Technological Horse and Biological Horse

I devoted myself to playing with the fish so long that I found myself, on board, scorched on the legs by the strong tropical sunlight. I had a really bad sunburn. The next day I couldn't walk and had to stay in my hotel room all the day, cooling my legs down with ice. Two years ago I had a traffic accident on Christmas, and the same day of this trip I had to stay in bed with sunburnt legs. Christmas is a disastrous day for pagans. The Great Dividing Range runs parallel to the sea coast of the north-eastern part of Australia and divides the region into coastal and inland areas. The majority of the nation's total population of 17 million lives along this narrow coastal line. If you cross the mountain range and proceed further west, you will see the vast extension of desert. I headed for the west, escaping from the noisy coast. In that area there must be Aborigines, who have survived their oppressive life through history. The mountains in north-eastern Australia are not steep, but moderate as long waving hills. In the vast plain to the west of this mountain range, cow-raising is the major industry. Aussie beef is the future of the cows who graze along this road. On the both side of the road, carcasses of cows and kangaroos lie. Did they die of disease or by accident? The dead animals don't tell any more. However, they were supposedly hit by cars. The traffic signs like "Koala Crossing", "Kangaroo Crossing", "Ostrich Crossing", and of course "Cows crossing" are seen on the roads in Australia. In fact, I nearly hit a kangaroo that suddenly jumped into the road from the bush. I had a race with an ostrich who ran along the side of the road. The speed of the ostrich was unexpectedly low at 40 km/h. Some other time I saw a huge lizard 1m in length cross the road in front of me. The roads in this country are similar to those in an open-range zoo.

If you ride west from the eastern coast, you don't see any traffic lights. What stops the traffic on behalf of the lights is solely cows. Half of the cows on the road give way by surprise, yet the other half don't move and stare at you ... by perplexity or resistance? As a result, some of them finish their happy life. This place is a kingdom of cows. Therefore, it's surely a nuisance for them to be killed by human beings, the intruders into their territory.

There was almost no traffic on the "beef road" - probably because it was Christmas day. I saw only one motor car while I was riding on motorcycle to a probably existing petrol station 170km ahead of me. I was like a marathon runner leaving other runners behind. I am the fastest runner in the world. The lookers-on who clap their hands on the road sides are cows. On the ground where the cows stand, a forest of cone-shaped earth mounds are seen. They look like grave stones.

The small ones are 50cm and bigger ones are 1.5m high. They are, in fact, ant-hills. The biggest one is reported to be 5-6m high. The miracle of nature is truly beyond our imagination. The road on the west of the Great Dividing Range is totally straight. The green walls of trees on both sides of the road become narrower and narrower in the distance and finally vanish under the horizon, leaving a tiny, white dot. Further west, the climate becomes drier and trees disappear. The only one road divides a vast land in two and it sets in the horizon. This place is not a land, but a sea. This is a limitless flat plain that has nothing to block your sight 360 degrees around you. It is a waveless ocean. Tiny towns scattered every 100-200km are small islands in the ocean. The road on which I am riding is an endless runway connecting those islands. No house is seen. No man is detected. The living things visible in this vast plain are only horses, cows and sheep. It seems that all the human beings have been evacuated from the earth. The only trace of human existence is a white line painted on the center of a long concrete belt. No cars are coming. This is a road which has lost its meaning as a road. If our human culture perished in a moment, and if a world of the film "Planet of the apes" came true, this limitless straight line would be another eternal mystery like Nazca Lines in Peru.

In this space a sole rider rushes west on a YAMAHA XT-600 that he rented in Sydney. It's hot. The temperature is 42 degrees Centigrade. In addition, the rider wears a winter jacket and leather pants. The wind that hits him is as hot as in a sauna bath. Nevertheless, why does he proceed toward the desert, toward the heat inferno? The rider on the inorganic horse himself doesn't understand the motive of his own behavior.

