"Have Duck Will Travel!" Intrepidduck's Profile

From the forgotten corners of Tasmania to the hidden gems of Prague - From Cuba's Sierra Maestra, heart of the Revolution, to the espresso bars of Melbourne, this Intrepid Duck has seen it all. Accompanying Sean D. photographer / writer and traveller it migrates to the next Shangri-La with a quack!

My intrepidity began humbly from my pram in the late 1960s, but it was in 1978 when I was sent off on my first real adventure. As a 10 year old my mind was opened to the great age of rail travel, where I and my primary school level set off for a 5 day journey across our state of Victoria aboard a c1920s sleeper train. The cosy cabins consisted of a comfortable bunk bed, complete with head lamp and a conch shell shaped hand basin folded from the wall. Fine panoramic views were obtained out the windows of the dinning car every morning, bacon and eggs served on fresh toast by Victorian Railways waiters in bow ties as the rural landscape sped by. There was a new place of call each day, we were far away from the confines of suburbia. I was not again privilaged to experience this kind of travel until the Trains Siberian Railway decades later.

In 1993 I set off on my first world trip in an attempt to Overland it to Europe, starting from Melbourne! Months followed and after a traverse of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand I had at last discovered India and Nepal for 5 months of intrepidity, which almost changed my life.

From New Delhi I got really high and flew Aeroflot to Prague, via Moscow. 18 hours in the no-man's land of the Sheremetyevo II transit lounge was interesting enough spent with it's multitude of African refugees trying to get into "fortress Europe". The privilage of the Kangaroo and Emu coat of arms on my passport worked wonders, unlike the poor souls from countries to the likes of Burkina Faso. Some of them had been there for weeks. I gave out Indian oranges to a man from Nigeria who thought it was Christmas receiving such a gift of fresh fruit.

At last in Europe, a kind of "mecca" for those from the far fringes of the globe. Sooner or later I arrived on that dumping ground of many a weary traveller - Amsterdam. This city became my home for five "interesting" months, where I lived with some 45 people in a "kraaked" (squatted) school, all world wanderers in search of a temporary home. However I had no "real" job and was largely in a foreign land and after 15 months, all up, I came back home with empty pockets, but full with worldly dreams. I soon discovered that I was fully infected by the travel bug.

Since I have travelled abroad twice, where I attained an artist residency in Budapest in 1998, then lived and worked in South Korea as an ESL teacher in 2003 / 04 financing my overland travels from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Now I have travelled to some 40 countries in total. But the number of countries one goes to isn't important, as it is how one goes about their travels. This I really discovered while walking 720KM across Spain - on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in late 2004. My most recent journey was completed by bicycle in 2009 - from where I cycled some 9000KM from Singapore to Cape Finisterre, during the course of my Cape to Cape Tour.

Patrick Leigh Fermor in his home studio in 2004

As a fond traveller and budding travel writer myself in October 2004 I had the great pleasure into meeting one of my favourite travel authors - Patrick Leigh Fermor at his studio home in Greece. The late (10th May 2011) travel writer has a prolific writing career to his legacy - beginning with his first publication "The Travellers Tree" in 1950. But it has been with his two publications "A Time of Gifts" and "Between the Woods and the Water" where he gained a following of insightful armchair travellers - these works part of a planned trillogy of his walk across Europe in 1932 / 33. It is much anticipated by his followers that posthumously the "third volume" of this adventure is published some time in the not to distant future.

It has also been through the recommended works of many other 20th century travel authors who've fueled my thirst to go boldly where few men or women have gone before. Or at least to gain insight into what the many men and women, whom have travelled ahead of me, had not done before!

