Dear editor,
This is going to be the ‘odd one out’ message in your inbox. Please allow me to explain.
We recently learned about the Big Rigs publication while waiting for a hamburger at the roadhouse in Eidsvold, Queensland.
To be honest, we used the paper to wrap the burger and chips to keep it warm while running back to the campground in the pouring rain.
Then we ended up reading it from cover to cover, finding it very insightful and of good quality content. The reason this is odd is that we are travelling cyclists.
The purpose of this letter/note is simply to shout out a huge thank you to the hundreds of truckies who passed us over the four months on tour so far.
We say thank you for their professionalism to keep the roads and highways a safe place for all of us. Their foresight and attitude is exemplary.
We thank them for looking out for us, for their friendly waves, their encouraging and sometimes warning ‘toots’, their thumbs up. We have the utmost respect for what they do and applaud to it.
We understand that, as long-distance cyclists, we are a rare minority on the road. We also appreciate that in some situations we present an annoyance or even a safety risk (not to say “a pain in the backside” – pardon my French). And as such, we share the same responsibility to keep the roads and everyone on it, safe. Which, for us, means jump quickly off it.
When people ask us how we deal with the trucks, they are surprised to hear our reply full of praise and appreciation. And hopefully, and this is not to be disrespectful to our fellow travellers in caravans, our positive commentary about the truck drivers, will have them reconsider their role in sharing the roads.
You form unusual alliances when travelling the (back)roads on this amazing continent. And while the alliance may not always be mutual, and remains largely invisible, we continue to appreciate this unknown bond with the truckies out there. And we continue to practice our obligatory royal wave each time they pass us with plenty of space between us.
Happy and safe travels to everyone at Big Rigs.
Kerstin Kothrade and Louise Sensi