Worlds

We had decided all the way back in May (which now seems like ages ago) to go to the area of north-central Australia around Darwin known colloquially as the “Top End.” But because of the domestic flight patterns in Australia, we needed to go to Melbourne to get to Darwin. And because the world road cycling championships were being held in Melbourne this year, we thought it would be a good idea to wrap it all into one vacation.

And then Chelsea had a great opportunity to go see some of the recent flooding in the Murray-Darling Basin and meet with some local people working on various aspects of water management. So I found myself up at 4 AM in the morning, having packed two big bags of cycling gear (for Melbourne) and hiking gear (for the Top End) as well as two bicycles into bike boxes (from our friendly local bike shop) the previous night. I got the boxes and the bags to the rail terminal, checked in, found a seat on the train, and went straight to sleep. It took a courier truck and a taxi to get me and all of the luggage to the train depot – apparently there are no taxis large enough for bike boxes, and courier services refuse to carry human beings. Oi.

When I woke up from my nap, the train was descending the back side of the Adelaide Hills through the spring countryside of southernmost South Australia. Huge yellow fields of canola are in bloom right now, and the white shapes of young lambs scamper about the green pastures. The flooding had reached this area too – the train often passed lake-sized puddles.

Arriving at Melbourne’s Southern Cross station in the evening, I was met by Geoff Dale (thankfully, because I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage two bike boxes and 30 kilos of other luggage). After a brief day with the Dales, we caught our flight from Melbourne to Darwin. (That’s another story.) After ten days up in the Top End, we returned to Melbourne and the start of Worlds.

The world cycling championships are run annually by the UCI (the international cycling federation) and it is the only significant event where riders race for their country rather than their trade team. So, for example, if you are George Hincapie, you ride for the USA rather than the Swiss-based Team BMC. Denis Menchov rides for Russia instead of his Dutch-run Rabobank team. For people like Heinrich Haussler, born in Australia but raised in Germany, this raises confusing questions (Haussler had been listed as a German rider for a few years, but officially became an Australian for bike racing purposes this last year, just in time to not be selected for the Australian team).

Worlds consists of a road race, where teams of riders compete to see who is first across the finish line, and a time trial (TT), with individual riders trying to ride a course in the fastest time possible. There are races for the men, women, and under-23 men (apparently there aren’t enough under-23 women to make up a field).

Anyway, 2010 was one of the few times that Worlds has been held outside of Europe and the first time they have traveled to the southern hemisphere. The previous year, when Mendrisio, Switzerland hosted Worlds, Cadel Evans had become the first Australian to win the rainbow jersey of world champion. So it was that all of Australia was brimming with pride to have Worlds on their soil. Or at least they were brimming with pride until the week before Worlds, when the AFL Grand Final (sort of the Australian equivalent to the Super Bowl) ended in a tie. Because the rules don’t provide any sort of tie-breaking mechanism, the teams were left with nothing to do except play a repeat game the following weekend. Right during Worlds. That was okay with us, because it meant less people at the race venue, but it was a blow to the race organizers. The Grand Final replay was on Saturday, which was particularly hard for the women’s road race on that day. Women’s cycling gets the shaft enough as it is, so it seemed a bit unfair to the riders that day. Nevertheless, the attendance at the men’s road race on Sunday was in excess of 150,000, significantly more than the 90,000-odd spectators at the Grand Final replay, a good sign for the health of cycling in Australia.

Things kicked off with the time trials on Wednesday and Thursday. Taylor Phinney (“mini-Phinney” and also from Chelsea’s hometown of Boulder, CO) represented the United States admirably, winning the U-23 time trial by a fraction of a second. I guess it helps to be the son of two Olympic gold medalists in cycling. Emma Pooley of Britain capped off a great season by winning the women’s TT, and Fabian Cancellara won the men’s title for the fourth time in his career. The men’s TT was a great event, with Tony Martin coming in third despite having to change a wheel and David Millar putting in a huge effort to grab the silver. Cancellara was hugely impressive – he rode the entire race strongly and in control, making it look easy as he finished about a minute ahead of Millar.



Cyclists celebrate events like the Tour de France or Worlds by going out and riding. Almost every day that we were in Melbourne we rode. Sometimes it was just Chelsea and I, sometimes we rode with Geoff, and on occasion I rode in a small group with Geoff and some other riders. We rode on the local Boulevard, the Melbourne institution of Beach Road, and climbed up into the Dandenongs. We also ate well and frequently, a great part of being at the Dales’ house. Cycling does give one an appetite, and between all of the meals and snacks and afternoon cappuccinos, it is a miracle that I didn’t gain 5 kilos. Maybe Geoff was trying to slow me down for the climbs.

