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“Now I remembered that the real world was wide and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils:
- Jane Eyre

Boating and Biking to the Southern Hemisphere

Rob Lilwall
2007-12-01 15:03:42

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www.cyclinghomefromsiberia.com

Islands hopped: 10
Years lived: 29 !
Current Location: Vanimo, Papua New Guinea

"Now I remembered that the real world was wide and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils:
- Jane Eyre

"Papua is the Siberia of Indonesia"
-Javanese saying, Periplus Travel Guide to Indonesia

After all the researching, waiting, sailing and charity work, I was finally now ready to continue the long, complicated course to Australia via the strung out chains of the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Riding the tropical, sweaty islands south from Manila was a slightly stressful experience. Firstly, it was noisy. I shared the road with impatient truck drivers who made good use of their horns whenever they performed outrageously dangerous maneuvers (virtually the whole time). Smog clouded the air, whilst traffic jams sometimes went on for several kilometers. Caught behind one particularly stationary jam, I got off and pushed my bike along the verge in an effort to progress. After walking at least 3 km, I eventually spied the cause of this great hold up ? it was a badly parked police car which blocked a whole lane of traffic (I had seen the policemen further back trying to keep the traffic moving!).

The other bad experiences I had in the Philippines (to get them out of the way), were:
1. The pessimists who chilled my imagination with their warnings that I would most likely be robbed, kidnapped or murdered (or all three) if I ventured through the bad-press Muslim majority Island of Mindanao (needless to say, this island actually turned out to be very friendly in my experience).
2. The day I was ill and had to lie feverishly on the floor of a ferry terminal feeling decidedly sorry for myself. It is never nice being ill, ...