On the 6th of April 2005, cousins Jamie Mackenzie and Ben Wylson set off on their bikes on a journey which will take them to over 50 countries and to every one of the worlds great continents, all without the use of an aeroplane.
Thursday, November 23, 2006: intense twilight
Ship
We had a ship to Chile! We celebrated! We waited for confirmation of dates for a week! Then without any warning the ship was lost (I don't mean it sank). How? Because the man who had offered it to us had no idea that we would need to be travelling across the ocean with our bikes. We have a fall-back option which we are waiting on, (plan B), but it certainly doesn't look like we will be escaping our limbo, twilight zone Melbourne enclosure for a while... or does it? We all know that feeling of not knowing how the future will pan out. Here, at our office / bedroom on Westgarth Street, Fitzroy the intensity of not knowing is astonishing. We could be here for another month. Then again, there is a chance that we might get over to New Zealand for Christmas.
I won't even go into our sponsorship hunt now. Let us just say that there is a very promising lead, and not get anyone's hopes up.
One last thing: Meetings are being held with a producer based at a major Australian television channel regarding FWE. It would be a documentary within a documentary, an addition to our own film in which the viewer would have the un-precedented luxury of seeing both of us in-shot at the same time. If this goes ahead they will record on film part of the pending South American leg. So, there is a chance that our team may well swell to exceed two again; except this time it is not Old Clanky who will join us...
Thursday, November 16, 2006: Other Sites feature added
Underneath the sponsors box -on the left of this page- peruse the latest FWE feature, our 'Other Sites' section which includes the 'Climate Crisis' website and the sites of some friends and heroes of ours who are great contemporary adventurers.
Saturday, November 11, 2006: Shane milk
Following our last update entitled 'Danger' there has been a huge increase in FWE hits; this is probably because we left you dangling, poised to receive news that could change this expedition's future for ever. We said that we should know 'before the week is out'. Well the week is out and we still don't know....
You may well wonder how we have spent our time between the 'Danger' update and today? Well, last weekend was an exciting one. We got dressed up in smart clobber and went to The Races, to Derby Day as guests of Lavazza coffee. Accompanied by our Stomp Fashion sponsor, Anna Kirby, we had exclusive tickets to The Birdcage, a cordoned-off area for the rich and famous. Our tickets got us free expensive Italian champagne and nibbles, our picture taken for Vogue -look out for it- and many important conversations with the rich and famous. We shared our time there with AFL superstars, billionaires and even the man who likes to flash his private parts in the well-known show 'Puppetry of the Penis'. Yes, we handed out many books and received many business cards in return. See our Myspace (www.myspace/freewheelseast) and the link below for photographs.
Our week began with a road-trip to Sydney to see the mighty Pearl Jam. We'd decided to hitchhike there and made our way to Upfield by train to get as close as we could to the Hume Highway, the main road to Sydney and starting block of trucks embarking on the 800 and something km drive.
For the first few hours we stood at the side of the road with our thumbs out.
Nobody stopped. Perhaps they could not read the word "SYDNEY" scrawled in red marker pen onto an old piece of cardboard box held aloft. We were getting nowhere like that so we tried a new line of attack, an old hitchhiking trick perfected by Old Clanky himself, which involves rolling up trousers and kneeling on shoes to con the on-coming traffic into believing we have shorter, half-size, dwarf-like legs.
Our ploy only made drivers laugh. They did not stop, but at least we were bringing a few smiles to a few strangers. Some drivers still ignored us, stony-faced.
Occasionally, truck drivers did not laugh or ignore, rather they pointed forward down the road and mouthed some words. We wondered if this was a secret sign, but after the seventh truck driver did it we guessed that they meant we were in the wrong place to try to thumb a lift and should move further up the road. But to what? The road was industrial, long and straight. We could not see the point in leaving our layby next to the lights. In desperation we walked with back-packs to the traffic in the direction the truckies pointed.
