Odds and ends

Odds and ends:
Total distance: 9,652 miles (15,530 km)
Total number of days on the road: 179 days
Days riding the bike: 122 days
Average mileage per day: 79 miles (127 km)
Longest daily distance: 141 miles (227 km)
Average cost per day: A$ 2.80 (fl. 11.20)

The photo on this page was part of the piece in the regional newspaper in Holland. The article is on the next page.
General luggage I carried with me:
1 complete tent
sleeping bag
hurricane lantern
1 pair of shoes
2 pairs of socks
1 pair of long grey slacks
black biking shorts
swimming trunks
1 grey sweater
1 shirt
2 underpants
2 singlets
3 handkerchiefs
plastic rain coat
sunglasses
hat
camping stove
1 extra gas tank
set of light-weight pans
knife, fork, spoon
can opener
pocket knife
10 plastic bags
scissors
needles and thread
comb
soap
shampoo
band-aid
iodine
address book
bank passbook
wallet
matches
study books etc
fountain pen plus spare ink tanks
2 ballpoint pens
pencil

Repair kit:
sand paper, linen, cement, rubber patches, tyre levers
40 spokes
1 chain
1 freewheel
light bulbs
4 brake cables
3 gear cables
1 tube
1 tyre
4 pump valves
4 forelocks
selection of nuts and bolts
shifting spanner
various spanners
screwdriver
1 hammer
pliers
tool to loosen the freewheel
tool to loosen and tighten spokes
1 front axle
1 back axle
1 pedal axle
ball bearings
lock
1 oil container

Dutch Australian Weekly

Melbourne. 26-year old Nico Daams has left Melbourne for the last stretch of his bicycle ride around Australia. Nico mentioned that he had had some trouble with birds. Especially on the east coast where he had been attacked by magpies. Nico has worked for 6 years in the Dutch merchant marine, followed by a 7,200 km bicycle ride all around Europe. He said that in Australia he had already covered more than 14,000 km. He had spent some time in Broome and Mt Isa while waiting for replacement parts for his bike sent over from Holland. While he is riding, Nico is also studying for his matriculation through a correspondence course in Sydney.

Het Parool Dutch news paper

Amsterdam Tuesday (ANP)
Yesterday the 26-year old Dutchman Nico Daams has completed a bicycle journey through Australia of almost 15,000 km. It took him 6 months and in that time he had 1800 punctures.

(Note about the 1800 punctures: This originated from the article in the Illawarra Mercury on the previous page. The journalist had asked me how many punctures I had had, and I answered: "Eighty, a hundred." He heard 1800, and that's the news that was picked up by the Dutch newspaper.)

De Telegraaf

Agressief. Be careful if you are ever riding a bicycle on the east coast of Australia, and especially watch out for magpies. 26-Year old Dutchman Nico Daams who made a 7,200 km bike trip around Europe has now already clocked 14,000 km in Australia. He claims to have been attacked by these birds.

(Article in the Gooi en Eemlander, written by Trudy Marx, Loosdrect)

