When you ride the 3900km from Perth to Sydney, or 4400km Darwin to Perth, along the highway, you tend to spend all day in the saddle, day after day. Making distance, consistent velocity in your clip-ons. No time, or inclination, for much else other than turning those pedals.
That’s Destination Travel. You just happen to travel through territory on your way to somewhere else. The objective is to be somewhere other than where you are.
Maybe proving something to someone. I hope they care.
There’s a great alternative type of travel. That other path is where the journey becomes the destination. Not 5 weeks but 5 months on, or off, the main roads.
Or 12 months.
For those who want a little adventure there’s plenty of unsealed roads to explore.
At 15km/hour you see the nuances, the changes, the rocks, the cloud formations, or their absence.
What happens when you strike off the main roads?
For a start it takes a change in mentality. Stop and get off the bike occasionally. Climb that hillock for a view. Chat to the curious locals. Explore that abandoned car or old railway ruin. Check out the raucous birds at a waterhole.
The landscape seems much closer. The scorched earth policy along many highways nukes everything within 50m of the asphalt. The shrubbery eventually grows back but the highway landscape is as natural as Tuscany.
On unsealed roads the graders might come through once a year after the rains. The roadside is often less devastated by machinery.
That means more opportunity to see wildlife.
There’s less traffic, much less traffic. Hooray!
And with no white line to channel a passing vehicle they tend to give you a wider berth.
But the corrugations, the dust, the heat?
Corrugations are for the 4WDers and their off-road caravans. On your bike you only need 6 inches of hard surface and it’s rare that those little waves are fully across the road. One side or the other is generally clear. With not much traffic you can spend 70% of the time on the right, (wrong), side of the road. Or up the bank.
The occasional dust cloud, a small price. Usually there’s a breeze which dissipates the haze and swapping sides of the road avoids the fog.
The heat? Pioneers lived out here without air conditioning. Wear a hat and long sleeves. Up near 40ºC? Sit under a tree to avoid the worst of it. And lay down for a while for a siesta.
Get used to it.
Bored out there?
Nah. Never.
Never came close. Not even in the most desolate country.
Specially not in the not-much-around landscapes.
