[HN Gopher] The Amateur Tramp - A Walk of Ten Thousand Miles Aro...
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The Amateur Tramp - A Walk of Ten Thousand Miles Around Australia
Author : corpmedia
Score : 124 points
Date : 2021-02-23 09:25 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (greatestadventurers.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (greatestadventurers.com)
| chris_wot wrote:
| It's amazing, but he went around the coast. I really doubt he
| could have done it by going through the Red Centre.
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| crossing the Nullarbor is not a mean feat either
| gonzo41 wrote:
| I was thinking that, that ~2000km between port Augusta and
| the Kalgoorlie is pretty dry.
| wisdomdata wrote:
| not similar, but relevant:
| https://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2014/03/05/3957316.htm
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| _> It 's not often if you're driving around country Australia
| you see swagmen these days. Imagine spending more than half of
| your life walking. Grant Cadoret decided one day to pack up his
| life into a backpack and start walking. _
|
| I do similar stuff on and off, though not at that scale (trips
| lasting up to a year when I was young but now they're more like
| 2-4 months max with a year or more break in between).
|
| what I know from personal experience is that it's incredibly
| difficult to stop. the routine somehow becomes all consuming
| and takes over your life.
|
| a farmer once told me after losing his cow that timing for
| finding it is critical because leaving them isolated from the
| herd they will get used to it and then have problems fitting in
| from that point onward. they lose their ability to be part of
| the group and do no longer need the herd. perhaps there is a
| similar thing with humans.
|
| If you successfully cover 1000 miles across a terrain alone,
| and found a way to not "just survive" but "thrive" it can be
| hard to stop (especially if there are no kids or family to
| return to). Why not make it 2000 miles? Why stop at all and
| instead break a rekord? Getting off my butt and go traveling is
| IMO a lot harder than stopping yourself. The isolation changes
| you so much you will come home crazy (you will need some way to
| reintegrate yourself into civilization. but there is also a
| beauty in not being understood since nobody can take it and the
| memory and experience is your treasure. there is no point of
| sharing it too much. even if you tried explaining it people
| wouldn't get it. they might get what you have seen but not how
| it changed you. so just enjoy it as something that belongs only
| to you and that only you can enjoy).
|
| damn, now I wrote myself into a state of mind where I want to
| pack my rucksack and leave at once. perhaps a pandemic is a
| good chance to disappear for a couple of months. Europe is
| still too cold for now but perhaps in a month is a good time
| ...
| akudha wrote:
| Maybe this is why people who have lived alone for a some time
| simply get used to it and find it difficult to live with
| other people later (if they get into a relationship etc). Not
| the same, but similar
| piokoch wrote:
| Reminds me history of Kazik Nowak [0], who traveled alone on a
| bike through Africa. The expedition took him 5 years (between
| 1931-1936).
|
| He wrote a great book about his trip, prizing amazing African
| nature and giving a hard time colonial powers for making this
| continent such a miserable living place for its natives. Book
| does not have English translation unfortunately.
|
| Nowak died soon after coming back (trip was really exhausting, he
| got Malaria) and for many years his achievement was forgotten. In
| 1962 his daughter managed to publish a book her father trip, but
| it didn't attract much attention (communists didn't like to
| promote anything positive about pre-communism times
| achievements). Finally it was reedited in 2000 and become very
| popular in Poland.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz_Nowak
| tosser0001 wrote:
| It also reminds me of Tschiffely who spent 3 years riding on
| horseback from Buenos Aires to New York City in the mid-1920s:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aim%C3%A9_F%C3%A9lix_Tschiffel...
| keiferski wrote:
| Here's a map of his journey, which is buried on that page:
|
| https://kazimierznowak.pl/img/mapapodrozy.jpg
| galfarragem wrote:
| Tangent: take a look on "Another day of life" from Ryszard
| Kapuscinski. Most unbiased look at Angola decolonization (and
| decolonization in general) I know.
