June 7, 2011  Culcairn - Henty

Today we woke up to the usual morning on tour, tired, sore, and frantic trying to clean and pack our belongings
before any teachers arrived to the staff lounge.  We had a slightly slower moving morning
because a few members are feeling sick. We got out and headed to the cafe in the center of town. We had some
coffee, pasties, and donuts as a second breakfast, and some indulged in some morning reading.  My group headed out
first, and it was a nice and easy ride to Henty, which was a mere 16 km away.  Today's high temperature was 11
degrees, and we began our ride it must have been around 7 degrees.

When we arrived at the Uniting Church, we were warmly greeted by Graham who gave us a great introduction to
the city and the way of life in a small country town.  We ate our lunch that was prepared the night
before, and huddled around a heater, watching our breath turn into fog.  We made some progress on the new scene that
we want to add into the play.  We had a meeting to talk about the rest of the tour that we have left, and realized that
we only have 2 weeks left until we are finished. The tensions were running a little high, and then the dance teacher came in to teach some hip hop
dancing.  We moved to the kitchen and continued the meeting, till it got to very high tensions. At that moment,
Graham opened the door and was ready to generously ready to take us to his house to let us take some showers. More than half the people took the offer and
I decided to take a walk with Vanessa and Emily. We had a great walk and got to see a bit of the town. We found ourselves being followed by friendly little
dogs all over.  It started raining so we started heading back to the church, and shortly after we entered the building
it started down pouring with vertical rain. The street looked like a river.

Monday 23^th May, Echuca - Nathalia

The day started out with an underlying tone of hostility after a chaotic night where a number of crew members were abruptly woken up when stood on by another crew member. Now, I am not the heaviest sleeper in the world, and usually if I get a hasty wake up in the middle of the night, it takes me ages to get back to sleep... needless to say; I was one of the crew members fuming in the morning because of my disturbed rest. However, this hostile mood was rapidly transformed into an exciting positive vibe as we joined the community breakfast at the church! We rocked up expecting cereal, toast, maybe some fruit. However we were shocked to find a kitchen full of volunteers cooking eggs, beans and bacon (although meat is not technically part of our Otesha food mandate!). So after a delicious breakfast and some interesting breakfast friends, we set out on our way to Nathalia, approx 60km.

Something I have noticed on this ride is the amount of road kill that creeps up on us and attacks our nostrils. Today I was pretty shocked to see a dead kangaroo on the side of the road. But it wasn't the dead roo that I found disturbing, it was the fact that I could clearly see its heart sitting in the middle of the fringe that I was riding on. And at this point I was even more disturbed at myself because I had to fight a strong urge to get of my bike and closely inspect this organ, and maybe poke it with a stick. Only later when I was thinking about it I decided it wasn't that weird to want to take a closer look because, in my whole life, I have never actually seen a real heart. Although, I'm not so sure that it is a particularly common occurrence.

Here is most of our journey from Barkers Creek to Echuca. I am posting this from Nathalia on one of those beautiful chilly yet sunny days. Everyone else is currently riding to Cobram, but I'm waiting for school to end so that I can get a lift to meet them. Why? It's not my story to tell right now. But you'll be sure to find our if you keep reading our postcards...

Love and smiles,

Inca

Sunday 15th May - Barkers Creek

We awoke this morning after a very relaxing Saturday night enjoying the beautiful scenery of Daryl's panoramic view on top of the aptly named Hill View Road. The kangaroos watched us, as if we were invading their space with this odd house shaped structure in the middle of the bush. We took some great photos of an amazing sunset.

This morning we made nesting boxes for rare marsupials such as the Phascogales, Ring Tail and Pigmy Possums and Black Cockatoos. A very educational experience for all involved and we managed to make 9 new homes for little creatures. In the afternoon I took forever and a day to mend my tire (turns out I had two punctures) and eventually Emily and I went canoeing around the damn before a somewhat ill advised challenge by myself to swim from the deck to the windmill at the opposite end. I got in the water and found that I couldn't breath any more and very soon chickened out.

Its been a LONG while between blogs - beacause we have not actually had access to the internet! However, that doesnt mean that we havent been writing them!

So if you are so inclined, you may want to read through the below montage of blogs - between then and now....

We have had LOTS of fun and met LOTS of amazing, supportive, wonderful and inspring people as well as have had numerous wonderful experiences within all the truely amazing towns we have visited... so much so that we seem to have written ALOT about it all!

We hope you enjoy the read....

Otesha blog 3^rd May

Well we made it through our first two performances! Performing to a year 9 and a year 10 class at Preshill. We found the audience to be very knowledgable about the issues we touch on. Since these are our first performances, we asked for positive feedback as well as what could be improved on. One of the big issues was the flow of the performance. Ensuring that our lines are all learnt will help there. Also the jokes have to be made clearer and some of them did not like the rap at all but then again it was a bit out of time and we need to make sure we all know the words so that the message comes across clearer. By the second performance we felt like the energy had dropped a lot but I thought we got more applause. Something to think about for future performances are different aged audiences and how different schools are going to receive the performances.

Josh.

 Wed 4^th Melbourne - Melbourne to Sunbury, to Bulla

A Poem about John Knox

John is our shepherd, he guides us with light

He leads us to places and helps us take flight

He pushes our peddles with motivation

And helps us to ride without hesitation.

With trailers attached, a rose in our cheeks

Training week. A week none of the 11 Otesha crew members could have sufficiently prepared themselves for. Myself included, and I was part of the planning team!

