Australia and Vanuatu Islands by Daniele Somenzi

Australia and Vanuatu Islands Donato 2007 posted by iviaggididaniele [13/08/2007 11:40]

We are at this moment in Charleville. The mayor of this town hosts us in his house — it's an honour for him (so he says) — and a big barbecue awaits us. But let's start from where we left off. After visiting the pinnacles of Cervantes in Western Australia, driving and driving we entered the state of South Australia, where in Adelaide — a lovely little town, home of the Formula 1 Grand Prix until a few years ago — I, Daniele, unfortunately got a fine for illegal parking. Here if you slip up, you pay straight away, but nothing serious; the problem was solved immediately. A 50 Australian dollar note solved the problem. Australian dollars aren't paper but plastic, so if you forget them in your pocket in the washing machine, they don't bleach.

(A thank-you note to Marzio Pelu, who informed the Italian-language Australian newspaper in Melbourne about our raid.) We were published in Il Globo, read by thousands of Italian Australians, and maybe, who knows, we've become a tiny bit famous here too in the land of kangaroos. The first days we found rain, but since then and until now, no more. From Adelaide to the remote little town of only 100 inhabitants, the road is dirt and the attention while driving is doubled, but we were even more immersed in nature. Luck willed that 3 nights ago we witnessed the total lunar eclipse. The stars, thanks to the total darkness in the sky, offered us a unique spectacle! In the evening in the tent, or in the campsite or in the open bush, Donato, with his little DVD video player, showed me some films, at least so we wouldn't fall asleep early.

Federico is the name of this guy from Turin whom we met along our route; the fearless one is travelling the Oodnadatta Road by bicycle, from Adelaide to Ayers Rock — we wish him a good journey. In the morning we find ourselves surrounded by kangaroos, which as soon as they see us run off hopping away. We also met a road train of 4 trucks for a total of about 60 metres, but never like the train that carries coal from Leigh Creek to Adelaide, the longest in the southern hemisphere: it passed in front of us and never ended, with its 158 wagons for a total length of 2.8 km. A couple of times we stopped on the road to chase big lizards that didn't want to be photographed. From time to time we also stop to play billiards in the roadhouses found here and there along the road... sometimes they are. Here we are at the usual appointment with the updates on the Australia raid.

Given that I have been to Australia already 15 times and this is the sixteenth, I know it very well; I have visited places that not even Australians know, like Windham or Cununurra, surrounded by freshwater crocodiles. Every time I ask an Australian where they're from, they answer with the name of the region — like, I'm from Queensland or from Victoria — but to my more specific question they tell me Near Melbourne or near Brisbane, but I insist, I want to know the exact name of the city or town, and regularly, after getting the answer, I reply with a "Ha, I've been there". But let's get back to our raid. After Charleville, a wonderful place where we also attended Catholic holy mass with the mayor, who hosted us for a night. Here in Australia too we've become famous, given the two articles done by the Italian daily Il Globo.

We're already in Queensland, the region where the scenes of the film "The Thorn Birds" were shot, and the birthplace of Steve Irwin, the famous Australian documentary-maker who handled every kind of animal, insect and fish, and who died 2 years ago after being stung by a stingray in the sea. Here there were almost state funerals for him. As soon as we left Charleville, at eight in the morning, on the road a little family of kangaroos greets us by hopping, but unfortunately the hundreds of their peers lying at the roadside, seen throughout the trip, weren't equally happy: during the night, with the headlights of cars and trucks, they no longer move, and BOOOMMM. Arriving in Brisbane, after days and days in the open bush in tents, we get ourselves back in shape and prepare for 5 days of relaxation in the Vanuatu islands, 3 hours' flight in the Pacific.

There are no longer the lockers in the airport where you could leave locked suitcases — Bin Laden has banned them. We're forced to carry all our baggage, including the 2 mattresses, onto the Virgin Pacific flight. At this moment Donato and I are on our fifth day in Vanuatu, the day of departure for the return to Australia, to Brisbane. We've discovered that there's a market here in Port Vila (the capital) where they sell fruit and fish 24/7; in fact three quarters of the local people come from the other small islands of the archipelago and sleep on the ground behind their sales counter. Just half an hour ago Donato and I thus decided to give our 2 mattresses to 2 of them; those mattresses are certainly more useful here than to us, also because for the remaining days of our raid in Australia we'll sleep in small hotels.

But let's talk about these fabulous Vanuatu islands from the tourist's eye: besides the helicopter ride over the volcano on the island of Tanna, here you can do excursions and tours for a whole week. We did a 4-hour jungle tour with quads, four-wheeled motorbikes, then went up a river by canoe with crystal-clear water, visited blue waterfalls with formidable vegetation. The people here are very friendly and on the street everyone greets you. On the neighbouring island the inhabitants of Vanuatu throw themselves from a height with their feet tied to 2 vines, the original bungee jumping, except they don't use elastic cords. The sea is crystal clear and full of corals; yesterday Donato and I dived with tanks, and what we saw is incredible: fish of a thousand colours in 28-degree water, barracuda and turtles. Here there's the only post office in the world with a letterbox.

I too went down to post one to my friend Vicini of Casalmaggiore. These postcards have the stamp printed on and the ink doesn't come off even underwater. Conclusion: the Vanuatu islands are much more beautiful and hospitable than the other islands I have visited, like Fiji, Micronesia, New Caledonia etc. Here they make electricity with wind turbines and respect nature, there are many embassies, even the Italian consul is Mrs Teresa. Around twenty Italians live here and have various businesses. But now I'll leave you, in a little while we're going to the airport for the 3 p.m. flight to Brisbane; the next one will be the last chapter of this journey. Completely scattered, hundreds of km from the nearest town. The tour is over, the motorbikes have been perfect.

Donato and I are in Brisbane at the container ship port, where we packed and shipped the motorbikes in the container in which they'll arrive after 1 month in Livorno, Italy — let's hope not a month late as happened last year from China. A brief summary of the 9950 km done. The most beautiful parts: when in the desert outback we camped wild outside the campsites, Donato brought with him an instrument I had never used on my trips; in the evening in the dark in the tent we watched video discs with a DVD player with a small screen. For the duration of the film we weren't in Australia, but then the sounds of crickets and night birds reminded us that we were in the land of the platypus. On dirt roads you have to keep a certain distance, so as not to be hit by stones flung by the wheel of the motorbike in front; fortunately the kangaroos kept away from us, thus avoiding ruinous falls.

But they're rascals, because they only come out at night onto the road.