Australia & New Zealand Are Beckoning: The ‘Awe-some’ Trans-Oceania Cycling Tour

 

“I was totin’ my pack along the dusty Winnemucca road When along came a semi with a high an’ canvas-covered load.”

Are you familiar with the song  – I Have Been Everywhere – whose lyrics I quote above? The version that most people associate with this song is performed by Johnny Cash but the original version comes from Australia. It goes like this – “Well, I was humpin’ my bluey on the dusty Oodnadatta road, When along came a semi with a high and canvas-covered load…He asked me if I’d seen a road with so much dust and sand, I said, ‘Listen, mate, I’ve travelled every road in this here land.”

When I turned thirteen my family left Czechoslovakia and ever since I have been on the move a lot. Many people even say I have been ‘everywhere’. Of course, that is nonsense. I have travelled a lot on a bicycle since our little company came into being but also before that, whether it was my work that took me to faraway places or simply because I suffer from serious case of Adventuritis. It is also possible I may have a Restless Gene (or as I label it, the Adventure Gene) as described by David Dobbs in National Geographic article as “the compulsion to see what lies beyond that far ridge or that ocean is a defining part of human identity and success.”

I bring up the Australian version of the song because later this year I will be joining our Trans Oceania Cycling Tour through Australia and New Zealand. Frankly, I am as keen to go to these places as I ever was, particularly when I will travel to places I have never been to such as Tasmania and New Zealand. How does one explain, at my age, having such unquenchable wanderlust?

Adventuratis is a disease that I invented and I may or may not have a Restless Gene but I do know that when I travel, I often experience a strong emotion of ‘awe’. In a book that came out over a year ago Professor Dacher Keltner – Awe: The New Science Of Everyday Wonder And How It Can Transform Your Life – the author defines awe as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.” I am not sure I would go that far but I do think we all know when awe strikes us.

The author goes on to write about the secrets to a good life. “Twenty years into teaching happiness, I have an answer: FIND AWE.” Keltner, a psychology professor at University of California, Berkeley writes that “awe is an ennobling experience, one that can foster wonder, creativity and collaboration.” Yes, it can. I mean without wonder, creativity and certainly collaboration, the idea of crossing continents on bikes would have never happened. It was simply ‘awe-some’ when we first started doing that and it is ‘awe-some’ today for every participant on these tours.

Obviously ‘awe’ can be found in every sphere of life and anything and everything can be a stimuli. Though I look for awe everywhere, it is when I travel, or rather when I am on the move, that it seems to come easily and instantly changes my mood and transforms all my emotions. I remember walking the streets on a rest day in Tokyo during the inaugural Journey to the East Cycling Tour less than a year ago and suddenly, as I was looking at nothing in particular, a sense of awe hit me – how does such huge city seem to work so effortlessly. Trains arriving on time to the minute, multiple public transport options, clean streets, light traffic, lovely green spaces where you would never expect them, beautiful gardens. I stood there, spinning around, struck with awe.

But getting hooked on finding awe is not the only reason I am excited about cycling in Australia and New Zealand. In a newly released book  -Live To Ride – Peter Flax writes, “Bikes truly shine when they carry us from home into the natural world.” The little I do know about Tasmania and New Zealand is that the natural world is their main attraction. I have not read Flax’s book but I think the summary on Amazon sums it up – “The bicycle is one of the greatest inventions in human history. It can literally transport you to places you want to go—to your school or office, to the summit of a local hilltop, to some objective in your pursuit of fitness—but it can do more than that. A bicycle can also transport you to an entirely different mindset, a place where you can embrace the unexpected and live in the moment.”

The subtitle of Live To Ride is Finding Joy And Meaning On A Bicycle. To those of us who already cycle, this is not news, but for many who may still be hesitating – to borrow a famous meme – Just do it, sign up! Australia and New Zealand are beckoning. I would like to end this little blog about awe, travel and the joy of cycling with a saying I found in an obituary in the Economist on an evolutionary architect and forest dweller, SunRay Kelly. Kelly liked a Native Americans saying – “Each human being had a song, and once you found your song, you needed no other blessing. For everything would come to you.”

RELATED
TOUR

Trans-Oceania

Pedaling across southeastern Australia, Tasmania, and both islands of New Zealand the multitude of experiences will be hard to fathom: pleasant wine...