|
| edit: Ryszard Kapuscinski[0] style, a mix of journalism with
| literature, definitely worths a read. I believe his legacy is
| underrated even in his own country.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kapu%C5%9Bci%C5%84ski
| xcavier wrote:
| I honestly doubt this - especially if the photo is indicative of
| his 'rig'
| daniel_iversen wrote:
| I'm not sure. I want to believe in that kind of perseverance
| and exploration, but to give a glimpse of the "Aidan" here's an
| excerpt for the end part of the book:
|
| "Little is known about Aidan de Brune following the conclusion
| of his walk. We catch a glimpse here and there. On 28 March
| 1933 an article by de Brune appeared in the Wagga Wagga Daily
| Advertiser as one of a series of articles about Australian
| novelists. The article was about de Brune himself, in which he
| outlined his life. It was mostly fictitious. As we know, de
| Brune was actually Herbert Charles Cull and he did few, if any,
| of the things mentioned in the article." .. so if he's known to
| embellish or fabricate details...?
| tomcooks wrote:
| What is supposedly missing from his rig so that you repute it
| fit for a walk?
|
| The light load is a great sign he knew what is important during
| endurance adventures.
|
| Funnily enough I had the same sort of "doubting people" while I
| walked across Spain and Portugal with a 20 liter day pack.
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| Why? Judging from the photo his pack looks fairly light and
| minimalist. His clothing seems robust. Effective-looking head
| cover. Boots are probably heavy but nailed. Typical and
| practical working clothes of the time it seems to me.
| PurpleFoxy wrote:
| I wonder how many supply stops he had to make and how this
| was funded. I doubt a pair of boots would last a fraction of
| this walk.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| What special 'rig' do you think you need to walk?
| xwdv wrote:
| Food? Water? Unless he was close to civilization at all times
| and just stopped into taverns to eat.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| The book says there were stations every few days all the
| way around.
| xwdv wrote:
| Hardly "unassisted" then.
| simonh wrote:
| Unassisted just means you don't have a dedicated support
| team.
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| Crossing the Nullarbor on foot must have been insane. I did the
| same route but with camping gear and a car in the 90ies, and had
| the time of my life. The scale of the distances between points on
| the map are not comprehensible (to a kid from Europe at least). I
| wanted to do a day trip to Monkey Mia right after getting off the
| plane and started planning out my journey from Perth. I didn't
| believe (understand) that there is often nothing between 2 points
| on the map. A map entry would often just be a literal petrol
| station (that is also a pub and a shop and a farm) and nothing
| else. I had to learn the hard way that when they say "there's f*k
| all there mate" that they really mean it.
|
| I guess the reason for him cutting short the Kimberley's and
| Northern tip of Queensland, was that it must have been
| inaccessible or too dangerous back then. Anyway it seems like
| travelers have already been advised 100 years ago to stay clear
| of these places.
|
| There is an Ed Stafford "Marooned" episode where he tries to
| survive in the Kimberley's. (much endorse).
|
| edit: If you have visited Australia (or plan to go) don't miss
| out on Bill Bryson's "Down Under" (must read if you like travel
| literature that is also hilarious)
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_Under_(book)
| laurent92 wrote:
| In addition to being "nothing", even the side of the road is
| often not suitable for an overnight tent. The vegetation may be
| dense. There may be dingos too (had some around my tent, not
| pleasing) and worse, humans (stories of barfights on restareas
| are common).
| andrelaszlo wrote:
| Do you ever contemplate that perhaps there is a dog after all?
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| I do stay awake at night and wonder yes.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| > I didn't believe (understand) that there is often nothing
| between 2 points on the map.
|
| I drove around Namibia once. Just the same. One set of
| directions was little more than "drive 120km North of [small
| town whose name I can't remember] and you'll see a signpost to
| our Lodge on your left". There was literally nothing else
| between the two points.
|
| One day a car overtook us (in the middle of nowhere) and then
| stopped and waved us down. They were lost and wanted
| directions. They were headed in the right direction (east to
| west) but the road they should have been on was a parallel one
| about 50km to the north. They'd turned too early.
|
| It turned out that there is a tourist loop that kinda tracks
| the perimeter of the country. On one particularly busy day we
| counted more than 30 vehicles. In the whole day. If you drove
| clockwise around the loop, most days at around midday you'd
| encounter the traffic coming anticlockwise. They'd left their
| accommodation in the morning and were driving to their next
| place.
| Clewza313 wrote:
| Based on the map, it looks like he walked along Highway 1,
| which also avoids the Kimberleys and the Top End.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_1_(Australia)
| bogomipz wrote:
| >'I guess the reason for him cutting short the Kimberley's and
| Northern tip of Queensland, was that it must have been
| inaccessible or too dangerous back then. Anyway it seems like
| travelers have already been advised 100 years ago to stay clear
| of these places."
|
| What are the specific issues in the Northern tip of Queensland
| exactly? Crocs? Also is the issue the the Kimberley's the same
| as the usual interior/outback? I didn't realize Bryson has an
| Australia book I will definitely look for that. Thanks for the
| tip.
