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June 12, 2001
Overland Australia - basecamp update 1
June 12th 2001
Cairns, Australia
Tropical Paradise...
Its heading into deepest winter here in Australia and yet the days are still hot and humid. Instead of everything shutting down until spring, life seems to be even more vibrant and alive than I remember since first arriving. The air resounds with the constant clamour of the rainforest: whooping cries of the black-clad Butcher Bird punctuated periodically by the deafening screech of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos wheeling overhead, their brilliant white plumage a stark contrast to the deep forest green beyond.
At first I was convinced there were monkeys in the trees behind the house where I’m staying. "kooh-kooh kooh-kaah-kaah-KaaH-KAAH-KAAH" comes the resounding call in the early hours of the morning and before dusk. Images of jungle trapeze artists swinging silhouetted against chinks in the trees spring to mind with the opening music to 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' playing in the background. This great sound in fact belongs to a tiny bird called the Laughing Kookaburra.
So you'd be hard pushed to find a more perfect backdrop to an epic adventure such as the one we're about to embark upon in 3 x weeks. After 6 x months of planning, writing countless sponsorship proposals and phone bashing it looks like 'Overland Australia' is finally starting to come together. And thanks to our communications sponsors we’ll be able to share the experience with you via the Internet as of the 8th July onwards. Our journey starts in the dense jungle of North Queensland, continuing through the central desert region to Alice Springs and up the Tanami Track to the soaring beauty of The Kimberley and eventually to Darwin. Daily video, text and audio feeds via satellite will put you right there with us, traveling the adventure of a lifetime!
The rest of the team will be filtering into Cairns over the next few weeks. Rebecca Lawson from Minneapolis in the US is already here with me coordinating the photo and video exchange projects with local kids. She’s actually 'out bush' this week, lending out cameras to kids living in remote locations such as cattle stations, mining towns and fishing boats in the Gulf of Carpentaria. These kids are enrolled in the Cairns School of Distance Learning, a rather unique school using HF radio (and to a lesser extent the Internet) to bridge the enormous distances between teachers and pupils throughout the Australian Outback. Through the eye of a camera they'll be sharing their very different worlds with you in the form of photos and video clips - taken and edited by the kids themselves - posted on the Internet. Rebecca will also no doubt be writing a report about her adventures when she gets back.
The current team for Overland Australia looks something like this:
BIKERS
Jason England
April - USA
Mike Roney USA
Bel Chamberlain Australia
Crister Brady USA
Laura Culley - England
Jim Brady - USA
One more teenager will be chosen in the next 7 x days from Cairns.
FILM DOCUMENTARY and SATELLITE UPDATES
Kenny Brown Scotland
Todd Paulsen USA
SUPPORT
Rebecca Lawson USA (kid's cultural exchange programs)
John Andrews Australia (support vehicle)
Norlia Carruthers Australia (base camp)
Tomorrow I'm going to visit pedal boat Moksha. After her sell-out tour of local malls in the run up to Christmas she's since been sitting quietly in a storage shed kindly provided by Kevin Locke of Portsmith Transport, waiting to be resurrected for her next mission: pedaling the Arafura Sea from Darwin to East Timor later this year. So I’ll be in touch in the next day or so and let you know how she’s faring in this tropical paradise.
G'day until then.
Jason
Posted on June 12, 2001 1:47 PM