Features Get on Your Bike Former Te Anau Couple Andrew and Gaby Welsh Have Swapped the 9Am to 5Pm Life to Take on the World
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Features Get on your bike Former Te Anau couple Andrew and Gaby Welsh have swapped the 9am to 5pm life to take on the world. Here’s their first instalment in a series of articles to document their trip, written by Andrew. he idea of cycling The Banjo Paterson Route, from Molong to Dubbo, passing through T Wambangalang seemed about as Australian as we were going to find. We were still recovering after a hard couple of days cycling up and over The Great Dividing Range; bitterly cold temperatures including torrential rain and hail had dampened our initial enthusiasm for Australia. After all is this not the country of never ending bushfires, drought and dangerous animals? We needed a couple of days with the sun on our backs and views of those iconic vistas that shout ‘‘Australia’’, to reinvigorate our excitement and plans we had for cycling around Australia. Our cycling journey through New Zealand was always just the entree, the warmup for what will be several years on our bicycles traversing the world, Australia is the challenge that will test our fitness and stamina for taking on even greater challenges like India, China and Central Asia. We decided to start the Australian leg of our journey at Lithgow (just over the Blue Mountains from Sydney) and we are cycling The Great Inland Way from Lithgow to Cairns; a journey of about 2600km, that will take us through the Outback, Queensland Central Highlands and onto Cairns and The Great Barrier Reef. But first we needed to reach Dubbo; the last major town before heading up the Castlereagh Highway and into the New South Wales Outback Region. The Banjo Paterson Route allowed us Andrew beside a classic Ford Fairlane 500. to avoid the busy section of the Mitchell Highway between Dubbo and Orange, and we would follow what is called ‘‘The Animals on Bikes’’ sculptures created by local farmers. There are more than 200 sculptures along the 120km of road with the first sculpture, an ant, on the outskirts of Molong and the last, a zebra, just before Dubbo. Along the route we also passed through (and stopped for a curry pie and coffee) at Yeoval which is the childhood home of Australian poet Banjo Paterson, who lived nearby, and many of his poems reflect this area, his most famous being Waltzing Matilda. The initial hills on the outskirts of Molong were steady but not steep; no need for the granny gear but enough to require a bit of effort in the pedaling. Both Gaby and I have a different approach to cycling up hills. If I am first, Gaby uses my effort as motivation (after all, if I can get up towing a trailer then she can) and if Gaby is first there is no way I am going to drop off and let her beat me. Of course, Gaby has the minor limiting factor of osteoarthritis to contend with so I am always happy to stop at the top for a breather, a drink and take in the scenery. ‘‘Too young and not severe enough’’ has been the advice from orthopedic specialists to Gaby regarding her osteoarthritis. Apparently, her age and fitness would mean that a hip replacement now would most likely need to be repeated in her later years and orthopedic surgeons do not generally like undertaking revision surgery. Darcy’s Old Wares, Lucknow, owner Kerry Condon. Cycling is a great low impact exercise for osteoarthritis of the hips so here we are, cycling around the world. Of course, Gaby’s osteoarthritis was something we had never planned on, or anticipated, so our trip has been planned around managing it. Upon leaving school, Gaby worked as a pharmacy technician in Switzerland after undertaking a three-year apprenticeship. Her Italian father and Swiss mother meant a variety of languages were spoken at home and she added to these by working in Spain and England as an au pair. Being able to speak six languages has its benefits for travelling and there have been few places we have travelled to where we weren’t able to converse with the locals. I have never had the patience and I much prefer the practicalities of life. My boyhood ambition was always to be a soldier and I joined the New Zealand Army as a regular force cadet while in the 6th form at St Peter’s College in Gore. I spent a great deal of time in the mountains (both for work and recreation) and after eight years in the army, I travelled to work and climb in Europe. Our cycle route takes us through the outback. It was here that Gaby and I met and later were married in Switzerland. children, Grace and Mark, at the Aoraki did a small stint on Stewart Island before showing no signs of fear, hopped out on After 18 months of me working for the Mt Cook Primary School. resigning to take up the position of the road in front of us to observe a couple Swiss Railways and Gaby working in a Through my work with the DOC manager for the Milford Sound of Kiwi cyclists cruising along a back- local pharmacy, in 1993 we moved back Alpine Rescue Team, I spent three Development Authority at Milford country road in blazing sunshine before to New Zealand to live and work. summers working with the Air Zermatt Sound. jumping a fence and disappearing into Our combined love of the outdoors Rescue Team in Switzerland and We spent nine years in Te Anau and it the bush. eventually saw us move to Aoraki Mt attending various mountain rescue was here that Gaby and I developed the This was the Australia that we had Cook to work for The Department of conferences as a guest speaker. plan for an extended bicycle tour around anticipated, the type of experience that Conservation (DOC); Gaby worked as a We travelled as a family while I was the world. makes cycle touring an adventure and so ranger in business services and I was working in Switzerland and spent many It was glorious cycling from Molong to worthwhile. From Dubbo we head into team leader for emergency services, with summers exploring Asia and Europe Dubbo; large flocks of parakeets, the outback, it just gets better. the key focus being The Alpine Rescue with our children. cockatiels, galah, and magpies were ❚ Andrew Welsh is a former general Team. To provide a high school education to filling the air with their calls and making manager for the Milford Sound This was very much a ‘‘dream’’ job for Grace and Mark, we moved from to Te the most of the significant areas of Development Authority, and his wife, me and we spent eight years at Aoraki Anau. bushland and eucalyptus trees. Gaby, used to work for the Department of Mt Cook raising and schooling our two Gaby transferred within DOC and I The sun was shining and a kangaroo, Conservation in Te Anau..