ride. I took him up on the offer and he told me a bit about the land. I saw my first dried up creek/waterway, which was normally a creek that ran year round but for about 2 years it's been bone dry. Australia is in the middle of a record drought right now. A lot of people and towns are being effected by it. Most of the towns have water restrictions. Farmers especially are struggling. Even livestock farmers whom normally grow their own feed are force to let their cattle and sheep and whatever die off because they can't afford to feed them and in some cases water them. People in towns are only allowed to use hoses every other day of the week and only between certain times. if they are reported using their water outside there is a 4000 dollar fine in some towns.
Anyways, so he dropped me off just past the vineyard he worked at, near the Mangalore Flora Reserve on the Goulburn Valley Freeway. Before pedaling away on my bike i ditched some dead-weight, a can of baked beans. Then after about an hour of riding I was passing through the lovely town of Nagambie. While riding through Nagambie to me left their was this peculiar looking brick church, and to the left of it this peculiar looking tree with an array of gala's and giant white parrots peached in the tree. I put my riding on hold for about 10 minutes and took some postcard quality pictures. The rest of the days riding was long flat and hot (about 100* F). I learned to talk to the sheep and the cows as I passed by them huddled under a single tree usually near the road. An audience of curious eyes would fallow me as I passed by as if I were doing some sort of circus trick. So I would yell out to them "what you looking at?" "Some ones going to eat you soon, you know that?" "you guys are as good as dead". A bit cruel I know but I always got a bit of a laugh out of it. The sheep would always run away in a heard when I talked to them, and the cows would always just stand their unhumored by my sarcastic remarks. Eventually after hours of riding in the hot sun I made it to Shepparton information center where they directed me to the towns backpackers hostel.
I parked my bike outside and I found myself a 16 person shared room for two nights. Most of the people at the hostel were either fruit picking or recovering from their hangover from the Chinese-drinking games the night before. I took a shower then a long nap. Then I walked up to the IGA (grocery store) and purchased some food for my stay and a bottle of Lambrusco to share that night. I was the only American to pass through the hostel in weeks. But really no American has a real good reason to go up to shepparton anyways. There isn't much of a tourist attraction, nor is there much to do in shepparton besides check out the life sized painted cows scattered about the town they called this the "moooving art gallery". In the evening the hostel livened up a bit. Me and a few people from various parts of the world learned the game of Shit head from an English girl and in exchange I taught them how to play spoons. Later the crazy German guy invited the group outside for a joint. After two hits, i was in my own world, i laid back and stared off in to the stars. The stars are different in this part of the hemisphere. This is also the moment I noticed Australia doesn't have lightning bugs/fireflies.
The next day at the Youth hostel in shepparton was quite uneventful. which was nice. I sat around in the common area and I read an entire book, Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. As I was sitting around I was listening to pink Floyd and when I peered over my book I noticed two dandelion fluffs dancing around on the floor N*SYNC with the music. this was very magical. Later I watched the German documentary style history movie about Edvard Munch. It was insanely well done. "I don't believe in love but I do believe in Passion and Passion is poison" beautiful. In the evening everyone returned. We played a couple games of shit head then I retired for sleep so I could wake up bright and sunshiny.
I woke up the next morning at the sound of all the fruit pickers alarm clocks. this was perfect as it was just before daybreak. I packed my stuff and said goodbye and I was on my way by 7:30 Am. After about 1 hour of pedaling I noticed some Dark clouds to my left and ahead of me, also some occasional lighting. At this point I did not worry to much as it was not raining... I thought "maybe it will go around me". It didn't. It began to sprinkle, so I decided to seek shelter. this took me about 10 minutes as the houses were quite far apart. When I did arrive at a house i huddled with my bike under a porch with permission from the homeowner. the storm passed after about 20 minutes. I continued on... it was windy and hot and overall shit for biking carrying all my stuff. After about 5 more hours of biking I wound up in Tungumah, Victoria with a population of about 330 people. This town literally had a Pub, a Post office, and a small party/general store. I walked into the pub and asked for a Lemonade. They gave me a sprite, so I told the guy I wanted a Lemonade. Then one of the girls at the bar said that it is lemonade or at least what ausies give you when you ask for lemonade. So i drank it so I didn't further embarrass myself or seem like an ignorant American (even though I was). They hammered me with questions like "why the hell are you in Tungumah?" And I responded honestly and told them that I thought their town would be a bit larger because they appeared to be a larger town on the map. But later I found out that even if the towns were puny, if they had a general store and a gas station they were considered a big deal on the map. The tungumah gas station had closed down about a month before I visited. Frustrated I asked if they knew of any places to sleep for the night. The owner of the pub said he would only charge me 20 dollars. Then the people I was sitting at the bar with (a younger couple and an old alcoholic) said that I could stay at their house, and I could get a ride to Albury in a semi. So I took them up on the offer. I could have gotten a lift to Albury that night but they talked me in to staying with promises of going to a Melbourne rave and showing me the best of small towns. I agreed to this.