About 2 miles down the road we came to a service station called 'Truck world'. "That's what they mean!" said Jamie triumphantly. But alas the service station was quiet and we were told that "hitching's not allowed here" by a sullen garage worker. "Try the B.P," said a trucky who'd overheard. Off we went again. This process of garage-hopping continued. We walked from Truck World to B.P and then a similar tip-off saw us walking in the baking sun to another garage. Flies descended on us to drink our sweat. We were getting a bit put out. The flies were beginning to irritate.
One trucky-sized roast lunch later and only another couple of miles down the road we found our last option, a Shell garage. Asking truckies for lifts at the petrol pumps as they filled up with diesel had worked pretty well in Fremantle. Now, quite a few months on, we tried again.
It was the second trucky we'd asked. His name was Shane, a huge man with a grey beard like that of an unkempt Mormon. He had three brown teeth. One on the top, two on the bottom. "I'll give you C#*ts a ride to Sydney" he said shaking our hands vigorously. It had taken us five hours to get our lift.
Shane was transporting 60 tons of long-life milk in his 25-metre-long road-train. He already had another passenger, his daughter's boyfriend, 17 year old, Bo, a young, trucky in the making.
We hopped up into the bed behind the wheel and squished ourselves into a very uncomfortable position, one which would not change much for 10 hours. "Keep ya heads daan" said Shane "They'll knock me for 5000 bucks if ya don't," he said laughing. It is illegal for truckies to pick up hitch-hikers.
We got talking with Shane and it came to pass that he knew Tricky -the devil himself- who brought us from Fremantle to Melbourne. "Yeah, I know Tricky," said Shane. "That c**&t saved me life. Had a front tyre blow out on me, truck went over, started burnin' up, I was trapped, gettin' burnt. Tricky was the first on the scene, pulled me out'a the flames." How about that? Of all the Truckies there are out there, probably tens of thouands, we travel with two that would've been one if it wasn't for the other.
Shane, like Tricky was in a bad way. He'd stopped taking speed because it, as he cheerfully put it, "Won't do me lukemia any good, or me diabetese. Doc said I won't last long, but... I'm on the mend." We arrived in Sydney at 3:00 in the morning having slept only for a few hours in our sleeping bags on top of the long-life milk in the back trailer.
Gretchen's friend Maryka put us up in a suburb called Strathfield; Pearl Jam executed the single best live music experience of our lives; We met a channel 9 girl called Lauren who might want to join us in South America, perhaps to make a documentary on us and her.
Now we are back in Melbourne, preparing for the big week ahead. I hope for all our sakes that we will be able to have a celebration soon.
It'll cost you to get hold of an exclusive picture of FWE inside the birdcage...
Have a look at this and look out for 'Ben Wylson and Jamie Mackenzie - British cyclists':
http://www.wireimage.com/GalleryListing.asp?navtyp=GLS====243555&qckv=y&nbc1=1
New Front Page Design
Thanks to Guy Campbell.
Sunday, November 05, 2006: DANGER
This is a FWE warning: There could be some highly important, mind-bogglingly exciting pieces of news coming to your screen before this week is out. There is a risk to your physical well-being in that our news -if positively confirmed- has the potential to be so thrilling that your heart could well conk out.
We are waiting to hear back from a handful of people who have an enormous power, the ability to change the course of Free Wheels East forever by either saying "yes", or "no". Let us hope for the former.... I would love to be more explicit here but we have learnt -through the writing of these updates- that it is wrong to raise the hopes of a FWE follower. Why say anything when nothing is confirmed?
For now we will have to leave you on tenterhooks, waiting in eager anticipation with us. I hope to publish some good news soon.
Derby Day snaps
Go to our Myspace http://www.myspace.com/freewheelseast to see us at Melbourne Derby Day playing VIPs Teggleford Crump of the Wild West and Lionel Katz billionaire oil tycoon.
More World Cyclists
For some amazing images of the world by bike have a look at this website http://www.cyclingaroundtheworld.nl/
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