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“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires? - Nelson Mandela

Voyage to a wealthy land, a cyclone and a haircut

Rob Lilwall
2007-12-01 15:16:47

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www.cyclinghomefromsiberia.com

Km cycled: 17,900
Current Location: Byron Bay, Australia

"There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires? - Nelson Mandela

"Australia is by far the driest, smallest, flattest, most infertile, climatically most unpredictable, biologically most impoverished Continent? - Jared Diamond
For most of February I once again had to play the waiting game ? this time from within barbed expatriate compounds in the ill reputed capital city of Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby). Little smoke fires dot the barren hillsides amidst the shambled slums and posh brick houses along a beautiful coastline of palm studded beaches; cars drive around lazily; local people squat and sit on street corners chewing "beetlenut? (the unanimously popular local soft drug which turns your teeth red). This could be such a pleasant, relaxed city ? like a Cape Town of the East ? but (due to violent crime) it is actually one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and that spoilt it completely.
And all the while the Coral Sea lay waiting before me. It spread southwards on and on, churning and straining like an endless horizon until at last, out of sight, it touched the living cliffs of Australia. Since I had touched down in remote eastern Russia a year and a half previously I had aimed to go all the way to Australia (and eventually England) without flying any of the route (I made up this rule on the basis that flying is rather expensive and just a bit too easy). I had cycled the undulating landscapes of Siberia and Asia (catching ferries across the sea where necessary) as far as Hong Kong, and then proceeded to hitch hike on yachts and cargo ships, island hopping through the Philippines, Indonesia and New Guinea. So far (rather to my surprise) my plan had worked, and now all I had to do was find a ...