Hello, I’m Kevin. Born five days after World War 2 ended in 1945, I grew up in an age when there was no TV, no computers, no mobile phones, and no obesity. In fact we didn’t even have any form of electricity until my dad installed a diesel-driven 32 volt plant in the early 1950s! The only grass was what the cows on our farm ate and the only ice was what we took out of the fridge to put in our home made lemon cordial or ginger beer brewed from a yeast plant. Life was simple and good, we felt safe and our parents allowed us to roam free.
Living in a rural district called Talgarno on the Murray arm of the Hume Weir, my childhood was spent kicking a football around the paddock, flying kites, fishing in a flat-bottom wooden row-boat on the weir, tramping around the hills catching rabbits with ferrets, making bows and arrows from willow tree branches and a piece of binder twine, and making shanghai slingshots from a forked stick and rubber from old car tubes. In the hot NE Victoria summer we ran around in bare feet, wearing nothing but a pair of khaki shorts. Sunscreen had not been invented, so we would get so sunburnt that we would be covered in blisters that could only be soothed by methylated spirits or calamine lotion. The next day we would be outdoors again getting blisters on our blisters … no wonder my visits to the skin cancer clinic are so frequent now! There was no such thing as pocket money, but dad would reward me with a few pieces of chocolate for helping him milk the cows. Sometimes I would avoid the farm chores by escaping to the hammock that I made from two chaff bags sown together and tethered under a willow tree hanging over the dam.
But the thing I enjoyed doing most was riding a bike because it gave me freedom and a means of transport to go and play with Ronald and Peter, the only kids around my age, who lived a couple of miles away. It is more than 70 years ago now since I taught myself to ride on my grandfather’s full size, rusty, gear-less bike that I found in the barn. Then one day the frame snapped in two while I was riding down a steep hill, the front half going forward, the back half going rearwards and me going face down. No broken bones, but there goes another toenail! But then I soon saved enough money to buy my own bike by selling rabbits that we caught with the ferrets, and I have been riding ever since.
We made our own fun and created our own adventures in those days. I am still creating my own adventures today, but now with a Garmin Edge 1030 navigator, Booking.com and Airbnb. The spirit of adventure is still there and there is still strength in my legs and air in the lungs, so my touring days are not yet over. As you can see from my Completed Tours I have been making the most of my twilight years, particularly since retiring from work in September 2013.
When people ask me whether I am afraid when riding on roads or travelling by myself in a foreign country, I always quote an old saying “If you are born to hang you won’t drown”. So just get out there and do it! Childhood was good … but retirement is even better.