we're in hippy country now. n it's awesum. you bee totly jealus

Got a bit of extra time so I'll update some more bits and pieces...

We're staying at Winter's Flat Primary School in Castlemaine at the moment. It's a really nice little school with a really awesome community feel about it. I got a really good feeling from when we very first arrived (well, after the information centre which served [as I've discovered is typical] a usual blend of disinterest and patronising, but hey, if you're after a cheesy postcard and a map...)

I think this may be the town where hippies come to breed. Seen lotsa tattooed parents walking round with trailing children in multicoloured toweling pants, had someone ask me what brand my panniers are and have had a few people just approach us and ask us what we're doing – general, open friendliness in an everyday way. Also free interwebs at the (very populated) library, which had a bunch of bikes out the front. Annnd easily found a spunky little organic, fair trade cafe with lots of vegan options. Way to find the way to my heart :)

Then this school! When we got here, the kids were doing bike riding lessons, and they have a giant chess set, and had a kid speak over the PA about the chess club (mini indication of empowerment!) And when we performed yesterday, for our second primary school presentation (years 4-6), they were really engaged, had heaps of answers and suggestions in the “any ideas for ways to save water?” section, and a bunch of them even put up there hands to answer at the end when Kate (Julia) asks our rhetorical question “if you could be the change you wanted to see in the world, what would you do?” Squee! They also have a community class here, which is multi-aged (I'm sure there's a better way of saying that), and has a curriculum worked out by the parents, who also help do some of the teaching I think. Still haven't clarified exactly how it works but it sounds really interesting. This place and these kids make me want to be a teacher! It's nicer performing to younger kids because they don't have the “too cool to give a shit about the world” attitude that year nines and up tend to have, though some of the stats are lost on them, and it has been really awesome performing to older kids too, especially those that you can really see it getting through to.

Needless to say, I'm feeling quite wholesome. Not super buff, no, but feeling fitter and more able – 30km sounds like nothing to us now and our second last ride of 17km is going to be breezy. Saskia's generally been behaving. No flat tyres yet, cushy seat still doing it's thing. The mud guards are kind of annoying me, and the kick stand is shitting me to tears (nice imagery innit?) because it keeps coming loose and letting her fall over, but I'm still very much feeling the bike love and would love to have future adventures with her. There's already some scheming going on with some of the crew planning on doing a cycle tour of Tassie combined with WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms work – what I'm planing on doing after I get back to Smelbs), which sounds quite appealing. So the fact I'm even considering something like that is a good indication of the bike touring experience I guess!

A highlight recently was seeing a sign saying “You have been guerilla gardened” at the Ararat Community College! Turns out their science teacher had read about guerilla gardening in a Science Teachers journal (?!!), talked to the kids about it, who got captured by it, so they came in at night time as a class and gardened an abandoned part of garden in the centre of the school! So random and awesome!

Another highlight was getting out to an Aboriginal Rock Art site on our day off in Stawell. The site's called Bunjil's Cave and is a painting of the creation spirit for that area and much of (now) Victoria. It was very cool to get to see some ancient rock art. I've been really keen on getting up to the Burrup Peninsula to see the art up there that Woodside is busy destroying, so it was awesome to get to see some while travelling. The art hasn't been dated, or at least they don't say the age in any of the information – I have the impression that it probaly has been dated but the local mob didn't want to put a superficial Western time scale date on it. It was cool to be able to relate to why they'd chosen it as a significant site though, however old it is. The area had these amazing boulders everywhere and looks out over a valley. Definitely made up for the 4km along a corrugated dirt track to get there!

I should also give an update on Anna, I felt bad that I had to quickly brush over that! So the lovely Anna fell off her bike a few days ago 10km into our 90km ride. She fell onto her face and has a lot of bruising and had to get taken to the hospital in an ambulance, but the bone isn't fractured afterall, and the only lasting damage is a chipped tooth. Unfortunately she's gone home to Adelaide to recover though, so we're all just really hoping we get to see her again before or at the end of the tour.

Hmm, so what's been crappy..should porbably mention that in case people are worried the cyncic has left me...Well, riding along highways is awesome in many ways, but crappy in the sense that you have to breathe shite loads of car fumes when they pass. There's also the sheep trucks which never cease to depress me, and all the litter in some areas. I can't believe the sort of litter either, I have no idea how some of it get's there. The road kill is a pretty persistent horrible aspect too, because you really see weverything up close. Brings on thecar hate. It's been crazy seeing how dry the landis too, the drought over here is pretty intense. But then again, the general population also has a much better drought consciousness, far more than i've noticed in Perth. Other than that stuff, it's all good. Only I've been eating too much, but hey, whose fault is that? :p Have been missing people a bit lately, not intensely, and I wouldn't want to be anywehere else, but it would also be nice to be in Perth for a night and see some of y'all. Felt strange to not be at Casey's 21st the other night, and knowing I'll miss a bunch of 21sts this year is a bit sad.

