Couple cycles 6,000 kilometres eating roadkill, plants and fish
In 2013, Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman were hankering to scratch an itch for travel that hadn’t been satisfied in years. There were just two stipulations: their trip would have to cost almost nothing and be as close as possible to carbon neutral.
The couple, who’d given up air travel and their car years earlier in pursuit of an eco-friendly lifestyle, looked to their bikes.
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With kids, Woody and Zephyr, and Jack Russell terrier, Zero, in tow, they set off that spring from their home in tiny Daylesford, Victoria and headed north. Little did they know their journey would stretch to 14 months and take them 6,000 kilometres (3,728 miles).
"I guess what we wanted to do is take our permaculture activism and our principles, through reading and studying permaculture and enacting it, and try to apply it to the road," Jones said in Melbourne Thursday, explaining the philosophy of living in tune with the natural environment.
For the family, that meant living almost entirely off foraged plants and weeds and fish and shellfish they caught themselves. By the end of the trip, they had documented the names and practical uses of some 250 plant species.
"Almost every culture, generation before us had a far greater ecological literacy," Jones said, while speaking at a talk organised by Melbourne Free University. "Most people knew the wild plants in their area that they could turn into soups and medicines and poultices."
The family and Zero also ate roadkill and animals that Zero hunted himself. "[Zero] basically found his own food -- lots of road kill. And if we were camped somewhere for a few days, he would take off for half an hour, 45 minutes and then find something to eat and come back to us," Ulman said.
The couple, whose book "The Art of Free Travel: A frugal family adventure" was released last year, said their journey taught them to embrace uncertainty. But they admitted they had scary moments.
Once, Jones nearly drowned after being caught up in a rip current. "In my desperation to tell another story, enact another way to live, I’d failed to observe the laws of the natural world," Jones recalled, reading a passage of the book. "I’d put ideology before safety."
Less a one-off challenge, the couple’s marathon cycle fit into a continuing campaign to change hearts and minds. They firmly believe that modern Australia’s reliance on the car, the airplane and the supermarket is leading the country toward ecological disaster.
"People look at how we are living and think it’s kind of extreme, but they don’t see that driving a car is extreme," Ulman said.
Mainstream antidotes to environmental destruction like solar cars and biodegradable packaging are far too conservative, the couple say. They believe modern affluence itself will have to go to save the planet.
"We are not seeing ourselves as dropped out completely, not as total purists, but I believe that if the average Australian family lived without carbon input, we wouldn’t have a climate change crisis," Jones said. "Why I say that is [because] car use, supermarket food and air travel are the big numbers in climate change."
He admitted it was a "tough sell" to convince Australians to follow their radical path. But if even 15% of the population embraced permaculture, he said, the monetary economy would roll backwards and the "household economy" could begin to grow.
Some aspects of their radical approach to environmental protection are likely to draw criticism. For example, they downplay the regression of things like modern medicine that would accompany the mass adoption of their ideas.
"You can’t prevent accidents, but you can prevent most of the food-related illnesses we have in Australia ... I strongly believe that," Jones said, claiming his family rarely needs to visit the doctor.
Despite Jones's claims, Australians have never lived so long -- with an average life expectancy in 2015 of 80.3 years for men and 84.4. years for women. Poor diet accounts for 11 percent of the burden of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and other chronic conditions, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
When they aren’t on the road, the family’s everyday life in Daylesford is similarly built around their idea of ecological harmony. They grow their own food and shower just once a week. They heat water using scavenged wood -- although only in winter.
"If the household and community economies change, so will the top have to, maybe not how radicals want to see things, but they will have to," Jones said.
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