12 IssuE 7 VERTIGO Fantastic MR Fox worDs Alex vAnny
there are the ‘true blue’ Aussies and there are the ‘city slickers’. But who knows the most about Australia? And how do we determine this? Today, being a master of the barbeque and the slab of beer is not enough to show the true Aussie spirit. Graeme ‘Fox’ Howard is a rugged man, covered head to toe in a seemingly random assortment of tattoos with a thick black beard. Cigarette smoke billows around him in the air as he talks, and a small pet parrot named Sunny pops her head out from under his thick jacket as if to say hello. In 1988, the year of Australia’s bicentenary, Fox was 33 years old and thought the world had reached its end. “It was a time when I was just sick of people,” he says. “I genuinely thought the world was going to end and when I returned to Byron Bay in 1989, I was very disappointed to see humans.” Fox had walked across the Nullarbor Plain (a huge, semiarid part of Southern Australia covering some 200 000 square kilometres), and back again, finally finishing in Byron Bay. Fox wasn’t too keen on humans at the time, yet he didn’t complete his challenge alone. He walked and camped for 365 days alongside six camels which carried drums of water, food and camping provisions. So how did this all come about? In 1988, to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary, a camel race was hosted by Australian millionaire Arthur Earle. Its mission was to “recognise the positive impact that camels had on the development of Australia and highlight the importance they had in exploration and transportation in central Australian deserts.” The race consisted of 100 individuals riding on camelback from Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory to Queensland’s Gold Coast. Fox had worked with horses all of his life and was a skilled and experienced horseman. Prior to the race he was asked to assist in the catching and training of 100 camels for the event. The camels were to be caught on the Queensland and Northern Territory border. Armed with a lasso and a big packet of jellybeans, Fox stood on the back of a four-wheel drive coaxing the wild animals before loading them into a nearby truck. “You have no idea how easy camels are to train. They just love jellybeans.” As a condition of Fox’s assistance, he asked for six camels to assist him in his adventure across the Australian desert after the camel race had concluded. They remained his loyal companions with the exception of one mishap; the camels left him stranded for three days in the middle of nowhere after Fox “smacked a naughty camel on the nose.” Luckily they returned for their beloved jellybeans, and the journey continued. Walking through the cool of night across the vast landscape and sleeping during the hot day, Fox lived on damper and muesli. His camels roamed the plains nearby as he rested, returning for their damper and jellybeans in time to depart again. The railway and the sea acted as Fox’s guide, preventing him from getting lost. He walked and walked, meeting tourists along the way who treated him occasionally to luxuries such as fresh fruit, vegetables and even meat. With two huge drums of muesli, dried fruit and flour, Fox made damper for breakfast, lunch and dinner, mixing in any extras he had caught, found or been given that day. His best friends were a warm fire, six brown camels and a railway line. “I saw how totally incompetent the British settlers must “You have no idea how easY camels aRe to tRain. theY just love jellYbeans.” have been to end up dying out here,” he says. “As soon as they ran out of food they had brought from England, they let themselves die instead of living off the land. There were plenty of birds and plants and safe drinking water out there. They didn’t use what Australia provided.” Following a lonely railway line across four Australian States and Territories, on foot, and accompanied by six camels is certainly a challenge. But Graeme “Fox” Howard, now 58 years old, would have had it no other way. Having really seen Australia like no other, Fox is full of knowledge and understanding about our great land and its history. A true traveller, Fox has an enormous appreciation for our land in all its fullness. Walking throughout central Australia, black, tangled dreadlocks hanging down his back with skin covered in grit and sweat, Fox may look different today. But his sense of adventure remains the same. Fox has just left for South Africa where he will be catching wild buffalo for a local program. . VERTIGO IssuE 7 13
Change language