On Friday, we headed down to Geelong for the whole day to watch the men’s U-23 road race. It was a good race to watch, with Ben King (USA) going solo off the front for most of the race. Eventually, despite the two steep climbs on the looped course, the race came down to a sprint and Michael "Bling" Matthews won. The Aussies went crazy for their hometown boy getting the gold medal. Taylor Phinney showed well again, actually tying in a photo finish with an Italian for third. Phinney is going to BMC next year, and it looks like he’ll have a great career ahead of him.


As the Grand Final dominated the nation’s attention on Saturday, the women (most of whom had never heard of the Grand Final) set off to race for 127 km. We watched the race on TV so that Geoff could catch the Grand Final as well as the cycling. The Grand Final replay turned out to be blowout and was effectively over by halftime. However, down in Geelong a great race was brewing, with most of the favorites sticking together at the front up each of the climbs. Emma Pooley put in a huge effort to set up her countrywoman Nicole Cooke, and so when Cooke and Judith Arndt (GER) got free on the last climb, it looked like they had first and second in the bag. However, the run-in to the finish was too long, and the pair was reeled in inside of the last kilometer, setting up a sprint that was won by an anonymous androgynous Italian. Great race, but a bit of a disappointment at the finish.

Finally it was down to the men’s road race on Sunday, which is considered the main event of Worlds. After the obligatory breakaway and some minor skirmishing at the front, the race got serious, with Vincenzo Nibali making the field chase on the climbs. Cadel Evans put in an admirable defense of the title, covering every move for Allan Davis, the Aussies’ sprinter. On the final lap, the pre-race favorite, Phillipe Gilbert of Belgium, made a huge move to get free of the field. However, the long (5 km) flat between the final climb and the finish offered too much time for the main field to hunt Gilbert down and set up the sprint. To my delight, the man who emerged head and shoulders ahead of everyone else was Thor Hushovd of Norway. Hushovd is one of my favorite cyclists, but his victory was all the more satisfying because Norway had a total of three riders in the race. Typically the Worlds road race is won by the big nations who have long cycling traditions and lots of riders, like Italy, Spain, and Belgium. For a Norwegian to win Worlds is a little bit like a Kenyan winning the luge at the Winter Olympics. Nice one, Thor!

Wakadu Kakadu

The rest of our time in the Top End was spent in Kakadu National Park, which is very different than any National Park I’ve ever visited. This is primarily so because for most parks in the US, you can see an awful lot of pretty things just by driving the main road through the park. I’m not saying this is a good thing, because I think the statistics about how many people come to National Parks and don’t make it more than a quarter mile from their cars is quite sad. But, the difference with Kakadu just struck me because if you drive the main road in Kakadu, you don’t really see much. There are a few turn offs where you can see a few things, but really, to see anything interesting, you pretty much have to walk, or drive on rough 4WD roads. (The same statistics are probably true for Kakadu, it’s just that people aren’t walking very far from their 4WD vehicles.)

But, that’s beside the point. We spent a fair bit of time walking, and also birding. Matt was on somewhat of a birding mission, because there are five or seven endemics in the Top End, and Matt was hoping to see as many as he could. So, while Matt was still with us, we made some major efforts to try and find White-lined Honeyeaters and White-throated Grasswrens (at least I think that’s what they’re called.) We were unsuccessful on the grasswrens, only Matt saw the honeyeater, but fantastically, we all got to see the Banded Fruit Dove and the Partridge Pigeon. These two birds were precisely where the guidebook said they would be, and what fantastic birds they were. And, we saw a Large-tailed Nightjar and heard Barking Owls (sound like dogs) and Bush Stone-curlews (they make a long, eerie, mournful cry).

We also enjoyed some excellent swimming beneath Gunlom Falls (really a trickle when we were there at the end of the dry season); learned about bush tucker (how to forage in the wild for food – essentially, what Aboriginal people eat in Kakadu); and had the most amazing burgers at Cooinda on our final night with Matt.

The day Matt left, we met up with our guides Patrick and Penny for a bushwalking trip in Kakadu. Because 4WD vehicles are required to get to the best spots in Kakadu, we opted to go on a guided walking trip with Willis Walkabouts. We had heard good things from our friends in the Adelaide Bushwalking Club, and decided it made sense for us, since we didn’t know anything about Kakadu, and weren’t really prepared to rent high clearance 4WD vehicles. Also, access to many parts of Kakadu are limited because the land is important to the Aboriginal people who live there (usually called traditional owners). Permits are often required, and some areas are only accessible through approved guide services. Dinner Creek, where we went on our walk, is one such area.

