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'Very, very hot': Japanese backpacker nears Cairns after travelling 3,000km across Australia on a scooter

May 26 (theguardian.com) - On a service road to the Bruce Highway, one of Australia's most dangerous roads, is a lone traveller on a kick scooter. He set out from Melbourne in late January and has been making the exhausting and occasionally perilous journey almost 3,000km to Cairns in far-north Queensland.

“It’s very very hot,” Uni, the 23-year-old Japanese traveller, says. “Lot’s of trucks as well, it’s a bit scary.”

When Guardian Australia caught up with Uni this week, he had travelled almost 60km that day along the service lane with just his foot-propelled scooter and a backpack to reach the cane-growing town of Ingham, less than 250km from his goal.

Ingham newspaper Wet Tropic Times found him last-minute accomodation for the night with local resident Glen Ceff.

“I’ll tell you what: I definitely wouldn’t do it,” Ceff says. “It’s absolutely insane but also amazing, I have always travelled so I love travellers.”

@himajinn.uni その額3000ドル！！#ｵｰｽﾄﾗﾘｱ #キックボード #縦断 #kick #scooter #ワーホリ #英語 #初心者 #ハプニング #旅 #バックパッカー #ロン毛 #キャンプ #アウトドア #ドローン #シドニー #melbourne #Cairns #trip #traveler #Uni #guardian #news #cross #Japanese #backpacker ♬ melt bitter - sato moka

Sporting his Japanese kasa hat and the same slippers he set out in, Uni, who prefers his surname not be used, has become something of a celebrity in regional Australia. More than 18,000 people are following the daily updates of his adventure, which he has dedicated to raising money for UNHCR, after being inspired by a family of Ukrainian refugees he met when he passed through Port Macquarie, New South Wales. ...continue reading

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