The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter in Melbourne.
Earlier this year, my colleague Hikari Hida and I reported on an amazing, improbable journey underway on Australia’s east coast.
Ryokei Mifune, a young Japanese backpacker who goes by Uni, was making his way from Melbourne to Cairns, via Sydney, on a flimsy nonmotorized child’s scooter, a journey of more than 2,000 miles.
He was, in every respect, underprepared — camping in urban parks, losing toenails to the tarmac (he wore sandals throughout) and communicating with strangers via Google Translate and the universal language of grateful smiles and nods. His ride, which was sorely inadequate for Australia’s gravel roads, broke on multiple occasions.
“I don’t think I prepared anything in particular for this trip,” he told us in February. “If I think too much, it’ll just complicate things and it’ll be hard to take a step forward, so I thought: If I jump straight in with no Plan B, I’ll somehow figure things out.”
Nearly four months later, Uni has done just that. As his journey received more media coverage, strangers began to look out for him on the road, offering him meals or a place to stay. Over 124 days, he learned a lot more English, saw more of Australia than many Australians and harnessed the attention on his story to raise thousands of dollars for refugees.
On Saturday, Uni rode into Cairns, holding a Japanese flag signed by his supporters aloft above his head. He hopped off his scooter, smiling and bowing, and thanked the waiting, cheering crowd.
Later, in a post on Instagram, he wrote: “When I finished my travel, I felt once again that I was supported by many people. I will continue to run toward my goal with your thoughts in the wind.” He plans to return to Japan later this month, he said.
Uni’s journey makes for an incredible story. But the vastness of Australia — which is only slightly smaller than the United States — can often make unusual journeys part of the everyday.
In January, heading from Broome to Kununurra, Chris English made a 3,000-mile detour through the outback after a bridge was closed because of serious flooding.
“I’m a seasoned driver,” he told me at the time. “As far as traveling through the center of Australia, off the beaten track and whatnot, goes, I’ve been doing it all my life. So to me personally, it’s just another…
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