RUST magazine: RUST Australia Special

prominence of the geology that’s been
millennia in the making, some of it
from the thousands of years the
Aboriginal people have cared and
shared with the land, and part due to
the Victorian, Georgian and Art Deco
buildings that still dominate so many
towns in Australia. And of course, a big
flat earth and even bigger skies make
for the most incredible stargazing.
In such circumstances the
motorcycle riding could have taken
a back seat. And in a fashion it did,
but actually it was the riding, this
immediate connection, all day long,
between you and the environment
that made the tour all that more
intense. To travel with the hot wind on
your face, washing over your clothes,
to feel the dry, to savour the wet, to
sweat in the deep and to cough
through the dust, is to experience the
world untamed, undiluted.
In a year when I was lucky enough
to ride in exotic locations such as
Thailand and Madagascar, not to
forget the Azores, Australia proved to
be the ride, the experience, I’ll savour
the most. As Herbert said afterwards,
a huge smile plastered across his
whiskered face, “this was the ride
everyone dreams of”. It certainly was,
and now it fuels a hunger for more…
JB
Editorial