Movie stage XIV & XV

The whole idea of ​​the Unmotorised Australia Crossing has been born because of rollerskates. I was traveling through South America without an engine in 2013 and when I was finishing the stage in the Brazilian Amazon I was wondering to whom give my rollerskates - problematic as foot size 45 and also practically no bitumen streets apart from the main road. Then I'll send them home to Sydney, I thought. But why, what to do with them? Then my brain got an impuls and for the next few days I couldn't sleep from over excitement - I will cross Australia without a motor. Nine years later I was putting the same rollerskates on my feet.

I had a problem with keeping my balance. The first kilometer was a black comedy, I was not laughing. After an hour my movements slowly began to imitate roller skating, and on the second day I started to move properly. And then I fell with my legs flew up, and luckily I landed on my backpack with my back. I had to be careful, especially as I still couldn't stop. Therefore, I was riding on the right side of the street so that I could see every oncoming vehicle - in case I stopped moving and the rollers slowed down. If it was downhill, I changed the side of the road as not to hit anyone.

However, I did not think that my average speed would be much slower than in America. And this is due to the poor quality of asphalt - it may not matter for cars but for me these small stones instead of a smooth surface was a huge difference. It was shaking so much so I was afraid all my teeth would fall out. It was one of the reasons why my feet hurt a lot and I didn't have the pleasure of riding. I fought for every kilometer, and sometimes I had to take breaks every few hundred meters because of the pain.

On my second day of skating the car stopped and a guy handed me orange juice. It was very nice and after an hour his wife handed me a drink and food. In the evening, with a lot of pain in my feet, I reached my destination. Adrian was already there waiting and he pointed to the pub next to the campsite, where he had put a cash deposit on my name - the steak was delicious. In addition he helped me a lot by handing out thicker socks, so that they absorbed the vibrations a bit more. Since then I have been riding in triple socks! It wasn't perfect, but better than before.

The following days looked similar - skating on a good stretch of road, and walking with roller skates in hand when the asphalt had too many pebbles in it, which made the slides very difficult. In the second half of the day despite the extra socks, my feet hurt so much that riding 40-50 km a day was not pleasant. I was getting tired. Added to this was the bad weather and for the first time in this trip I waited out the rain and the gale sitting all day in one place.

It was only towards the end of the stage that the body started to get used to it, the better sections of paved roads happened a little more often, and the sun appeared in the sky. I approached the Grampians Mountains and that meant more rolling roads. Of course I had to walk up big hills as well as down, but when the slope was not very steep I tried to skate down. Unfortunately, I did not master the technique of slowing down and braking well, so the descents ended with an uncontrolled ride in streight line. Then I prayed not to fall down, maximum focus, I felt like an extreme athlete. After losing the momentum I read the maximum speed on the GPS, however 26 km/h did not make any impression.

I finally made it to Halls Gap. In the last kilometers I had two falls - the first was a gentle one, smashing my knee, but the second was a spectacular with pulling both feet into the sky. The backpack cushioned the hit to my spine and head, but my right wrist was badly injured. Most importantly, it wasn't broken.

I met Grant in the Simpson Desert where he couldn't help me in any way because the crossing was unsupported. Here in town he welcomed me into his rental apartments (Grampians Villas), gave me food, wine and company with his wife. I haven't had such luxuries in a long time. The next day I went to the YHA hostel to pick up another gear drop off and manager didn't charge me for the night to support my trip. However, my package was missing shoes that were supposed to be sent after the stage on the Cooper River, but I changed my route at the last minute due to flooding. Anyway, I was rescued by Grant who immediately arrived with sports shoes, surprisingly in my size. Again, lucky me.

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