NQ 2 NT Journal Entry
The final wrap up
By: Mark “Sharky” Smoothy
I arrived home to Brisbane Saturday night at 6pm. My good mate Russel Wilson was kind enough to collect Scotty, Kimmy and myself from the airport and transport us and our four bike boxes back to my home in Darra. Kevy parted ways from us at the airport and the separation just did not feel right. I miss my buddy Kev already. At my home Kimmy collected her car, she was keen to sleep in her own wonderful-slumber-inviting bed tonight. We held each other for a long time; I couldn’t thank her enough for what she had sacrificed for me these past three weeks. In that short space of time we had re-kindled the closeness that we used to have many years ago. I feel ashamed now that we had actually lost it for a time. Kim took Scotty with her as he lives at Mt Cosby, which is on the way to Toowoomba.
My friends are now gone and for the first time in over a month I am alone and I do not like it. I ring my sister Kay, no answer, I leave a message. I ring my beautiful parents, mum answers and I start to cry. Mum of course is worried; I explain that it is just the emotion of the past month catching up with me. In reality I am feeling a bit sorry for my stupid sad self. I hate being alone. For one month each year I am surrounded by the most incredible family of friends in this whole entire beautiful but at times painful world. The first day back is always the hardest. Dad gets on the phone next and we talk man stuff, football, the grand final is tomorrow. Dad donated $100.00 two days ago and asked that it be in recognition of what Kevvy and Kimmy did for Scotty and me. I thank him but words can’t express my gratitude. $100.00 is a lot of money for my parents and I am humbled by their generosity.
I sit here before this keyboard once again, for the last time for this year, and this journey has now come to an end. I have lots to catch up on now and reality is biting hard at the moment. I yearn for the big wide open spaces of the country, the smiles of all the bewildered locals that we meet along the way, the laughing and mischievous jokes from our unbelievable road crew in Kevo, Kimo, Shano and Gordo. I yearn for the wind that whistles past our ears as we ride and we ride and we ride, for what seems like forever, looking for that piece of land that we never seem to be able to reach. I even yearn for the suffering of the long hot dry and dusty days, where lips, mouths and throats are parched and stuck like glue as each sip of soup warm water unsuccessfully attempts to pry them apart any longer than a few minutes at a time. I yearn for my Smiddy mates, and this I know is coming when I get to see them all at our celebration dinner in early November. This thought is enough to bring a smile to my face and on that note I promised you guy’s one last journal entry for 2009 and here it is.
Well as you know I like to tell you a little about each place that we stay in. What can I tell you about Darwin that you do not already know? We all know that Darwin was totally destroyed by Cyclone Tracey on Christmas morning in 1974. But did you know that if you go to the ‘Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory’, which is located on the water at the suburb of Fannie Bay, that you can listen to a live sound recording in a darkened sound booth that Father Dixon took as he sat out the cyclone as his recording studio was torn apart around him. I was in the booth by myself, it holds about 20 people and the affect it had on me was one of great sadness and overwhelming fear. No person should ever have to go through something as horrifying as that. I was a bit emotional when I entered the booth due to the past 24 days of riding, and when I walked out of the booth I had tears in my eyes and a new respect and admiration for the people of Darwin. 65 Australian’s lost their lives that night, of that 65 there were 16 lives lost at sea. The winds were so amazingly strong that there was enough force in the gusts to pick up cars and deposit them blocks away from their original position. At Fannie Bay there was a stable of dozens of horses, each and every one of these poor animals were lifted by the winds into the sea and drowned. The museum is well worth a visit just for the Tracey exhibition but of course there is a lot more to see in crusty old stuffed animals, including the infamous ‘Sweetheart’, a 20 foot crocodile that was accidently killed while being moved from the waters around Darwin.