Yet to him, the seat of a motorcycle is a chair for speculation. He doesn't have any person to talk. He doesn't have news from the radio. He doesn't have any music from a car stereo. What he faces all day long is himself and nature passing by him. What he listens to is the sound made by the wind that hits his helmet and a subtle deep background sound of the engine. In this everlasting monotonousness the rider thinks of life, love, adventure and death, and indulges in a daydream on the metal horse.

It happened in a small fishing village on the east coast.

As I came out of the tent, I saw the crescent moon reflect itself, drawing a long line of light on the sea. This moon didn't rise high up in the sky, but stayed in the position slightly above the sea. In the mean time it became slimmer and slimmer to be a linear arc, eventually splitted itself into three parts, then turned to be a star and disappeared in the end. It was a mysterious space show. The burning tropical sun scorches the land. I might be watching a mirage now. The land melts from its edge and forms a sea. The far end of the road the rider is heading for also turns to be a channel of water. He is now trying to ride over the sea through the water channel. But... the more the rider advances, the more the channel recedes. An endless chase continues. A fine black dot emerges on the horizon. The rider is, however, gazing at the one point where the road disappears. The road is as far as it is straight and the scenery remains the same for hours. The gear is fixed in top and the throttle is kept still. This is the same as sitting on a chair in a room and watching a picture for many hours. But, that black dot is a car! You must be careful. In addition, you must also be careful of the animals that cross the road. They are more dangerous in this country. I have already seen hundreds of carcasses of animals. In the worst case their dead bodies were found every 100m on the road sides. Hitting one of these animals on a motorcycle simultaneously means suicide with the animal. A cow is not so bad because it moves slowly, but the worst is a kangaroo. A kangaroo rushes to the road before you notice. It is said the animal wanders around roads only at dawn and dusk, however, you must be cautious even in daytime riding. A rider is not only the loneliest traveler, but also the traveler closest to death.

This technological horse which human beings created is indeed tough. It shows no fatigue even after traveling an average of 500km a day. This technological thoroughbred is, in addition, fast. Its speed of 120km/h easily exceeds 60km/h of an authentic thoroughbred. Furthermore, the technological horse doesn't get tired. I really respect the people who made this kind of horse.

This time I touched a "biological" horse for the first time in my life.

An authentic horse is really a beautiful animal. Kelly, a lovely daughter of Margaret, is very good at horse-riding. Many trophies are displayed in her living room. One day she rode the horse with her black riding cap and pants. I was devotedly watching the horse and the girl with her blond hair blown by the wind. The girl and the horse were moving together in harmony, waving gently up and down. It was truly a soft and decent movement. Even a Harley Davidson can't beat the beauty of a running horse. The feeling of its fur is really soft and warm, which is beyond comparison with the cold feeling of a motorcycle. Margaret makes it a rule to put a rug on her horses. It is of course to keep them warm and to dress them up like our clothes. However, in the case of horses it has also the objectives of preventing the fur of horses from being fainted by the sunlight and of getting rid of the annoying flies. If necessary, a horse is covered more with a hood, however, the legs and hip are still exposed. So a horse always kicks the ground and its tail becomes a whip to drive flies away. Of course my motorcycles also have a cover. Yet it is for theft-prevention. Recently a motorcycle became a substitute for my girlfriends. It can't transport much luggage and is never a good vehicle in rain. A motorcycle is never as good as a motorcar as a transportation means. It seems that a horse has a less economic value than a cow except for a certain type of racing horse. Margaret's six horses are probably like lovers to her, too.

She shampoos her horses every morning . She said, "The first thing horses do after having a shampoo is to roll their bodies around in the mud." And in fact, one of the horses did it in five minutes after taking a shower. The same sort of thing happens to your motorcycle. Even if you take good care of your bike, it breaks when it breaks. Once you have someone to love, you have troubles and get no answers. Her horses have not only character, but also "heart". My horses also have character, but don't have heart. Her horses are active, but my 5 bikes are passive. My love to my horses is one-way, but her love to her horses is mutual and sometimes responsive. However, she says, "I can't make a trip, leaving my horses behind." I left my horses unfed and unshampooed in Japan. I don't know which one of us is happier.