Intrepidduck's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 13,934 | Have Duck Will Travel...Bicycle Touring the World by Intrepidduck - last update: Jun 15, 2008 |
So Who Is this Intrepid Duck? | The Intrepid Duck at Cape Byron Lighthouse |
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 journies have been on the bicycle - with the Cape to Cape Tour commencing in 2008. |
Bicycle Touring with the Intrepid Duck. 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 is on my proposed Cape to Cape Tour due to commence on 18th September 2008 where I expect that the Intrepid Duck will continue to accompany me on my 14,000 journey from Singapore to Cape Finisterre in Spain. |
| Walking the Camino de Santiago |
Intrepidations of a Cultural Pilgrim. 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. The final weeks of my proposed Cape to Cape Tour will take me along the camino in late 2009 |
Black Cat Cafe: Birthplace of Intrepidations. Reading real letters sent by friends, while hanging out in good coffee houses is where I have really felt at home. From 1st October 1987 to 1996 I spent a considerable amount of my time at one of Melbourne's great coffee establishments the "Black Cat Cafe", now changed hands and transformed. I will never forget that first ever visit spent there, escorted by a friend from college, those afternoon rays of sunlight through the venician blinds and a huge one eyed B/W cat laying across the front counter - his name I would soon learn to know as the inconspicuous Crypto. Over the years following I would frequent this space - read, make drawings, write letters and prose, meet people from all walks of life, tease the waitresses, drink coffee and eat poppy seed cake, look out the window and dream of travel and adventure. In mid 1993 I made the "BC Cafe" my official starting point for an anticipated overland journey to Europe. I can remember one time, after talking with Henry Mass the cafe's founder, on the return of a long absence from Melbourne. He ended our conversation with the truth - "so you always come back to here - this is your home"! Today the BC has become a bar, nonetheless vibrant and a great place for 20 somethings to hang out at. |
Tasmania - My Cerebral Home. 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 my 1700KM Tassie Bicycle Tour in 2007. |
| The Dragon and the Peacock |
Street Art. 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. |
| Patrick Leigh Fermor in his studio |
Travel Literature and Writers. As a fond traveller and budding travel writer myself in 2004 I had the great pleasure into meeting one of my favourite travel authors - Patrick Leigh Fermor at his studio home in Greece. At 90 years of age he has a prolific writing career - 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. However 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 book about my 2002 Melbourne to Darwin bicycle trek titled "The Outback Bicycle Diaries". It a 40 page travelogue of the journey which has inspired me to undertake my Cape to Cape Tour. Details concerning book sales as a PDF download are now available on my own 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"
Marlo Morgan: "Mutant Message Down Under"
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"
Captain Antonio Zetto: "Globe Trotting - A Ten Years Walk"
Nicholas Crane: "Clear Waters Rising" |
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 Comments for Intrepidduck | | | | |
kenHuocj Sat Jul 4, 2009 07:50 UTC
Camino Frances is my choice for a sept 10th departure from SJPP. MAy tips and referrals shall be appreciated ;-))) | Mikebond Sat Jan 10, 2009 16:57 UTC
Happy birthday Sean! Greetings from Italy, Michele | aussiedoug Fri Feb 1, 2008 00:49 UTC
A very belated Happy Birthday to you Sean. What 2 wheeled adventures are planned for you & the duck this year? And I see this a significant milestone too this year. Here's to a great year ahead. | tiabunna Fri Jan 11, 2008 03:10 UTC
A day late, but hoping you had a great Birthday yesterday, Sean, and wishing you good travels (esp for your 'big one') in 2008. |
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