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| Paul, a welfare worker - 5000 ks and counting |
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| Welcome stopover between NT and Queensland |
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| A local |
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| A colourful local |
We pass numerous long distance cyclists on the road, so stopped this one to have a chat.
Paul Martin has done 5,000 ks since setting out from home near Port Macquarie.
He's heading for Perth after cycling through far Northern Queensland.
"It's all about participating in life," he says. "I woke up one morning and decided I just had to do this ride, so I asked for an 8 months' break from my work in welfare." (St Vincent de Paul and others.) He copes with the loneliness of long distance riding by talking to himself, he says. His first love is surfing, not cycling!
Paul is a Christian and has a little gold cross on his handlebars.
Interestingly, when we first asked him a question, he took quite a long time answering, as if he had to reach back to find vocabulary after such long separation from human contact. But he grew more chatty as we talked. He is as thin as you can imagine and ate a vast breakfast in the roadhouse diner. He must burn a stack of calories!