The other thing you may not know about is the oil tunnels that were built to protect the stores of oil needed during the WWII years. Before you enter this massive and astounding structure you have the option of sitting and listening to Eric tell the whole incredible story of the tunnels. Eric has been in Darwin for the past 27 years, and has worked at these tunnels for the past five years. Eric is in his early 60’s and what he does not know about WWII and these tunnels is not worth knowing about. I will leave you with some interesting facts on the tunnels. There are eight tunnels in total, although only two are open to the public, another three are for secret stuff, and the other three are known to exist but they are not telling you anything about them. I suspect those three are hiding under the nearby Government house and that is where they store all their Jacob’s Creek supplies... Must be that hey? The tunnels total a massive 673 metres long, by 4.5mtrs wide and 5.4mtrs high. By the time they were semi-finished the war was over and because of continual leaks from underground water they were actually never used for the purpose intended. The amazing thing about the tunnels is that no machinery or explosives were used to make them. The man hours and the estimated cost blew out by millions of dollars and in the end they were sealed up before they were even finished. Eric told us that in today’s dollar value they would have cost 130 million dollars to build. Heck of a lot of money to build for rats to have somewhere to play. It was not until 1992 that they were re-opened as part of the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin. Definitely one of the highlights of what to see when in Darwin.
Which brings me to my final bit of trivia on Darwin; everyone around the world knows the history of the Pearl Habour attack. But did you know that Darwin, not long after the Pearl attack, (10 weeks) 110 tonnes of bombs were dropped on Darwin and surrounding coastal and inland towns by the same Japanese planes that attacked Pearl Habour. This is a third more bombs than what was used in the Pearl attack. 250 people lost their lives that day and hundreds more injured. Yet it was all down-played and the whole thing was shushed up by the American and Australian governments, and for what reason? We were not told as Eric was unsure himself. But I will say it loud and clear here, that Darwinians are a hardy lot and I take my hat off to them.
There is just so much to see and do while in Darwin that I would need to write a book, so it would be best if you just get on your bike and duplicate our trip and then you can see it all for yourself! But seriously there is so much history, amazing beauty and the most friendly locals, that it is worthy of a holiday in itself.
We also paid a visit to the Fannie Bay Goal, opened in 1883; last hanging took place in 1952, closed in 1979 and now an eerie reminder of the antiquated incredibly rough living quarters provided for those unfortunate to be committed there for even the most minor of crimes. If only we had more time we would have liked to visit the local crocodile park, the botanical gardens, Government House, Lyons Cottage, built in 1925 and made of Stone. While we did miss out on all these and more we did get to go to the famous Mindil Beach Sunset Markets on the Thursday evening. With 1200 different menu items and hundreds of stalls selling everything imaginable, the idea is to get there early before sunset, take your own drinks, buy your favourite food, grab a spot on the sandy beach and watch the sun set into the ocean. A sight you only get to witness on the west coast of Australia and of course here in Darwin.
For us Thursday was our tourist day and Friday was clean up and pack up day. Everything on board our ‘Beast’ had to be dried out and cleaned and sorted. A lot of our equipment, sleeping bags, tents, containers, esky, utensils and everything imaginable for camping are left behind in storage at Darwin. Tony Munn has kindly let us pallet it all up and it is now being stored on the highest shelf at their LMG Bottlemart warehouse for the continuation of our journey to Broome next year. This saves us having to transport equipment from Brisbane each year and after the Smiddy ride next year it is just a matter of catching a flight to Darwin, pick up the 4WD, collect our gear, do a grocery shop and we are on our way to Broome.
We took time out from our packing at lunchtime to go to lunch with Tony. Who had kindly invited us to join him for a brilliant feed at the Sailing Club, and of course there was a Bottlemart attached to it. The view across the dazzling white sandy beach and habour was mesmerising and while the waters looked incredibly inviting, the signs warning of ‘injury or death’ -both of which are frightening- from marine stingers or crocs meant no swimming for this Shark! The hospitality that Tony has shown us since we arrived has been above and beyond the call of what one would hopefully expect from a sponsor. In reality Tony and our group of three had, in a short space of time, become friends. We have invited Tony to join us as a road crew member for next year, as with his friendly and fun and easy going personality, plus the fact that he believes in what we are trying to achieve with regards to the charity side of the ride, he is a natural candidate. Tony has managed to raise over $1000 already on our behalf and fully expects more to come prior to the end of October. Thank you so much Tony. We can definitely see why you are the man responsible for keeping the Bottlemart outlets going up here in the Northern territory. We all look forward to seeing you again mid-September 2010.