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| yes wildlife (crocs, box jelly fish, snakes, scorpions, ...)
| but more annoyingly sand flies that will feed on the puss
| from infected mosquito bites and lay their eggs into them.
| ability for the most benign scratches to heal is much reduced
| in this place which is perpetually wet.
|
| Wikipedia notes that the first time somebody made the trip
| wasn't that long before our protagonist in this post decided
| to skip the peninsular:
|
| > The tip of the peninsula (Cape York) was finally reached by
| Europeans in 1864 when the brothers Francis Lascelles (Frank)
| and Alexander William Jardine, along with eight companions,
| drove a mob of cattle from Rockhampton to the new settlement
| of Somerset (on Cape York) where the Jardines' father was
| commander. En route they lost most of their horses, many of
| their stores and fought pitched battles with Aboriginal
| people, finally arriving in March 1865.
| Gustomaximus wrote:
| Definitely crocs up that way. But there if bugger all on the
| northern tip even today. It would have been more than 1000km
| in tropical conditions and not sure if they even had tracks
| up there back in the day, let Lone shops to fill supplies,
| and no coastal road around the Cape even today. Have a look
| at Google maps of the towns up there. Its hardly a town, a
| lot of traditional owners and tourism support as it's popular
| to 4WD to the tip these days as an adventure experience.
| bogomipz wrote:
| Thanks, yeah it's amazing the number of perils an
| unprepared adventurer could encounter on that continent. I
| would be curious to hear any of your thoughts on how
| difficult or foolhardy trying to do an Adelaide to Darwin
| road trip would be solo.
| Clewza313 wrote:
| Adelaide to Darwin is a cakewalk in comparison. The
| Stuart Highway is fully paved, excellently maintained,
| and has roadhouses every 100 km or so. It's completely
| doable by a regular sedan or campervan, and if you run
| into any trouble, there's enough traffic that you won't
| be left in a lurch.
|
| That said, there is still a whole lotta nothing along the
| way, and you still need to keep your eyes peeled or
| you'll run into wildlife or get flattened by a road
| train. It'll also be extra tedious if you can't alternate
| driving with somebody else.
| bogomipz wrote:
| Thanks yeah I think there's some interesting
| points(Flinders Range, Coober Peddy, Uluru) along the way
| there just not on or directly off the highway correct? I
| was unaware of a road train, is that where the train
| track do not have a proper crossing signals?
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| road trains are very long trucks
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_train#Australia going
| through the dusty red center (the dust from them often
| takes very long time to settle so no fun driving behind
| one :)).
|
| the road to coober peddy, uluru etc should be maintained
| will enough today and provided you don't make shortcuts
| (or "go exploring" off the main road) but you still need
| to watch for large kangaroos, emus and dingos crossing.
| Dead or alive, they're no fun to crash into - although a
| road train will not stop for them (they probably couldn't
| even if they wanted to stop).
| akudha wrote:
| Coober Pedy - isn't that the town where people live
| underground because of the heat? I remember seeing it on
| some TV show. Fascinating stuff
| bogomipz wrote:
| Yeah it's an Opal mining town in South Australia. See:
| https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/lens/living-
| underground-t...
| ungamedplayer wrote:
| Disclaimer, I have spent a bit of time north of Daintree
| rainforest in my childhood/teens.
|
| Poisonous plants, poisonous animals, crocs, snakes, spiders,
| Scrub so thick you'd wear out a knife cutting through it,
| local aboriginals that may also hunt you. Mosquitos with
| Dengue Fever, the daintree ulcer, the list goes on.
| foolinaround wrote:
| > local aboriginals that may also hunt you.
|
| really?? which year was this?
| bjarneh wrote:
| > ..averaging about 30 miles, or 50km per day
|
| Wow, this is impressive; more than a marathon a day on terrain
| like that for 2.5 years.
