Dreaming Again

September 29, 2016
by Rodney Olsen
12 Comments

perth-to-canberra-1987

Last night I had that same old dream, it rocked me in my sleep, and left me the impression that the sandman plays for keeps. – Larry Norman

I did indeed have the same old dream last night. It’s a dream that comes around now and then.

I dreamed about preparing to cycle across Australia.

Let me assure you it was a good dream. It wasn’t a panicked nightmare that had me waking up in a cold sweat. It was a happy dream. A very happy dream.

The dream was another reminder that it’s been way too long since my last Nullarbor crossing in 2003 when I rode from Perth to Hobart. It seems almost a lifetime away from my first of five crossings back in 1987. The picture above is me looking a bit nervous in Kings Park as I was about to begin a ride from Perth to Canberra. (Click on the photo to get a better look at my worried face.)

I’ve cycled across Australia in my twenties, my thirties and my forties. I’m now in my fifties and while nothing’s in concrete, I’m making plans for another crossing. Probably in 2018.

While my heart remembers endless days of cycling, battling wind, rain and hills, and the thrill of overcoming, my body keeps trying to remind me it’s not as young as it once was. Even the gap between my 1990 ride to Adelaide and my 2000 ride to Sydney let me know that body parts wear out and a lot more training is needed to go the distance. I can’t even imagine the amount of preparation my body would need to get ready for another crossing.

1987 – Perth to Canberra
1988 – Perth to Canberra
1990 – Perth to Adelaide
2000 – Perth to Sydney
2003 – Perth to Hobart

I’ve taken part in dozens of rides throughout Western Australia and even a couple on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, but none of them compare to pushing the pedals for thousands of kilometres to cross our wide, brown land.

So … are you interested in taking a month to ride across Australia? Let me know and I’ll keep you informed if anything comes together. 🙂

In the mean time, I’m only a couple of weeks away from my annual ride from Albany to Perth, the Ride for Compassion. If you want to support children in poverty through Compassion, you can donate via this link.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to ride across the Nullarbor again, but I can certainly keep dreaming …. and planning.

Do you have any big dreams you’d like to fulfill? Are you making plans towards those dreams? Take a first step and share that dream in the comments section of this post.



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Has Honesty Died?

January 25, 2011
by Rodney Olsen
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Some are suggesting that Ghazi Adra is the most honest man in Australia. Why? Because he handed in $50 000 that wasn’t his.

Mr Adra found a cooler bag stuffed with five neat bundles of $US100 notes on a Sydney train and took it to a police station. He didn’t even think about keeping the money.

In the News.com.au story Honest Aussie battler Ghazi Adra hands in $50,000 found on train we’re told that the 68 year old man shocked police by handing in the money.

He was holding more money than he earns in a year as a storeman at an electrical factory, but Mr Adra never once thought about keeping it, telling his family: “We must go to the police station and hand it in.”

Even the policeman on duty at Mt Druitt was surprised by his honesty.

“The officer said to me, ‘I can’t believe you are handing this in, you are a very good man’,” Mr Adra said.

Mr Adra deserves to be congratulated for his honesty, and I wouldn’t want to downplay what he did, but is that kind of honesty really that rare today?

I don’t know how anyone could keep that amount of money if they found it. Would you have kept the money?

Not many of us would be likely to find such a large amount of cash but some of us may find money or other items from time to time. Have you ever found anything valuable? Did you try to find the rightful owner? Would you keep $50 if you found it? What about $100 or $200? What amount would you consider needed to be handed to police?

Have you ever lost something valuable that has been returned?

While cycling I find a number of items on the side of the road. I’ve tracked down owners for several phones and a few other bits and pieces. I found a USB Drive a few days ago. I found the owner’s email address on the drive and have emailed them to arrange its return. I haven’t heard back as yet.



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A step back in time

April 5, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
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A lot has happened over the past year. I won’t bore you with all the details but there have been some fairly major changes and life events within twelve short months.

  • We’ve lost two close family members. Both died way too young.
  • The radio station I work for has moved across the city.
  • We decided to move house and are still going through the ‘sell one house buy another’ process.
  • Our ten year old son James spent five weeks overseas with Pauline’s mum.

There have been plenty of other things happening, most of which can be found in my blog posts from the past year.

On this day last year I was getting ready to leave Perth for an amazing adventure. Below is some of what I wrote early on Saturday morning the 5th of April 2008. At the time I really had no idea what was going to happen.

I’m the only one up in my house at the moment but very soon we’ll all be sharing our last breakfast together for ten days.

I have to be at the airport at around 9:45 to fly out at 10:45. Between now and then I need to put all the clothes my Pauline has so wonderfully prepared for me into my case and then double check that I have everything I need. (I just know I’ll forget something.)

Over the next couple of days I’ll fly from Perth to Sydney then to Los Angeles then Miami and finally on to Haiti. I’ll be in Haiti for around a week before I repeat the entire process in reverse.

I feel totally unprepared but I’m sure that’s what long flights are all about. The flights will give me time to finally stop and soak in the information that I haven’t had time to process so far. I’ll read about Haiti and find out a little bit more of what to expect, I’ll read the instructions to my audio recorder to make sure that I know what I’m doing when I start interviewing people from Compassion and those they serve.

That was the start of my journey with Compassion Australia to see the amazing work they do in developing countries.

Little did I know that I’d only spend a couple of days in Haiti and that we’d have to enlist the services of an armed police escort to get us to the airport to leave the country as fires and violent protests took over the city of Port-au-Prince.

Over the next few days I’ll re-visit some of that trip and look at the highs and the heartbreaks.



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Cities in 2008

December 31, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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Tony Sheng has been to quite a few cities this year.

I can’t boast the sixteen cities he can, but with my trips this year I can list a few. Several of my visits were just airport lounges rather than the cities themselves but I’ll take what I can get.

  1. Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  2. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  3. Los Angeles, California, USA
  4. Miami, Florida, USA
  5. Port au Prince, Haiti
  6. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  7. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

So there you are. Seven. Better than most years for me but still not even close to Tony’s sixteen.

How many cities did you visit in 2008?



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Emily, we miss you

June 16, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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qantasjumbo.jpgEmily might have turned 12 last week but she’s still our little girl, so it wasn’t easy to wave goodbye at the airport on Saturday.

She headed off with her classmates and students from two other local schools for a five hour flight to begin a week long trip to Sydney and Canberra.

I think they’re visiting Toronga Zoo today. Yesterday it was Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Tower. Within the next few days she’ll be visiting Federal Parliament in Canberra as well as lots of other attractions.

The tour involves just over 100 Year 7 students and a group of teachers.

I know that they would have been well behaved but I really did feel for the other passengers on the flight. The looks on their faces were priceless as more and more excited children wandered into the departure area and the realisation hit them that they’d be on the same plane. I hope none of them were hoping for a quiet flight.



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