Pay tribute to our predecessors

Day: 206 Stage three / total expedition days 597

Sunrise:
05:24

Sunset:
18:51

As the crow flies:
20,9

Daily kilometers:
25

Total kilometers:
6073 km

Temperature - Day (maximum):
43° degrees, sun approx. 65°

Temperature - Night:
26° degrees

Latitude:
22°19'22.9"

Longitude:
145°59'04.3"

Jochmus-Camp – 08.12.2002

According to the weather forecast, it should cool down a bit, but apparently not in the region we are currently in. Although we spent a few days on Eastmere, I couldn’t recover a bit from the exertions of running. Writing in temperatures of up to 45° C in the shade was like running a marathon. The question always arises as to whether and for how long I can keep the boiling hot laptop on my tortured thighs? When it’s barely bearable, I put an empty ten-liter bag of water underneath as insulation. This way, my thighs are protected from the hot notebook, but the warm insulating material drives even more sweat out of my pores. I often try to motivate myself, not seeing my work as a whole, but paragraph by paragraph and minute by minute. It’s all in the mind, all about concentration and all about willpower and at the end of the day I’m happy to have done it again. Without a doubt, the documentation is just as strenuous as the running itself.

Of course, it is annoying when the update that has been written and sent via satellite arrives on our website with a long delay. From time to time, technical challenges make it difficult for us to maintain up-to-date reporting. Sometimes the server breaks down, sometimes a transmission doesn’t work and other times the classification codes are incorrect. There are always reasons why an update does not appear on time and we have not only once asked ourselves whether we are the only ones who have difficulties with the smooth running of such an extensive website? Today’s technology makes live reporting possible, but computers remain an eternal mystery to me. One thing these things seem to guarantee is that they break down when you can’t use them. It’s a shame that they take up such a large part of even our adventurous lives. That computers have so much influence and often try to spoil our day. Without computer technology, nothing seems to work in this world and they can give you gray hair. They have made many things easier, but they have also made many things more difficult. I don’t want to know how many people they have literally brought to their graves since they first appeared? But they are a phenomenon of our time and we have to live with them whether we like it or not. Perhaps they will teach me more serenity. I hope, otherwise I will have to retreat with Tanja as a hermit into the deep forests of Alaska.

On this expedition I realized how complex live reporting of such a large expedition is. The soon to be countless hurdles. It demands more energy from us than we ever dared to believe. To put it more clearly, writing, the website and interviews soon take up 40% of the total time. On the other hand, I am also aware that many past expedition travelers must have spent a similar amount of time documenting their experiences. My perspective on earlier voyages of discovery and expeditions has changed dramatically as a result and I have to pay tribute to our predecessors.

Because of the heat, we hit the dry bushes at 11:30. Once again, there’s nothing for our boys to eat far and wide. They have to make do with the dry stuff and are not exactly happy. Thank goodness they have been able to fill themselves to the brim on Eastmere for the last few days, so they don’t have to starve here and can draw on their reserves.

At 16:00 the thermometer shows 43° degrees. Only when the sun goes down does the mercury drop below 40 degrees. A hot, unpleasant wind promises another hot night. When I look at the thermometer at 1:00 a.m., it still scares me with 35° degrees. We spend a night in the oven of the outback and dream of refrigerators, cold drinks, cold rooms and everything else that is cool.