Nico Daams from Loosdrecht has managed to ride a bike all around Australia in 6 months. A large map of this large continent hangs on the wall in the home of his parents. Mr Daams Sr (one of the aldermen in Loosdrecht) has drawn a map of Holland in the centre of this continent, to show the truly amazing distance the young globe trotter has covered. Black ink traces the exact route he covered. Every week or so an aerogramme with the latest description of his journey rolled in the mailbox at the Nieuw Loosdrechtsedijk, so the home front was kept up to date on all that the indefatigable traveller was going through. In 1970 Nico (26) said good-bye to Europe after first covering 7,627 km taking him through a good number of European countries. He did this because, he had seen very little of our own continent, although as a merchant navy deck officer, he had seen plenty of places around the world. Life at sea had lost its attraction for him, as ships often don't stay much longer than a day or two in port, and Nico had become a seaman because he wanted to see something of the world. "So", he thought, "if not by ship than some other way." And he chose the bicycle. His sea legs proved to be strong enough to make a good number of miles each day. The trip around Europe was just a foretaste of what he would accomplish a year later in Australia. In September 1970, he left our country to seek his luck in sunnier regions. He did not go alone: his trusted bicycle went with him. He was planning to see lot of Australia, and figured that to get a good picture of the country touring around by bike was the way to go. But first he had to put some money away, so he worked for half a year in a bread factory in Sydney and saved as much as he possibly could. He first made a practice run from Melbourne to Sydney to get a feel for riding in Australia. In Melbourne he was the best man for his cousin who had also emigrated to Australia. Then came the big tour: 17,760 km (actually it was 15,530 km) right around Australia. Does Nico now know Australia? Not at all. The inland part stayed "terra incognito" for him, as he followed the more civilised route along the coast. Although civilised is a big word. Many days the only living creatures he saw were kangaroos and wild horses (this is a bit of an exaggeration by the journalist) Kangaroos have grown used to cars, but consider a guy on a bicycle a danger to race away from. Nico's mother asked Nico several times in her letters if he had seen any snakes.
Company
He did not answer her questions about snakes until after he had safely returned home. Snakes, scorpion and poisonous spiders were his daily companions (more exaggeration by the journalist). "Dangerous?" Daams thinks this is a matter of how you look at it. He find the civilised world with the "idiots behind the wheel" a lot more dangerous. His most troublesome companions were the millions of flies who seemed to consider him a delicacy. His remedy was to let his hair and bear grow so they could not get in his neck and most of his face. Towards the end he looked like Cadwezel, the magician famous on Dutch children's TV. Other nasty companions were the magpies along the east coast who often dived and attacked him from behind. For defence he used his bicycle pump and that seemed to work.
On average Nico covered about 140 km per day. The longest day was 227 km. But there were plenty days when things did not go so well. Sometimes the road was of such bad quality that he had to patch punctures, up to 12 times in one particularly bad day. Another hazard were the so-called grids: a net work of steel bars at right angles to the road, to keep cattle going into the neighbour's field. They are a nuisance for a bike, and he had to walk across and half-carry the bike.

Study
In the evening he put up his lightweight tent, cooked some food, and then it was time to study. Among his luggage he carried his study books for modern languages and maths. Daams is well aware that he cannot keep on traveling around the world forever, and at some point he will need to get a proper job. His aspirations are higher than working in a bread factory, so he is following a correspondence course that, after passing his exams, should open the doors to a university. He is interested in computer study. For six days he was riding his bike, but on Sundays he took a day of rest. Time for some rest, washing his clothes, and going to church if at all possible. In one small town the minister was overjoyed to have him attend, because he was the only one there.

Monotonous
Australia has many beautiful parts, but some areas are pretty monotonous: long straight roads going through terrain with very little if any variation. Every now and then a car would pass, with the driver looking like he had seen a madman. The nicest meeting was with a young man from Wales, who had been cycling around the world for two years. "Finally someone who understands what you talk about", sighed Nico from the bottom of his heart. He himself seemed indestructible, but that cannot be said of his bike. At one point the bike said, "You do it yourself, but I give up." That meant three weeks delay waiting in a little town where life seemed to revolve around the water pump in the middle of the camping. Screaming kids playing in the mud and even harder screaming mothers trying to get their kids to come back to their caravans. Nico was yearning for the quietness of the outback. Friday the 13th became his lucky day: the parts he had ordered from Loosdrecht by telegram had finally arrived. Then he quickly fixed his bike, and got going as soon as possible. He reached Perth after travelling for weeks through the deserts of the North west and western part of Australia. He stopped there to visit his cousin. (the same one he had visited in Melbourne.) He also met some friends from Sydney, and he told them that he would be back there on a certain day at 6 pm. At that point he still had to go all the way from west to east through Australia, but his calculations were perfect: he only arrived 20 minutes late.
Nico Daams is now back in the bread factory, but not for long. He is planning a trip through South America, the States to Canada and Alaska. And then the big reward: Before going back to Australia, first a visit home to Loosdrecht. There will be plenty to talk about!

Great grandfather
Nico Daams: Not a flying Dutchman, but a bicycling one. Proof that "an apple does not fall far from the tree" (a Dutch saying indicating someone is a lot like his forefathers). Maybe his love for bicycling can be traced back to his great great grandfather, a simple blacksmith in Loosdrecht who had made a bicycle, possibly the first one in Holland. No rubber tubes or tyres in those days, but he had put some elastic around his steel wheels, and it was a bike without pedals. Those were not invented until 1855. The 20-year old Loosdrechter went on a ride to Huizen (a fishing village 18 km north of Loosdrecht) where he was accused of riding a vehicle made by the devil, and was summarily chased out of town. His great-great grandson has broken his ancestor's record by a good margin!