We’re used to going walking on our own, and have never before used a guide service for an overnight trip. Although there were some parts I didn’t really enjoy about the guided trip, one thing that was absolutely incredible was the food! Our guides had prepared all the food before hand (much of it dehydrated), and they made dinner for us every night. We had to bring our own breakfast and lunch, but not having to make dinner was incredible. We had three course meals (soup, main meal, and dessert), and it was just fantastic not having to think about cooking at the end of the day. It felt seriously luxurious.

The walking itself was different from any other walking I’ve ever done. Much like driving in Kakadu, where you have to drive quite a ways to see something interesting, it seems like you have to walk quite a distance as well before you get to something interesting. And, the interesting things always involve water, and particularly places that are salt-water-crocodile-free so that you can swim. It’s really hot up in the Top End and there are lots of flies, which means that the best part about walking is swimming. But, you can’t just swim anywhere because there are salties in many bodies of water. Fortunately for us, it was the end of the dry season, which means that there is not enough food left in the smaller streams to support a crocodile. However, during the wet season, the crocs can swim upstream for miles, making any water body unswimable except for those that are inaccessible to crocodiles because they are above high waterfalls.

We camped at two places with excellent swimming holes, and it was an incredible feeling to go swimming at night, just before bed, to cool off. We didn’t need sleeping bags, and just had a sheet for cover. We didn’t put the fly on the tent, which meant we could also see the moon every night. Unlike most places, where you’d rather it not get dark, night time in the Top End was a welcome time. I began to see why so many creatures in Australia are nocturnal – why would you go out in the hot sun when you can move easily in the cool of night?

Our trip ended with a dinner back in Cooinda, and then a cruise in the Yellow Waters wetland, where salties and birds abound. We saw Jacanas (called “the Jesus bird” because it looks like they can walk on water with their especially large, webbed feet), beautiful kingfishers, night herons, darters, and brolgas. It was an excellent way to finish up our time there, except for the fact that we were trying to figure out how to get back to Darwin from Kakadu (a 3+ hour drive). It’s sort of a long story, but the short version is that we had arranged for one of the people coming on the following guided walk to pick up a rental car for us and drive it out to Kakadu so that we could drive it back the following day. I know it sounds like an unusual arrangement, but I had called the rental agency ahead of time (Alamo/Europcar) and made sure this was okay. They had taken a copy of my driver’s license, and agreed that I could be the second driver. Except that when the guy went to pick up the car, they told him that it wasn’t possible, and that I wouldn’t be insured if I drove it. Extremely frustrating since there really weren’t any other options for us to get back to Darwin.

So, Dave and I spent our last night and morning in Kakadu asking everyone at the campground if they were driving back to Darwin the following day (we had a flight to catch) and if they had room for two. We still hadn’t found a ride by the following morning, so we hung out by the check out desk to ask people leaving that day. I asked one guy, and he told me that he had the space, but that he had a fridge and a generator in the seats and two little kids, which just meant it would be too hard. He walked away, and a little disheartened, I looked for our next possibility. But, about five minutes later, he amazingly returned and said, ‘Come on, we’ll give you a lift.’ He and his family were taking the year to drive around Australia with their caravan. It was so kind of them to take us. We had to move the fridge and generator into the caravan, and then basically acted like babysitters for their two adorable kids that day. The title of this blog is in honor of the dad because when his kids would say something that was cool or interesting, he would say, “Wakadu” since they were in Kakadu. I thought it was great.

We also got to head up to Ubirr and Cahill’s Crossing to watch some exciting fishing. The river there is a tidal river, and so when the tide comes in, the little fish swim upstream to stay in the freshwater. The barramundi (the salmon of the Top End) follow the little fish, and the salties sit waiting for the barramundi to swim by. The fishers wait on the banks (not really all that far from the crocodiles) and also try to catch the barramundi. It’s lunch time for everyone. The guy who was driving us wanted to catch a barra (so did his wife, just so he would stop trying everywhere they went), and so we got to watch. It was pretty amazing to watch the crocs, just waiting patiently for a fish, and then to suddenly watch them strike out with a massive crunch. They sit there with their arms and legs spread out so they can feel the movements of the fish. Pretty incredible.

And, an unexpected but great detour for us on the way back to Darwin. We did make it back in time for our flight, and even got to go to the Mindil Beach Markets, which had been highly recommended. So, though Kakadu was at times Wakadu, we had a great time there, and would definitely recommend going if you’re looking for something different.