Cade Lucas
Cezary Carmichael and Leo Norman didn’t grow up near the Maribyrnong River, but both say they wouldn’t be where they are now without spending time there as kids.
Where Carmichael and Norman are now is Adelaide, on the final stretch of an epic bike ride and bird watching journey around Australia that doubles as a fundraiser for schools in Timor Leste.
Just how a 19 and 18 year old just out of high school ended up circumnavigating the entire continent on two wheels can be traced back to their formative years riding over to the western suburbs from Fitzroy.
“We’d go riding our bikes along the Maribyrnong River and go bird watching,” said Carmichael.
“Like any young kids, you use your bikes as this sort of tool to get out and have a bit of freedom and for us, bird watching was just a great way to connect with that local bit of bushland.”
Along with the Maribyrnong, Carmichael and Norman would also venture to Brimbank Park and in the other direction, to the wetlands near Hobsons Bay, to go bird watching.
“Particularly around Jawbone Conservation Reserve looking for shorebirds there. That was always great fun,” Carmichael recalled.
“Cheetham Wetlands was another great place we’d go looking for birds growing up.”
But as great a bird watching destination as the Hobsons Bay wetlands are, there’s only a certain amount of species that can be seen there.
So with a desire to see as many different birds as Australia has to offer, a fundraising cause they were passionate about and school out of the way, the pair began their odysseey on January 1, setting off from Melbourne and heading north.
“We made our way up to Brisbane, and then went through sort of central Queensland, after that Darwin, through the Kimberley, down through the Pilbara in Western Australia, through the southwest after hitting Perth, then onto the Nullarbor, down through the Eyre Peninsula and across to Adelaide,” said Carmichael sketching out the route they’ve peddled with only sleeping bags and tents for accommodation.
Apart from a breakdown on the way into Adelaide, it’s all gone without incident, though as Carmichael described it, even this had an upside.
“I hitch-hiked a ride on a milk truck and put the bike in the back, and then I realised that the bloke driving the milk truck was Tony Modra.”
Now after getting a lift with an Adelaide Crows legend, travelling 13,000km, viewing 626 bird species and raising $115,000, the pair have less than 1000 kilometers to go before they reach Melbourne on November 1, exactly 10 months since starting out.
“It’ll probably be strange moving back to a normal sort of life in Melbourne,” said Carmichael of how he and Norman will adjust.
“I think the main priority when we get back will be to get a job because we’re running up pretty low on our savings.”
To donate and for more information, visit: shorturl.at/PjUve