| mgerullis wrote:
| He did not skip leg day once in that time.
| radicalriddler wrote:
| It's interesting how many Brisbane suburbs are misspelled in the
| PDF, not sure if it's done similarly else where. Kearon -> Kedron
| Chernside -> Chermside Ball Hills -> Bald Hills
| psychstudio wrote:
| Title should read "Bloke walked around Australia - alone and with
| no assistance"
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| the first Bogan to ever walk around all Australia just so he
| could shout "get f******ed" to as many inhabitants as possible.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogan
| basementcat wrote:
| Made me think of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged.
| killingtime74 wrote:
| I walk around Australia alone and unassisted everyday......
| rwmj wrote:
| Slightly more achievable walk around an island which I intend to
| do one day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage It's
| a mere 1200 km and takes a month or two, rather than two+ years.
| 7demons wrote:
| Good for him. Lucky guy by not dying to nature.
| pantulis wrote:
| Obviously he did not bump into any spiders.
| hanche wrote:
| Perhaps knowledge and skill also helped?
| AbrahamParangi wrote:
| There's this funny thing where all these 19th century explorers
| claim the first ever crossings on foot of this or that area of
| Australia, a continent that has been inhabited for 70,000 years
| at least.
| Jayjes wrote:
| Doing that was out of this world. It has encouraged me alot.
| enriquto wrote:
| Maybe I studied too much topology in my youth, but the title of
| this article strikes me as nonsensical... How do you walk around
| an island? You can swim around an island, or walk around a lake.
| But you cannot really walk around an island (or, if you can, it
| seems very easy to do: just go to the island and turn around
| yourself).
| Someone wrote:
| Some islands, you can definitely walk around, even in the
| mathematical sense. Examples are
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_island and
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrounded_Islands (if you timed
| your visit at just the right time).
|
| One could also argue that wading through the sea in knee-deep
| water would be walking around the island in the strict
| mathematical sense. That's doable for some islands.
|
| And of course, the true nitpicking topologist realizes that,
| topologically, walking in a circle with radius 1m anywhere
| outside Australia is the same as walking in a circle with
| radius of almost 20,000 km that encompasses Australia, and thus
| is 'walking around Australia'. I just did that. Took me a few
| seconds, at most ;-)
| _wldu wrote:
| To "walk around" means to roam or wander. Most people
| understand this use of the phrase.
|
| But in this case, the man seems to have actually walked the
| perimeter of the island.
| morsch wrote:
| _To "walk around" means to roam or wander. Most people
| understand this use of the phrase._
|
| Except they clearly didn't mean that the guy _roamed_
| Australia, because that 's not particularly noteworthy. He
| "packed his backpack and walked around the entire continent
| of Australia by the coastline". The grandparent is
| pedantically correct that _well actually_ you cannot walk
| around island. Must be fun at parties...
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| From the Wikipedia article someone else posted:
|
| _In September 1921 he began a walk around the perimeter of
| Australia, from Sydney to Sydney, anticlockwise._
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aidan_de_Brune
| chrisseaton wrote:
| What are you on about? He walked around the island - walked the
| length of the perimeter. Just like swimming around it but on
| the land. What's confusing about that?
| enriquto wrote:
| It doesn't mean anything unless you specify the maximum
| allowed distance to the coast (or the average distance to the
| coast along your ride, or the median distance to the coast).
| Notice that you probably want to define the distance of _each
| point of the coast_ to some point in your traject, and not
| the other way round (which would make your endeavor trivial).
|
| Really, it seems a very complicated concept to define
| precisely, and it would entail a lot of seemingly arbitrary
| parameters.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| But why do you need to define it? What are you trying to
| achieve? Any reasonable person already understand what it
| means to walk around an island.
| enriquto wrote:
| > But why do you need to define i
|
| Wait, isn't this _Hacker_ news? I want to be given a
| definition and analyze it deeply.
|
| For instance, looking at the wikipedia page it seems that
| the closest that De Brune got to Cape York Tip (the
| northernmost point of Australia) was about one thousand
| kilometers. If this "counts" as a complete tour, he might
| as well had walked consistently 1000km inland for a much
| shorter tour (but maybe harder, due to the desert?).
| chrisseaton wrote:
| > I want to be given a definition and analyze it deeply.