Ok time run out again, so will sign out, but here's a picture of us swimming in Hall's Gap. In retrospect it look's like we're naked, but we're not. There was a skinny dip plan later but it got too cold :p

safe n trundling on my tredley

hey kids
not going to back-blog and catch up from where I left off, but just wanted to priopritise and let everyone know I'm doing ok and haven't been affected by the fires. There was one burning about 70km away on the really bad Saturday when we were staying in Halls Gap in the Grampians, and that was a bit worrying (given our lack of support vehicle..and that we were surrounded by big trees for kilometres around), but it didn't move closer. So, safe n sound, and none of the towns we'll be going through have been directly effected either as we're mostly in the West of Vic and they were mostly eastern.

The fires have hit home to me a lot more than the ones 3 years back, which I thought sounded terrible and everything, but didn't seem quite real or tangible. But now I can really imagine the communities they've effected, and have ridden through areas effected by the last ones, and heard what it was like being a town over from those ones (not being able to see you hand in front of you from the smoke), and met an awesome woman who we hung out with for a few nights, whose uncle lost his whole family in Marysville. It's just a lot more real, shocking, and sad.

Can't believe Bolt and other right winger's are taking it as a chance to sledge "the greenies", but not all that suprising I guess, given past patterns.

ok moving on, only got a really short time left on the computer.
In Castlemaine right now, seems like a funky little town, nice people, bikes. We arrived a few hours ago, rode 50km from Marysboough.
So far gone...Smelbs->Geelong->Winchelsea->Colac->Camperdown->Warrnambool->Portland->Hamilton->Dunkeld->Halls Gap->Stawell->Ararat->Marysborough->Castlemaine.
Next stops are...umm.. Bendigo->Kyneton->Woodend->Smelbs..and I thibnk I've forgotten one town but whatever, you probably don't know where I'm talking about anyway :)

So...it's really amped up since I last wrote. We've done way more schools and had a much busier schedule, which has actually been in some ways more energising rather than exhausting. Had some really awesome responses, from all different sorts of age groups (we presented to year 5's and 6's yesterday!), who respond to different aspects of the play and workshops.


ok really really have to run. But otherupdate is that we've lost 2 of our team members. Anna fell off her bike a few days ago and has had to go hometo Adelaide, which is really sad, but should hopefully visit us again before the end of the tour. Be has had to leave us, as we knew she would, too. It's funny how much yuou feel 2 people, or even one, in a gorpu of 14 but you really do feel their absence.
But, I'm doing well and lovin it, as a conclusion! Here's a snapshot of the beautiful things we see each ride...complete with bushfire fluorescent red/orange sun

2 weeks into riding

So..harlo...
Had very limited access to computers but we've been generously allowed to use the computers at the school we've just presented at in Hamilton so will try to get a few things down…

Am feeling my standard level of exhaustion at the moment – our average schedule is get up 4.30am-ish, leave 5.30 or 6, ride the 30-100 kilometers until the next town in groups of 4 or 5, then chill out, work on workshops or whatever, find a nice little café or just nap. Then the next day doing school or community presentations or both (in the form of our “humorous theatrical skit”), then pack up after the second night and head out to the next town. It’s pretty intense but will only get more intense as more schools are back now.


Just for the record, yes I am just as sexy, buff and tanned as you expected I'd be coming out of this trip.

The trip so far
Tuesday 20th 30km riding around Smelbs, send off party with a great little representative body of WAliens. Was really nice to have Grace, Ania, Daniel, Ben, Jesse, and Jess all come down. Would’ve felt a bit weird being sent off by a bunch of strangers and was an awesome little end to a week of hanging out in Melbourne with people I hang out with all the time in perth – as strange as it was to just migrate across the country to do it

Wednesday 21st first 5.30 start, left Ange’s In Footscray, caught the train out to Weribee then started the tour properly, rode 42km to Geelong. I survived. This made me happeh. I wasn’t last. This comforted me. Found the group supportive and fun, and the weight not too overwhelming and only really noticeable on hills. Went to Geelong beach, was a relief to swim, did a performance in a funky little pub to the Geelong Sustainability Group (who started up out of a GetUp meeting) then stayed in a Guide Hall that night.

Thursday 22nd Day off in Geelong. Sleeping until 9am is being called a sleep in. ?! I’m slowly getting used to it! Had a day working on workshops, hanging out at the beach, and searching out a newspaper to read Obama’s speech (thank feck for that! EVEN if it’s all rhetoric, and there’s the Ruidd effect of the apology, followed bvy a pathetic 5% emissions reduction target, which I cynically reminded Mum, at least it’s a starting point of good rhetoric and not Bush or Howard rhetoric.)