Friday night I took Kim to the movies and this was such a surreal experience; here we were sitting in big plush stately type lounge chairs -that I might add, did not hurt my bruised bottom one bit- in air-conditioned comfort, and snacking away on all sorts of delightful sugar hits that I would not normally eat back home. It felt so wrong after all the nights in the bush and the days slogging it out in the brutal harsh sunshine, but boy did it also feel oh-so-amazingly-and-heavenly right. After Bruce Willis had once again save the world we joined Kevvy, Falcon and the two lads cycling around Australia, Nick and Matt for a few drinks in the local strip of pubs and clubs along what is known as the Mitchell Street Strip. This is where all the young and old and bold and beautiful head with the idea of picking up, getting drunk, tasting the local cuisine, getting into a fight, being seen, shouting loudly, or wearing as much or as little as you like. No worries here going into the bars in thongs and singlets, I felt over-dressed in my shorts, triathlon t-shirt and running shoes. Row I know you will cringe when you read my fashion attire but let me assure you my friend I actually blended right in up here! Kim was out of there by 9pm, Kevvy and I followed around 11pm and Falcon not long after. We said our goodbyes to Matt and Nick and wished them the best for the next four months of their journey around Australia.
Saturday and it was time to leave Darwin, we did a couple of shuttle trips to get all our gear and bodies to the airport. Kevvy and I dropped the 4WD off and thanked Sargent’s 4WD hire for their wonderful sponsorship. Back at the airport we knew we were going to be well over the luggage weight limit with four bike boxes at 25kg each, 2 suitcases at 15kg each, 2 laptops and 4 backpacks. But the Smiddy luck was still with us as the supervisor was told of our charity ride and all excess was waivered by the extremely friendly and helpful Qantas staff. After Kevvy practically had to be stripped searched behind a closed curtain as we went through security, we made our way to the Qantas lounge where Falcon was able to get all four of us in and for the next hour we -or should I say I- devoured as much food as possible, -some of which somehow ended up in my knapsack- before boarding our flight at one o’clock. Kim was amazed when I boarded the plane, sat next to a lovely married couple from New Zealand, introduced myself and immediately, within two minutes, fell instantly into a deep sleep. I stirred not even during takeoff. I did stir though when I smelt food and not five minutes later I once again had food in my lap. Life does not get any better than that!
I asked the friendly staff if they would mind me having a second meal, I then asked for a third and was pleasantly surprised when I got a positive response. I ate it all and later even had two servings of ice-cream to top off a gastronomic trip home to Brisbane. The New Zealand couple were Susan and Jim Ellis from Auckland, although originally from England both had spent most of their lives in Kiwi land. They were semi-retired and had just spent a week in the top end chasing crocodiles and taking pictures of birds. Jim shared some of his crocodile photos with us and Kim was beside herself with excitement. I of course shared the whole Smiddy story, the extended ride and how brave I was as I wrestled 22 foot crocodiles that tried to attack my beautiful sister Kim... By the end of the flight we were firm friends and had swapped addresses with promises to keep in touch. And that is what I love about this momentous journey; you never stop meeting such wonderful and interesting people.
Well you know the rest of the story from here. Thank you again for your awe-inspiring support, your generous donations, and your friendships and for caring enough to follow our journey over this past month. If you managed to read each and every one of these journals from day one then you too deserve a medal of praise. You have, over a one month time period, read enough to fill a small book. If you have done this at work, don’t worry I will not tell the boss!
Take care and tune in next year when the Smiddy journey begins again in earnest on the first Saturday of September 2010.
Sharky.