In 2007 I completed writing a short book about my 2002 Melbourne to Darwin Bicycle Tour titled "The Outback Bicycle Diaries". It a 40 page travelogue of the journey which inspired me to undertake the Cape to Cape Tour of 2008 / 09. A free PDF download is now available from my web site by going to www.cape2cape.info

Below is a shortlist of my favourites, not in order of good to bad, just in order of off the top of my mind:

Patrick Leigh Fermor: "A Time of Gifts"

Robert Byron: "The Road to Oxiana"

Bruce Chatwin: "In Patagonia"

Paul Theroux: "Dark Star Safari"

Dervla Murphy: "The Ukimwi Road"

Bill Bryson: "Down Under"

Sydney Powell: "The Adventures of a Wanderer"

ET Emmett: "Tasmania by Road and Track"

Richard Pape: "Cape Cold to Cape Hot"

William Dalrymple: "From the Holy Mountain"

Captain Antonio Zetto: "Globe Trotting - A Ten Years Walk"

Nicholas Crane: "Clear Waters Rising"

8840KM later I'm in Santiago de Compostela

I far to often get itchy feet - to get going again and be on my way! Infact in 2004 this is what l did indeed do thus becomming a "cultural pilgrim". Travelling from the Pacific in East Asia (South Korea - although it's at the East Sea or Sea of Japan, depending on what side you live on) to the Atlantic, Galicia in NW Spain isn't any short walk in the woods. This intrepidation of mine took me via Siberia, on that great railway journey from Beijing to Moscow, from where reluctantly I hopped on a plane and flew to the Country of Georgia. It was however my original intension of commencing on a grand walking tour of southern Europe and finishing up at Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrimage of a sort it was, after being a tourist for several months, since I abandoned buses and trains and went in full trust of my shoes and walked some 720KM to the Apostlistic city dedicated to the patron saint to travellers - Santiago de Compostela.

During the 9 months of my recently completed Cape to Cape Tour I made a rather lengthy pilgrimage to from Singapore to Cape Finisterre, via Santiago de Compostela, along the camino in 2009.

In 2010 I completed a 360KM walk from Devonport to SE Cape Tasmania, via country back roads through the Tasmanian Midlands and Hobart, in a demonstration for a proposed Camino Australia.

The Dragon and the Peacock

Graffiti art facinates me alot. One of the first activities I undertake, when arriving into a new place, is to search the back streets and find out what's on their walls. It's certainly not that narcissistic tag one find everywhere, nor even a masterpiece of "subway style" aerosole painting which grabs me, but rather the work from unknown artist. It may be a chalk drawing of an angel, done by a child in Berlin, or it could be an etching into stone by some 17th century watchtower guard depicting his ideal of the "fast" horse. Street art may be those fake tattoos, rubbed onto a wall, found in many varied locations, be it in Nice's old town or as far a field as Busan in South Korea. These are only a few examples of found street art which intrigues me most. Nonetheless stencil art has emerged as a highly respected art medium and has had a real revival in recent years. My home town of Melbourne becomming one of the major world centres for this activity.

Bicycling at Uluru

So who is this Intrepid Duck? In 1998 I found a rubber bicycle duck horn in Copenhagen which I dubed the Intrepid Duck. In 2002 it became my mascot for my 5000KM Melbourne to Darwin Cycling Trek. It continues to guide me intrepidly to other places!

This picture was directed by myself and shot by an anonymous British car bound tourist. As you would know by now that the Intrepid Duck is not anonymous, and is certainly not car bound. Although I must addmit that "it's" androgynous! It, that's the Duck, came from Denmark and joined me in Europe and travelled along inside my backpack. It went onto the first bicycle I got my hands on and got "its" official title in 2001 when I launched my travel images related business - Intrepid Duck cards. In 2002 I dubbed my bicycle the "Intrepid Duck" in honour of the "great" bird thus completing my 4915Km Melbourne - Darwin Bicycling Trek. Check out my Australian pages for details of my bicycle touring adventures.

It was during the entire course of my recently completed Cape to Cape Tour where I was once again accompanied by the Intrepid Duck.

Intrepid Duck's view of Dove Lake and Cradle Mtn.

This is perhaps my real home although I have never lived there for any great length of time. Somehow I keep going back there, but as soon as I've settle down I am as restless as ever to leave. It's a great place to go to get away from it all for some time, re-charge and then step out to see the world with open eyes once again.

As part of my training for the Cape to Cape Tour I made a 1700KM Tassie Bicycle Tour in 2007. However in 2010 I completed a 360KM walk from Devonport to SE Cape Tasmania, via country back roads through the Tasmanian Midlands and Hobart, in a demonstration for a proposed Camino Australia.