That night they took me down to the river and I jumped from this tree into the deep part of the river. this was amazing as it made my heart race and there were wild cockatoos, Kookaburras, and gala's cackling all around us. Maybe laughing because it noticed I haven't shaved in 2 weeks. heh. Later on, just before sunset Mel took me to their nature reserve where I got to pet a baby Koala. She said most Australians don't ever even have this opportunity and that I was fortunate. I agreed. I was surprised that the baby koala felt exactly like a plushy koala I've held as a child. Mel brought me back to this lovely sanctuary a couple days later so I could see and pet the young kangaroos and exotic birds.
After spending way too much time in Tungumah where the only way to have "fun" is drink your days away Damien's dad, a truck driver, offered to drop me off in Albury where I had arranged a place to stay via myspace. Damien's dad fulfilled the trucker stereotype completely. He was a chubby ol' guy with bright red shorts and a white man tank top. with a 64 oz soda and porn in his council. And in order to fit my bicycle in the truck he literally tossed these boxes labeled fragile as far as he could to the back of the truck. The ride to albury was wicked. Beautiful scenery and an insane lightning storm in the distance with rays of light from the sun behind the clouds shooting across the sky. it was unlike anythign i've ever seen before. The sky turned to black and cried it's heart out like an emo-boy wondering if anyone noticed how emo he was (yeah it was raining that hard). Before long we arrived in albury. Damiens dad had to drop off his load and pick up a new one. I called Nikki while he was doing this and I sorted out that she lived right in town which was not far out of the way.
Nikki ran out to meet me in the rain and helped carry my stuff to the house. The house was great. Imagine 6 kids growing up together, fresh out of high school renting out a house and partying all the time; White walls with philosophies of life and drunken memories graffiti'd all over; Living off of bulk pasta zoo and bulk chicken patties stolen from Macker's (McDonald's). Here I drank my first Australian beer which I acquired a taste for, Carlton draught. We all stayed up late talking about favorites. At about 4 in the morning nearly everyone was asleep but my body was tapping into some weird energy reserve and wanted to go for a walk. Ian was also awake and agreed to take me up to the look out. I tried to walk barefoot but he was deathly afraid of snakes and this made me a bit nervous as well so I wore shoes. So we walked and talked about social issues up this steep hill. On the way up we saw this snake, or at least what we temporarily thought was this Taipan, the most venomous snake int he world. But after about 3 moments the snake turned into a branch. And our sudden fright dissolved into a nervous laugh. It's so weird how our mind turns things/objects/shadows into something they are not. But if we would have ran away and not investigated the situation further that branch would have always been a man-killing Taipan. We continued the path. Ian told me of some social issues in the area.
A major issue in Australia, especially in small towns is alcoholism. This is not surprising as even the smallest town at least has a pub and tends to be founded around it. And often there isn't much else to do in these towns other then drink every night. A significant number of youth in Albury/Wodonga had been kicked out at least once by the time they were 15. The root of this being their parents were alcoholics. The modern aborigional people living in this particular town (an also around australia) are known for not being able to handle their alcohol. They drink because they don't know what else to do with their time. But their bodies don't have any tolerance for alcohol so there are alot of drunk aborigional people doing stupid things giving all aborigional people a bad rap in that town so their is a high tension between the Aborigional and the white people in these towns. It is really sad to see the way Australia forced these people to live the white mans life style even after watching what the U.S. did to the indians.
At the Lookout I coudl see all of Albury and Wodonga. Albury and Wodonga is kind of like one big town but the are separated by provincial borders. Wodonga being in Victoria and Albury being in New South Wales. After we were bored of staring into the man made night-sky (the city) Ian took me for a tour of Albury. And he asked me about the U.S. and this is the first time I really thought about home since I had left. I told him about how the leaves changed in the autum. And building snowman in a t-shirt just before all the snow melts. I also told him how Grand Rapids is an amazing town and how it has soo much to offer for everyone. While I was telling him this I really gained an genuine appreciation for the place I called home. I didn't miss it though, I knew I would be home in 2 1/2 months.