Back to civilisation

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After surviving huge clouds of grasshoppers blasting their way through the bush, we finally arrived where you can smell exhaust fumes (reed exâââs, as pronounced by Quebeckers). All of the sudden, streets were full of faces wearing large sun glasses and store windows with useless knick-knacks or more trendy clothes. Restaurants were inviting us with colourful foods (Hurray, more salads!) and tables happily set under the autumn sun. As you might imagine, the town seems to have sucked-up a little of the good nature of rural residents. Already, my smiles and “g’day” fell flat and forgotten, answered by only half the people I met.

I remembered my first steps on American soil, after my long adventure in Latin America. How afraid I was! Afraid to never find the brotherhood shared between strangers, so present in villages. Here, it’s mainly the rest area brotherhood I was missing, and of course, the feeling of security from the almost deserted streets, only filled with parrot’ songs and heavy truck’s noises. Australia is magnificent for so many reasons, one of them being its rest area system organised for campers. You can sleep there for free, sometimes with just the stars for friends and sometimes rocked by the non-stop rumbling noise of the road trains. The land of koalas being huge, road trains is greatly valued by its residents. In rest areas, tight-knit communities form every night. There, permanent or occasional caravanists share their stories, political views or adventures of their children abroad. All this, sitting around with an Aussie beer, which is a sort of yellowish and very bitter liquid (thanks Quebec for your good beers!). So I apprehended an arduous adaptation to the urban environment, but I also knew it would be rounded up with astonishment by the ton-fold.

As Marc told you, our first incursion into “Babylon” was awarded with an attack in a family park. Such a hard blow to the global heart; to my heart of universal mother, to my heart of human rights righter (and who aspire to be more actively). There are so many children without childhood. Thanks to all my friends who guide their own so marvellously on this Earth and to parents who guided them so well and continue to do so I’m sure. We needed not to fear for our security, being surrounded by many families on a sunny Sunday, but scores of thoughts to reflect on topics sometimes seeming to have no way out. We were disappointed to see that notwithstanding our genuine interest and faith in the richness of the Aborigines people, we often found its members in unsettled social situation. The fate of conquered people is so challenging and crucially sad. However, it’s important to mention that the kid who hit Marc was one of the two White kids of the gang. Maybe, it doesn’t mean anything, or maybe sociologists might find an interesting explanation to this phenomenon. Despite this incident, we continue to carry interest to every culture and chiefly take advantage of the windfall of ethnic and eclectic meetings the town provides us with. We arrive in Melbourne with a smile on our face and goodwill in our gear.

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