“
It’s funny how the emotions
hit you all of a sudden,”
wrote Steph Jeavons back
in December of 2014 as
she headed toward another
continent on an epic ride
around the world. She described it as
if “Just being woken up” and realising
“what is happening”.
Steph was on her way to Austra-
lia, the third continent on a ride that
would see her touch all seven conti-
nents. She’d already covered 32,000
kilometres across two continents
aboard her little Honda CRF250L.
Touching down in the capital city
of Australia’s top end, Darwin, Steph
was immediately greeted with friend-
ly enthusiasm as she prepared for
what she had been told could be a
nightmare of Australian bureaucracy,
quarantine control.
It’s well known that Australia has
strict biosecurity regulations, the iro-
ny often lost on travellers who don’t
realise that the island continent has
possibly more introduced ‘feral’ spe-
cies than anywhere else on earth. As
in Steph’s case, careful preparation
made things so much easier. Steph
had cleaned her bike to the point that
the quarantine inspectors understood
this and appreciated the effort. A tiny
amount of dirt brought in on the bike
could be cleaned on the spot. As Steph
said, “I found myself dealing with rea-
sonable people”.
Finding Darwin much smaller than
anticipated, this was perhaps Steph’s
first indicator that Australia is wide-
spread and far more remote than peo-
ple understand. It’s also a great land of
contrasts.
“I was looking forward to getting
out in to the bush and setting up my
first camp,” she commented. “As I was
setting up, a little Wallaby came over
to investigate. He was surprisingly
friendly and didn't shy away from me
at all.”
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