It’d be fair to say that I know a fairly mobile bunch of people – many of my friends from growing up don’t live in the ol’ neighbourhood any more, though having moved to different parts of Australia, or the world. I’m going to assume this is pretty normal going by the number of places I’ve been on holiday where I’ve heard an Australian accent pipe up in the background (that is to say – EVERYwhere I’ve been, with possibly the exception of Mississippi).
Every now and again, however, I hear of someone who’s turned up somewhere that really makes me stop and say “Whoa, cool!”.
Don’t get me wrong – moving anywhere has a degree of risk & adventure about it, so I reckon it’s pretty cool when anyone goes anywhere (and that’s not solely because it gives me an opportunity to crash on another sofa somewhere obscure). However, well… try these out:
A couple of years back I heard that Mark was working over in Antarctica with the Australian Antarctic Division doing electronical engineery stuff. He was keeping a blog for a while, which made for pretty cool reading – I mean, come on…! I know someone… right? Who works… IN ANTARCTICA! There’s a bit of footage of Mark lurking in the background from this ABC documentary episode thing, if you’re interested.
Since then, Matty’s gone over there as well I believe – which is equally cool. I know *2* dudes working in Antarctica. What’s funny about that is they’re 2 of the most prolific wearers of shorts that I’ve ever met.
But the one which got my attention today and thus prompted me writing this post (cos it turns out I didn’t write anything when I found out that Mark worked in Antarctica – lazy bitch that I am…), was the news of a young chap from my Adelaide Gang Show days named Emrys Leitch.
Emrys is in Kyrgyzstan.
I’m always really impressed to hear of someone who’s gone somewhere where there’s more than likely a big language barrier, and where they probably don’t know loads & loads of people already. Having never heard of anyone ever going to Kyrgyzstan before, I don’t imagine there’s a massive community of Adelaideans that Emrys can regroup with.
The bit that impressed me more, though, is how he got there.
Emrys rode his bicycle to Kyrgyzstan, starting in Germany.
I’m not going to tell the story, because it’s much better if you listen to the ABC Radio interview.
In fact there’s no point in writing anything else, because even if I come up with the world’s best one-liners about it, or think up a new way to express my incredulousness or respect for having the balls to pull off such an epic adventure, it’s all going to be eclipsed by the fact that EMRYS RODE A FRIGGING BIKE FROM GERMANY TO KYRGYZSTAN!
Respect, man.
(n.b. Story photo courtesy Bell Chamberlain)