Pine Valley Picture Book

[Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays with some good laughs, friends, family, and plenty of good vibes -- oh and don't forget laughter ... essential if you ask me] After returning from the bike tour I decided I was going to head into the bush for a four day hike on the back end of the Overland Track. The bush-walking (read: hike into the bush/forest) I decided to do was about four days into Pine Valley on the tail end of the Overland Track (a popular track that lots of people do that takes 7 days and heads a long distance from Cradle Mountain to Lake St. Clair where I started).

This adventure proved to be a pretty intense experience for me for lots of reasons. Most of those you’ll see at the bottom in my summary. I kinda wanted to be a bit creative so I apologize for those peeps that have slow connections cause this one is going to be a bit of a picture based story book. Wheee.

Respect for women

My further respect started when I met a great deal of women on the bike tour that were using things like reusable pads and “the keeper“/mooncup/etc. It’s not easy having to deal with a menstrual cycle and being a guy I kinda get off easy not having those issues (or having to bear a child for a long period of time either).

One of my friends Jen made this rad video about The Keeper (read: reusable tampon and other great stuff that has a different name in your country).

Check it out! I think it sells itself!

Lots of love!

- Shane

Wipin’ my butt with recycled paper

There is something about riding on the highway with passing vehicles and taking in the terrain around you.

I arrived in Triabunna after a short bus ride and a great chat with a girl about all things environment! Nick was waiting for me at the station with a huge HUGE hug and big smile. As we walked my bike and gear back to the sleeping location I was greeted by four other peeps and more hugs (ahh shit do I ever love hugs). In total the tour consisted of Ang, Nick, Michelle, and Mary-Anne. It was sweet to have riden with them for the entire week as we had a lot to share together.

Tragically, I was to late to help them present the OZ version of the Otesha skit. The next day was actually they’re day off so we headed to Maria Island (close by) for a ride along a rocky roadway to a beautiful beach. I could hear Erica’s voice saying to me that riding on the track (read: road / path) wasn’t smart on thin walled tires but I did it anyway. Upon returning to the ferry about 5 minutes before I got there my tire blew. Phewfff.

The next day was our first ride out to complete the journey and to get things started I blew my tire once (replaced it with a fresh one = problem solved) and then had some serious issues with my panniers but fixed that later in the day thanks to Nick, a piece of metal found on the road, and duct tape around my water bottle (that’s right Wheats I still use your trick). HAAA HAA.

The terrian was freakin beautiful and smokey because of the degree of the forest fires that are ravaging this country-side. It’s tragic and real here as they are going through serious droughts and fires are ripping right through the country at fast rates.

Along the week long treck there was some really amazing steep hills, amazing connections, and lots of shared love. It was nice to at least share stories from our various tours, compare notes, and talk about different environmental issues.

Along the way I had the pleasure of meeting Helen Gee an amazing activist, writer, and energetic women. The night we stayed with Bob & Helen was full of lively discussion, understanding of the issues (on my part), and interesting perspectives. I felt super lucky to have been a part of those conversations and experience. She is heavily involved in fighting Tasmania Old Growth cutting.

Tazzie Delights

[Apologies for the potentially lameness of this post. I can't get the downloading of pics working on this crapola computer]

So I rolled into Tasmania (land of cool chilled out people, big mountains obviously not as big as ours back home but whatever, and friendly people). I’ve been staying with a fellow friend and Oteshite Mr. Ed Parker and his amazing girlfriend Sof. They setup a room and have given me free rain to do whatever I wish while I ‘m with them.

After the first day of arriving her I ended up heading down to Port Arthur. This tourist junction is chalked full of some pretty amazing history (some tragic). Basically, this settlement was used to contain criminals of all different shapes and sizes. What made it different than most prisons is that they were attempting to try and reform inmates through hard labour, some cruel punishment, and other techniques. It really surprised me to see the types of life sentences that people were receiving. Like a life sentence for things like stealing a loaf of bread and some milk (yah no joke life for that!). But it was amazing to see all the energy put into that settlement by the inmates and realize that most didn’t really deserve the way they had been treated.

Small steps = big improvements

A quick update on my part: On Wednesday I headed to a Creative Descent party where all types of people show up to display art, play music, cook food, and the like. It was an amazing atmosphere held in the back of an old seedy bar near the downtown core. The entire experience was freakin’ amazing actually.

I spent the early part of the party helping to prepare the dived food that JP and Maurice had collected for the event. It was well received by the people who attended (probably about 40-60 peeps there). [Maurice is on the left of that picture and JP is on the right.]

Then later there was plenty of bands playing, dancing, people creating art, spoken word, and other hilarious things. Donations for Wednesday’s event went towards the Bicycle Co-op that I have been working at lately. Then on Friday it was another Worker Bee (read: get together to clean things up) session at the Bicycle Co-op to get things sorted out for the next workshop this coming Monday. The work that we had done on Tuesday was totally successful and cleaning a lot more of the workshop up and making it 100x more functional. Friday’s work was even better in getting a LOT more sorted out!