Blog

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men   We were being buffeted by winds. Sometimes, it was all I could do to just stay upright. As has been said, the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry. Our plans went awry today. We wound up taking an entirely new route. We headed […]

We packed early to try and beat the winds, but by 7 AM, the wind was back full force. Our most welcoming hosts in Matakohe (AKA Pooh Corner on WarmShowers.org.) volunteered to drive us to Ruawai, 20 km down the road. As that section would be directly into the 30 mph howling winds, I gladly […]

Perth to Fremantle Via the Swan River   Perth is a bustling city of over 2 million the largest city in Western Oz  (I’m not sure why but Aussie’s fondly refer to their country as Oz). Within this city, it seemed every major street was under construction. This part of Oz is jumpin’ economically as […]

When I recovered from my cancer bout, there were a few things on my bucket list that I set out to do. First was getting my scuba diving certification. The problem with bucket lists items is that they are fun, addictive, and one typically leads to five more. This is the case with diving. I […]

The outback is huge, red, dusty, harsh and sharp. Every plant seems to poke you or have thorns, bugs bite me, huge lizards scurry in front of my bike wheels and scare me, snakes slither across the dust, yet I love it.  Riding is so hot that it has to be limited to the morning […]

Ray is a man, and he has some man habits that are very different from mine, like communication or better put, lack thereof. It took me a while to understand why we had to get to this place until Ray explained that to him, if a place is hard to get to, it makes it […]

Ray had a plan he had not shared with me. He wanted to see the northwest corner of Australia.  That was 1000+ kilometers from where we were.  That was also only reached by travelling red dirt roads.  In one day, we drove 1000 kilometers of teeth rattling, bone jarring washboard red roads scraped from the […]

Ray worked here in Western Australia for three years, retiring a week before we met. His was the construction project manager for a huge liquefied natural gas plant located in the northwest corner of the outback. Ray, like the other employees, lived in a very remote camp. Although he worked here, he had not had […]

The sheer size and vastness of the outback is hard to describe. Kilometer after kilometer rolls by. With its flat, endless horizon, the foreign flora and fauna, the red dust, it might as well be Mars. On a very personal note, this trip has been beyond amazing. It is like living “The Wild Kingdom.” Or […]

At the three day check-up with the PA, we told him of our travel plans, a 5 week 1000+ mile bike trip, and he said “Go Ahead”!(really is a PA as good as a real doctor? I am really questioning this guy, but he said go…) Ray can’t raise his arm above his waist and […]