|
| Well that's anti-social and not welcome here. Please
| check the guidelines for the site for how to communicate.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
|
| > Please respond to the strongest plausible
| interpretation of what someone says
|
| > don't cross-examine
| enriquto wrote:
| Dude, what the fuck.
|
| Mathematics is pretty much on topic here. I made a valid
| point, just for fun, that giving a precise mathematical
| definition of "walking around an island" is a tricky
| issue. Of course everybody knows what does it mean
| roughly, but making that point, _about a mathematical
| definition_ cannot be construed as anti-social. Unless
| you consider mathematics anti-social.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| > Of course everybody knows what does it mean roughly
|
| So you know this goes against
|
| > Please respond to the strongest plausible
| interpretation of what someone says
|
| But you've generated such a strong negative reaction that
| you've been flagged and the comment has been removed, so
| it's a lot of people saying it, not just my random
| opinion!
| ceejayoz wrote:
| You are confusing "it is complicated" with "I am over
| complicating it".
| n4r9 wrote:
| I think the following definition is well-defined and would
| be acceptable to the vast majority of people:
|
| A minimal-length, non-intersecting loop for which every
| point on the coast is within d metres of at least one point
| on the loop.
|
| The only parameter is d, which I think most people would
| happily set to 5 or 10 km for a country the size of
| Australia.
|
| It may not be unique, but I think anything obeying this
| would count.
| enriquto wrote:
| I like this definition. Not sure that the "non-
| intersecting" condition is necessary. I was thinking
| about a different one, given by the condition that the
| path never goes farther than d meters from the sea (while
| encircling the part of the land that is farther than d
| meters).
| ndespres wrote:
| He visited every port on all 4 coasts of the island, roughly
| covering the perimeter. We understand this to mean in common
| speech that he walked "around" the island even though he didn't
| truly circumnavigate it. We know what the title means.
| 74d-fe6-2c6 wrote:
| This reminds me of how equipment required for such an endeavour
| have been way heavier a hundred years ago. I'm not particuarly
| experienced with outdoor activities but if I engage in one I have
| to notice how overloaded and heavy everything is. But most of the
| stuff is reasonably modern using various lightweight metals or
| plastics. Realistically people have been stronger back than
| anyway.
| Gustomaximus wrote:
| I assume they did with less. No change of clothes. Cook meat on
| sticks rather than a pan. A blanket and no tent type deal. No
| medical kit, torch or GPS etc.
| laurent92 wrote:
| How do you change shoes after 6 months, when in the middle of
| the outback?
| progre wrote:
| A little more meat in the wikipedia article
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aidan_de_Brune
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| See also:
|
| _Robyn Davidson (born 6 September 1950) is an Australian writer
| best known for her 1980 book Tracks, about her 2,700 km (1,700
| miles) trek across the deserts of Western Australia using camels.
| Her career of travelling and writing about her travels has
| spanned 40 years._
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robyn_Davidson
| js2 wrote:
| That wikipedia page doesn't seem to reference that her book was
| the basis of a beautiful picture book by National Geographic,
| _From Alice to Ocean_ , perhaps notable here because the book
| included a CD-ROM, making it an early attempt at multimedia
| presentation.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Alice-Ocean-Alone-Across-Outback/dp/0...
|
| http://macintoshgarden.org/games/alice-ocean
|
| Some reviews of the CD-ROM from a 1994 college class:
|
| http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/impact/s94/students/papers.html
|
| (Scroll down to Multimedia Reviews and there four student
| reviews of the CD.)
| akudha wrote:
| I recommend her book, it was quite enjoyable. There is also a
| movie, though not as good as the book.
|
| The saddest part of the book is when her dog dies, eating
| poisoned meat.
|
| Quite a story
| satori99 wrote:
| From the headline, I was certain this article was going to be
| about Jon Muir.
|
| TIL about Aidan de Brune.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_Across_Australia
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Muir
| leereeves wrote:
| TIL about Jon Muir. Thank you.
|
| Until I looked it up, I thought you meant John Muir, a famous
| American naturalist who founded the Sierra Club. It's crazy
| that there are two famous explorers with such similar names.
| FreshFries wrote:
| Title needs something like "between 1921 and 1924".
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(page generated 2021-02-23 23:02 UTC)