The first day began..  not really in the day time, but in the late hours of the afternoon. 11 anxious yet excited volunteers from VIC, NSW and overseas met together as a group for the first time. When hugs, kisses and clarification of names had finished, it was straight down to business. There was a dinner to host, family and friends to meet and food to be eaten!! As dinner slowly came to an end and guests dispersed there was still an obvious buzz, filled with stories, knowledge, team work and laughter. It was clear to see, that in the short time the 11 Oteshians had been together, a strong, resilient and loving bond had begun to form within the group.

Following the dinner it was time for bed. We set up our sleeping mats and sleeping bags together in a big room (although the two boys got a small room to share), personal space, a luxury I am sure we will all have to learn to live without.

Tuesday 30th - Ride Nowra in the rain (yay!).Stay with Angus, Hiromi & George (tony)
We awoke to the relaxing sound of rain falling on the roof. We had been extremely lucky with the weather, but today there was no escape - we HAD to ride in the rain. After sad, and much photographed farewells to Helen, Andrew, Patrick, Mathew & Alannah, we headed off. This was the first day for a while that we were a complete team - Great, Matt was back!!!
Kelly, Rachael, Alice & Matt headed north into the rain, while Ania, Tim, Marieke & myself rode to the local bike for some spoke work on one of Marieke's wheels. What started as drizzle, soon became heavy rain, but Bart from Ulladulla cycles soon provided a refuge for us. As we watched a video about the world mountain bike titles, drank his coffee & relaxed in his waiting room, he worked away on the bike.It would have been so easy to stay there all day, but we reluctantly decided we better head out into the rain. When Marieke went to pay him, he said he wouldn't accept anything because he appreciated what Otesha was doing. He is a great example of a business man, who believes that business as usual is not an option. He runs film nights for his customers, runs a bikeclub out of his club & is organizing a bulk buy of electric bikes to make them more affordable. He is happier making less money, if people live more sustainable lives. Onya Bart, long may it continue
Riding in the rain was quite pleasant as it wasn't cold & we were soon reunited with the others in Nowra. We stayed with Angus, Hiromi & George, a friend of Alice's. George, who is quite an accomplished musician soon arrived with the members of his band - "Feral Highway" - Matt, Will & Ben. Another very pleasant evening was passed eating, listening to great music(including George's) & chatting.

Saturday/ Sunday 20/21 March - mid tour evaluation. Ania and Marieke

Saturday 27th - Ride 75km Ullladullawicki yo, check it one two, yo yo, can I get a huh huh? Yo yo. We rode and rode on the frog and toad with a heavy load as the...sweat flowed. Uh huh uh huh. We chilled at a bike shop, others had a muffin, flew to ulladulla, 75 felt like nothin'. yo...yo. My bike has two wheels, my blanket has none, doesn't matter though, coz they serve different purpai. Hmmmm. I liked the ride today. Don't know about the others; I wasn't the vibe-watcher. My gorgeous friend helen, whose place we were headed for in ulla', was a star with driving around for us, and when we got there, we met her new baby alannah. Oh my goodness, so beautiful!  

 
Tuesday 23 march -Marieke
Finally, back on the bikes. Oh how we missed riding!!! It feels like ages since we last rode our bikes and after our off-road forest experiences they are very dusty and looking unloved. But we do love them so much.  It was a hilly day from Bermagui to Moruya and Tim and I had the trailers...I really felt the burn but Tim looked fine. That is on top of Tim running the first 5kms as his chain broke and Alice had the chain-repairer up ahead. Alice played 'bike-doctor' and fixed the chain (very impressive) and they even caught up to us lazily eating in the next town and hiding grapes under bus shelter seats for Tim and Alice to find.  The day was long and hot, but everyone did an amazing job (particularly Ania and Tony for riding into town and picking up food for us, donated by the very giving Moruya TAFE coking class). Congo campsite has to be one of the loveliest places I have ever camped. It was so beautiful. The river meets the sea and swimming is warm and refreshing and the beach is wonderful for sunrises and to jog along. I highly recommend it. Quick note: it may sound very energetic to be jogging as well, but if you saw the amount we eat you would understand! Massive shout out to Bruce who donated the funds for our wonderful campsite and brought us beautiful fresh veg from his garden, thank you so much. It was an early night for us all.
 
Wednesday 24 march, moruya high school, matt sick, David

   
Wednesday March 10 - Tim
'Morning is bro-o-oken...' sang Kelly between fits of 6am giggles. Today was her day as stage manager, perhaps the most serious of our rotating portfolio's, including alarm clock duties. She was quirky but firm as she demanded that we emerge from tents to start the day. Her leadership would have inspired the sleepiest of campers had it not been bellowed from the comfort of her sleeping bag, in her tent, between yawns and snoozes.
We eventually emerged, broke fast, and hit up the smallest school of the tour and possibly the state, Cann River P-12, totaling 50 students. It was a blast, particularly converting the skit to a pantomime style for a primary school performance. Grant, from the local DSE, and also of the landcare group, tour guided us that afternoon sharing his insights as both a public servant and landcare volunteer, thank you Grant. Jan and David hosted us for dinner, along with welcome stranger swaggie steve, and their li'l boys mason and Elijah entertained with musical items in the evening. In health news, Matt is a bit of a sickie dickie, Tim's toe is warding off infection, Rachel's leg may need amputation and Ania's bladder is flowing like rivers of yesteryear. Alice is eating things she normally wouldn't, Kelly's tattoo is staying healthy, Tony somehow still has his gloves, and Marieke is still Gluten Free.
Thursday March 11 - Ania