Grind the Gap
If it’s not a meme already, it should be. In the form of ‘What my overseas friends think Australia is like’ vs. ‘What Australia is actually like’. Internationals think our backyards are full of kangaroos and we race emus to the shops, whereas reality finds us squealing if there’s a blue tongued lizard mowing through the snail population around Mum’s pot plant collection.
Imagine my delight, then, when there’s a call for a Big Ride feature in Halls Gap: a corner of Australia where what overseas folks think Australia is like meets reality. It feels almost comical how, rising out of endless flat and windswept farmland, this oasis of bush and mountainous outcropping is home to an almost reality-TV level of Land Down Under tropes. Kangaroos are in the centre of town. Keep your sandwiches close and bring your dog to the caravan park with caution (not the boxing match anyone wants to see). Emus race along the fenceline as we navigate the gravel roads to our accommodation. A kookaburra perches on the ‘Welcome to Halls Gap’ sign as we enter town. At one point I even ask, ‘Come on, is
