August 22, 2015
The kindness of strangers: How's the serenity?
We woke up in a ditch. Dea was happy. I was happy. We were happy together in our ditch. We were so happy that not even the sight of my rear tyre being deflated could make either of us feel any less happy. Apart from me, of course, because I was the one who had to change the tube before we could continue. But I wasn’t that much less happy because life was all still quite good on the whole, and it got more good when a car came along and the driver stopped and stuck his head out the window and asked if everything was alright. I wasn’t sure if his concern was in reference to the fact that my bike was upside down at the side of the road as I tried to replace the wheel or to the fact that my girlfriend was clambering out of a ditch but either way I assured him that we were really both alright and in actual fact quite happy.
The man’s name was Ben and he lived in a farmhouse just down the road, and he was off to buy the Saturday morning paper. Having done a bit of cycle touring himself in the past he asked if we would like to come and have some breakfast with him and his family, and of course we accepted the invitation with great gusto. And happiness.
It was another five kilometres to Ben’s front gate, memorable only for one moment of excitement when Dea spotted a kangaroo with a little joey in her pouch. At the gate Ben was sitting in his car waiting for us. He suggested we leave the bikes here and jump in his car for the drive up to his house. That being an absurd suggestion I of course told him we’d rather cycle. “It’s three kilometres!” he exclaimed. An impressive driveway, to be sure, but not an insurmountable distance after cycling 46,000 kilometres halfway around the world. I always find it a little strange that people assume we should wish to use other forms of transportation for detours, or when stopped in a town or something, but, no, actually, we really do just quite like cycling.
And the ride up to Ben’s house was really rather nice too as the road wound its way up through grassy hills dotted with trees. Lovely scenery that sadly Ben would reveal all belongs to a big mining company. In amongst it all was Ben’s fine old farmhouse where we were soon introduced to his wife and two young children. Also staying were his wife’s parents who were stopping by after collecting a 90-year-old great grandma, who remained in defiantly good spirits despite suffering with a recent broken arm. And so we had four generations of one family altogether in this one house, something which would have been par for the course in most parts of Asia, but which seemed like a really special rarity in the Western world.
Ben’s young son showed us around the property, introducing us to a chicken, a horse, a parrot, and a puppy. In exchange we showed him our own collection of cuddly animals, which resulted in a rather traumatic experience for our beloved Karen. Meanwhile, Ben had prepared us a breakfast of bacon and eggs and we reconvened on the old wooden back porch to eat and to talk. They were such lovely people. I asked Ben what he did for work. He looked sheepish and sounded almost apologetic as he explained that he worked on the environmental side of the new fracking project occurring nearby. As we would see over the next days the mines and the fracking were issues which brought a lot of anger and division to these lands.
What was without doubt was that these were kind and generous people and this was emphatically highlighted when Ben thrust a camping stove into my hands as we prepared to leave. We’d mentioned that we’d been without one since ours gave up on us, and we had been unable to find a replacement as Australia no longer permitted the sale of the type we were after. Ben’s gift was incredibly generous and incredibly welcome. No longer would we need to dine on cold sandwiches.
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Just after noon we returned to our cycling and, with the end of our back road, had to join the main road to Gloucester. Fortunately the traffic was not too bad and with it being a beautiful sunny day there was little to worry about. My biggest challenge, in fact, was fending off a persistent magpie which flew menacingly above me and swooped upon me several times:
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With the magpie behind me we made it to Gloucester at which time the beautiful sunny day disappeared and was replaced instead with drizzling rain. I guessed that this had something to do with Dr Foster. But what was good about being in Gloucester was that we could go to the supermarket and, being so excited about all the delicious food we could cook now that we had a stove, we bought considerably more than we really needed or could carry.
Beyond Gloucester the rain immediately ceased and we had a bit of a hill to climb, although the lookout from the top was worth the effort involved. Then it was soon time to find somewhere to camp but this once again proved difficult. We were on a small quiet road but this time fences lined one side and a railway line was on the other. With no suitable ditches we rode along wondering what we could do until it was almost dark, and then decided our best option was to settle for a copse of small trees that were between the road and the railway. Annoyingly the only flat ground here was within spitting distance of the train tracks.
While I set up the tent Dea set to work with our new stove making a dinner with noodles and vegetables and tofu. It was delicious – like Asian food but without being too spicy. It was a really nice night and we lay outside next to each other and watched the stars and were once again happy. It was a beautiful night. A peaceful night. A night to lie under the stars and be with your girl and feel the serenity. But then a train came along roaring along and was very loud and ruined the serenity.
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 46,465 km (28,855 miles)
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