DAY 63

The 3 boys that lived in the house Anders and Lasse spent the night has in less that 24 hours gotten attached to the two Norwegians. The young boys are hanging on their thighs and gives hugs when the Norwegians says thank you and goodbye. Very nice and cute. Probably not everyday they have two cyclists from Norway in the house.

They got up at 7:00 and after breakfast and a coffee they had to find the way out of Redcliffe and up north. Road 26 and then road 60, both with lots of traffic and bad road shoulders. M1, the motorway, is still prohibited for cyclists so they have to find alternative routes. It starts to rain heavy and it lasts for a while, the boys are soaking wet, but the temperature is okay so they don’t mind that much.

If Lasse almost got a heart attack and saw death in his eyes last week it was Anders turn this time. He was knocking on heavens door, but luckily they didn’t open.

Anders cycles alone with Lasse a couple of minutes behind. It’s raining, the road shoulder is small and there’s traffic in both directions. Then Anders hear the sound that make him drive into the ditch on instinct while turning his head around. He sees a big 4wd sliding without control towards him. The back part of the car is sliding from side to side with the driver desperately trying to control the car by steering the wheel. The car passes Anders whom now is standing in the ditch and Anders gets eye contact with a little girl who looks terrified in the backseat. 10-20 meters ahead of Anders the driver gets control of the car and drives into the side.

“Wow, that was close” Anders thinks and gets shaky. The next thought is “I’m not talking with the guys in that car, I’m alive”. The passenger doors opens and the person sitting there throws some burgers, fries and soft drinks. He empties the car for junk(!) before he walks out. An aboriginal, without that mattering. “Are you alright?” He screams to Anders. Anders lift his hand to be on the same height as his hips and shows a thumb up, still thinking I’m not talking with those people, I’m alive.

The man walks around the car looking at the back wheel trying to find a reason for almost hitting Anders. “It’s a big car you know…” a pathetic try to describe the almost accident. “Bigger than you and your driver can handle” Anders thinks but doesn’t say and turns around and sees Lasse. The car disappears but the sign is already written on Anders mind, “794 STD Queensland”.

Why this happened Anders will never know. It’s not everybody that should have the driver license Anders thinks and appreciate the fact that he is still alive. Most sorry he feels for the kids in the backseat.

They continue cycling but after an incident like that it isn’t fun. You just get scared of all other cars and after lunch they take a new route. A smaller road with less traffic but plenty of steep hills. The get to test The machinery (their bodies) that have been fueled with everything else than water this Christmas – it still works.

After 90 km they are done for the day and camp at a caravan park that looks like carwrecking place run by hippies. It’s only for one night and they don’t care, but they could and should clean the place.

Awesomestralia – a normal life is boring