The Millicent public library

From the minute we moved from home to Hotel Jazz we have become suddenly and almost shockingly dependent on those precious public spaces and facilities we continue to provide for each other. We eat on park benches, fill up at water fountains, shower at the beach and brush our teeth at the public toilets.

But above all these are the most precious of all public resources, libraries. And South Australia does libraries well. Really well.

In Mt Gambier all the most 'youth' books about vampires and loneliness and angsty sex are located close to the doors (to better lure them in) and the kids section has fibreglass caves. There are also silver science fiction villain chairs to read in. And a cafe. It's the greatest.

In the new Adelaide city library in Rundle Mall you can read a book in the roof garden or make a cup of tea. YOU CAN MAKE A CUP OF TEA! And their Spanish language selection would save us (me) a fortune.

At Glenelg the helpful librarian gave us wifi guest passes that are valid for two years and can be used in any public library in South Australia.

But for us it all started at Millicent, where we first crept into the tranquil warmth and shyly asked about internet access before discreetly pulling out our powerboard and recharging everything.

I overheard the group leader of a senior's internet class saying 'you can have as many email addresses as your want... gmail, hotmail, yahoo.. and they're all free!' This was followed by impressed murmurings. Hours later the songs and clapping of story time floated by.

The Tiger Hotel

Luckily, we arrived in Tantanoola on a Schnitzel Wednesday at the Tiger Hotel.

Tantanoola has a population somewhere around 300 people and is off the highway. What it does have is a post office/general store, a wide grassy and shaded railway reserve through the centre of town and the Tiger Hotel. 

The town makes campers welcome with clean public toilets (there is a 24 oncall number on the wall by the wash basin). In return there seems to be an unspoken agreement that the campers eat at the hotel and support the store. 

It seems a great strategy for a small rural town - a way of sustaining local businesses that then can continue to support their towns. 

Our Rojito was among a dozen vans parked under the trees on the railway reserve in the company of a couple of shirtless backpackers in sunglasses charging their phones in the abandoned station house and a fleet of well equipped grey nomads checking their tires.

We dutifully wandered over to the Tiger for an early dinner. It's the sort of warm and friendly place where you are served a giant portion and then given a plate on which to pile salad from the unlimited salad bar. 

In the middle of all this good natured abundance we, shamefully, ordered a single schnitzel with mettwurst - to share. When the lovely and unperturbed waitress offered us two salad plates and two sets of cutlery, we left the second salad plate conspicuously unfilled (and didn't go for seconds) hoping they would at least notice us not taking further advantage of their generosity.  

This was the night we first tested the Jazz's capacity as a camper, with limited success. Luis is somewhere in the vicinity of six foot two and I'm no waif. To the Jazz's credit, we had foolishly prioritised fitting all our camping gear in the front seats, to the detriment of maximal space for the lilo. Beginners mistake that. Anything water proof now goes under the car.

We may look happy here but that's mainly relief at getting the doors closed.
It was downhill from there.

The namesake tiger, by the way, was actually an arctic wolf shot by the fearless locals some time in the nineteenth century. They stuffed it. It's in the pub. What an arctic wolf was doing in rural South Australia is the unanswered question.

Behind the scenes

Since I was last at the Twelve Apostles (admittedly some time ago now), there have been some changes. I remember a remote, rugged coastline. I think I remember it in winter.

Apparently this stretch of coast is now a premium tourist icon. Red helicopters constantly fly overhead and buses race to overtake each other to snaffle a prime parking position in giant car parks. 

In response to all this interest, the local authorities have come up with a somewhat genius idea to keep people on the official tracks. 

Where new tracks are in danger of being created through the cliff top bush, presumably from people offroading in search of a new photo angle, a post has been erected that makes the danger clear. 

The Lock Ard Gorge was an essential stop on our itinerary as, ever a fan of historical reenactment, I had recently insisted that Luis and I visit the Maritime Museum in Warrnambool. Either my childhood memories are grossing exaggerated or it has seen livelier days. 

It does however contain the Loch Ard peacock and many other relics from the famous wreck so I was keen to salvage something of the outing by going to visit the site of the wreck itself.

By the time we arrived we were a little overtired. Luis took one look and declared that this would be where we were going to eat and recuperate from our early start and the hectic days of packing leading up to it.

So we sat on our camp chairs in the shade of a no doubt perilous overhanging cliff and watched the waves. Waves off the Southern Ocean scouring the far side of the gorge and waves of tourists descending to take pictures of each other as each busload arrived.

The 'star jump of holiday joy' seemed to be a favourite with up to four attempts in action at any one time. It seems tricky. You have to time it just so, so that you capture, in focus, a flattering hair flying peak-of-jump moment. It seems harder still if you want one of more friends also in the shot. And when the guy taking it is just some guy you happened to be sitting next to on the bus and you have 20 minutes down in the gorge before you have to climb back onto the bus again, it's a tense negotiation to keep him retaking the same shot until you are happy with it.

From our corner behind the scenes we stirred our stew from a can on the camp stove we had balanced on a rock in the sand and felt very relaxed.

 

Los rojitos

In March 2014, my partner Luis and I started travelling through Australia in our unmistakably on-road and urban Honda Jazz. This little red car (Rojito) will, we hope, take us west from Melbourne across to WA, north along the coast to Darwin and back down south over the next 6 months or so.

While others hire or buy a camper (and after a week on the road, we can see why!) we decided to take the road less travelled and do the trip using our family car and making full use of the Jazz's phenomenal tardis capabilities by squeezing all our gear in the two front seats and stuffing a lilo in the back.

This is both an economic decision and a personal challenge. We are on our way to live in Colombia (Luis' home) for a while and wanted to see some of Australia before we went. But seeing as we both quit our (day) jobs to do this, have a mortgage to pay and need our savings for our imminent relocation half way around the world, we are on a pretty tight budget.

We also both have a passion for alternative economics - a phrase I am probably misusing to refer to ways of creating, distributing and sharing value outside of the formal economy in ways that enable people and communities to meet their needs and generate income on their own terms, especially those excluded or disadvantaged by the formal economy.

(We met, as it happens, through Couchsurfing).

I also believe that the only just way out of our endlessly unfolding environmental catastrophe is to radically revalue material resources. That is, make the best possible use of what we have so we don't have to dig up/chop down/burn more.

So this trip is both an adventure in discovering Australia and the people who live and work here (outside inner Melbourne that is) and in exploring some of the potential of alternative economics.

As we go we are trying as far as possible to participate in exchange networks, make use of public services and public places and learn to value what we have.