Today we decided to try hitchhike to Katherine in order to save ourselves time, money and the possibility of dying in the hot weather. I had a bit of an argument with Davi in the morning as I was eager to keep cycling, however Davi believed that I was in too bad of a state to keep going. I said I know my body and what I can do and that I'm confident to keep going, however he believed I didn't look too good and that we shouldn't keep going. I don't know how much of it was him not wanting to go and how much of it was genuine. Admittedly I was vomiting two days before and I was on the edge of dropping off the bike the day before so I do appreciate his opinion, however I'm well aware of my limits. I realised he was going to continue arguing black and blue that he's fine and right to go but out of worry for me he wouldn't go, so I just realised he didn't want to cycle and the only option was getting a lift further up north. I realised the only way forward was to hitchhike or if we had no luck then to get the bus, which we were informed leaves 6am each morning stopping all towns on the way to Darwin. It costs $100 so we were determined all day to hitchhike instead.
As we sat around the roadhouse we started asking all people pulling in if we could get a ride up north. Many of the people had no room or they were heading south. Davi and I joked around that they all must of been freaking out, seeing two bearded up zombie looking guys wander up and ask for a lift. Having the bikes with all our gear certainly made our chances a bit hard too.
So we waited at the BP roadhouse all day, from early morning and then we ended up sleeping at the front of it during the night. This was a very interesting experience, as Thursday is payday for the community out here. On top of it there was a funeral in the community so it was pretty busy earlier in the morning. We got to meet nearly the whole community throughout the day as they seemed to come back to the roadhouse about 9 or 10 times throughout the day. This roadhouse has the second food store for the town, with there being one other a km away. It's more or less the same price as the other one in town but I'm pretty sure the other one does not sell alcohol.
It was interesting talking to everyone and also seeing the progression of soberness to drunkness throughout the day/evening. I thought to my self it would be a good program to watch on television with the time throughout the day being fast forwarded, so you could see everyone come in, the type of rubbish they buy, conversations we've/they've had and then the way the community finish u in the night. The roadhouse has a limit of one six pack per person and in order to keep record they write each persons name down (photo attached). You can imagine how hard this is, with the whole community coming in at once buying alcohol, having to write down each name and try serve customers at the same time. This measure I do believe is a valuable one and something I think is better to have in place, even how unconventional it sounds. I was informed by one of the fellas today that payday, coming in once a week on Thursdays, is $1000 clear. A lot of government money indeed, but one must still remember how much government money is wasted in emergency wards, paramedics and social welfare across the whole country for Caucasian drug addicts alone.
I had at least 7 people ask me to buy a six pack for them, as they'd already purchased their one for the day. I had one lady desperately asking and almost crying when I kept refusing. I told most of the people that I'd already bought a six pack for the day so unfortunately couldn't buy another. One of the guys nearly caught me out and had asked me to go to the hotel a hundred metres down the road and buy some there, and I responded by saying I'd bought a few Jack Daniels earlier on and the guy working wrote my name down. The same lady who was desperate had also offered me money to buy some for her. Although I love an opportunity to make money there was no chance I could partake in doing that. The lady appeared pretty intoxicated already so she must of really been trying to wipe her self out. As Davi was standing with me trying to answer in a polite way that he couldn't buy drinks either, I asked him quietly "Do you think if this lady was pregnant she'd stop drinking?" Davi looked a bit bewildered by the comment and responded by simply saying "I don't know". This was a rather poignant moment as I'd had a few discussions with him previously about the state of outback communities and the fact alcohol destroys lives. He was previously under the opinion Aboriginal people should be able to buy as much alcohol as they want, the same view with many other progressive people living in big a city, disconnected from the reality of rural communities. Yes I believe it's a racist policy saying one race can't buy and another can. No I don't think Aboriginal shouldn't be banned from drinking and white people not. It makes me even more angry seeing white guys walk in and buy beer than it does watching Aboriginal people. The reality is, close to 1 in 2 children from communities in North West Australia had alcohol foetal syndrome in 2012 alone. This illness is around for life- in reality it should be a severe criminal charge as the child will be disadvantaged for their entire life. I certainly wonder if a progressive humanitarian person from a big city would still argue for open drinking laws when they see these statistics and the impact on communities first hand.
While this was happening we were still trying to hitch a ride. It reminded me of the State election that just went by, as I was approaching every person pulling in with a smile as a tried to think of a catch phrase to rope them in. A common one I was using, "G'day how are ya? I have two questions- are you heading north? And can I get a lift?". I realised that as the community were becoming drunk they were hanging out with us even more, any passers by would of assumed we were all together. The fact Davi and I looked pretty scruffy, and also that half the town were yelling out to us as a we'd be talking to a driver it looked a bit suspicious that we were trying to hitch rides.
On occasion as a car would pull in to fill up I'd be competing with a local, as I'd ask for a lift and the local would ask for a six pack. In the end we had no luck and realised our best bet was to wait to the morning and get the bus up north. Although the bus cost around $100 I feel that we will save a $100 in drinks and food from the expensive road houses over the next few days. Catching a bus to Katherine will mean we cut 4 days off from cycling.
Davi and I decided not to set up the tent in the same place as last night, as seeing it was payday today there would be a lot of drunk people walking around and perhaps might make an uncomfortable sleep. We didn't want to pay for setting up the tent, with BP charging $30 and the other camp ground that is $10 being a km away from the bus pick up. We decided to sit at the park bench in front of the roadhouse and hopefully doze off and be up an ready for the bus at 6am. It was pretty funny as late in the afternoon as the day was winding up two white fellas pulled up in a ute with a flat tyre. As all the locals were around in full flight, yelling and screaming I'm assuming asking the two white fellas for a six pack too, me and Davi just laughed. The desperation from the white fellas to change their tyre and get out was unbelievable, I'd never seen anyone move so quickly. They must of surely been too nervous to hang around or any bit of time. Davi and I had a good laugh as we sat down on the bench while the whole town walked off drinking.
We cooked some lentils up an had our friend Darryl come over to say G'day for maybe the 5th time today. He's an interesting fella and I've enjoyed chatting to him. I was surprised when I asked how old he was, as I would of assumed 60 odd, but was informed he was in his 40s. A common surprise I've had in many aboriginal communities, not sure what fast tracks this ageing process so much, but my only guess can be alcohol, sugar drinks, junk food, cigarettes and perhaps sun.
Fingers crossed we have no trouble over night!
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