Friday 23rd Geelong to Winchelsea, 38km. Took a trailer. Died a little but survived, despite repetitive hills. Our presence brought the town’s population up to 1350. Was the town I was in charge of organising.. It’s also the town from which the rabbit plague in Australia started (some tool wanted rabbits to hunt! Go team). Stayed at the Scout Hall.

Saturday 24th Winchelsea. Funniest outing yet – a few of us heard about a “Barn Dance” on that night and went to check it out. One of the most ridiculous nights I’ve had – picture a room of sixty 60-70 year olds, doing fox trot, three step, etc, enter seven 20 somethings, no ability to dance, who’d be just as happy at the pub across the road. But it was awesome! They showed us the dances and if I may say so, a few of us kicked arse at the Chicago Swing (which may or may not have been the easiest dance). Had Devonshire tea with milk milked that morning by one of the guys there. Saturday nights out in Winshelsea J! No husbands found, but not for not trying. We became the highlight and got waved out when we left early because we had to get up the next day to ride! Am I still hard core?

Sunday 25th Winchelsea to Colac, 36km. Stayed at a scout hall with an amazing view over their famous lake, which was dried out (first time in 20 years or something). Go global warming, go go. The cold shower helped me practice the “staggered shower” method our play tells kids to use, which I’ve done since, so..well no, a hot shower still would have been awesome. Practiced some “urban gleaning” (dumpstering) with J-train (as I’ll refer to her having not checked it’s ok to mention her by nameJ), which all the group was cool with, which is both surprising and amazing given the variety in the group.

This day by day thing is getting boring to read I’m sure...think I’ll persist out of stubbornness but hopefully I’ll get to interesting stuff soon…but cumawn, a barn dance?!

Monday 26th Colac, Day off. Ausvasion Day – went to Forrest, a small town out of Colac. Went op shopping, had a walk. I was very hesitant to go given it was a citizenship ceremony and I wouldn’t be able to deal with the flag waving, but it turned out to be quite cool, well, in a strange sort of way. There was a huige Sudanese community there, so it was kind of nice to see people looking happy about becoming citizens and that act7ually being an option for themn, even if the community is largely based there because it provides cheap labour for the abbatoir from what I’ve heard. But yes, there was a welcome to country form a local elder, and yes, there waere heinous plastic gflags, but they were of both the blue/white/red variety and the black/yellow/red variety, so that was surpising and quite cool. And then their little café they had running for the day not only had soy milk, but had fair trade organic coffee, and were peddling it in a little country town, very cool. Would have been awesome to be at the Tent Embassy in Canberra to support the mob there, or to have experienced the surreal access to a high rise building in perth to watch the fireworks, but was still happy to be in the little scout hall, playing cards and trying to get to sleep so we could get up early again.

Tuesday 27th Colac to Camperdown 46km. Amazing sun rise as we rode, with mist everywhere, listening to Bright Eyes ‘I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning’. It’s been mostly farming country that we’ve been through so in general it hasn’t been thaaat pretty, but it really was beautiful that morning. It’s funny riding past cows, they stare at you as much as the locals. Moved on to Bowie then Talking Heads, went surprisingly well :p. The other awesome part about the ride was that the whole highway route was lined with Bush Plums (or something like that, we ate them and didn’t die and they were like small plums), and there were apple trees, and some fennel. It was like someone had guerrilla gardened the princes Highway for us! I made crumble out of the plums. I feel wholesome. We were staying at Camperdown showgrounds which was a little bit hellish – it was a 42 degree day and we were in a big tin shed in a big dry grassy field. But that night 5 of us didn’t end up sleeping there that night anyway, because J-train had suggested we get up early and see the sunrise from the lookout behind the showgrounds, which I thought was a little bit crazy talk on a our day off so cynically said I’d rather sleep out there that night, which Be thought was an awesome idea. So we rode up there and slept out under the stars. It was so beautiful! We took a stove up and woke up, had some tea and watched an amazing sunrise! How’s this for an ad for my sneakers? Adbusters/Crimethinc would be pleased…

Ok have to go…but that’s a pretty huge update. So much more to say, nevermind the other days’ catching up! Argh…

So,
- arse not too sore, but getting there!
- The group is awesome, niche-ing up a little, but that’s cool, really connecting with some people
- Longest day has been and gone
- Probably the shite-est day (42 degree heat and one of the women getting hospitalised from heat exhaustion) been and gone
- First school presentation passed the test
- The original play passed the Grace hazing test, whose more cynical than me, so felt better after that :p
- Being really inspired by small things like fair trade coffee shops in small country towns, the incredible generosity of people, and loving the unexpected adventures

In the words of Mr Bowie
“I am happeh, hope you’re happeh too..”

Nice living day to day