With 6,500 Km To Go, Roland's On A Roll
Sydney Morning Herald
Sunday April 12, 1992
People have crossed the Australian outback in some strange ways, but few have been stranger than Roland Thomarat's project.
The 33-year-old French swimming coach will leave from the Royal Easter Show tomorrow afternoon on roller skates, bound for Alice Springs and then Perth on a 6,500-kilometre journey to raise awareness about the Muscular Dystrophy Association of NSW.
He also hopes to raise money for the organisation along the way.
Mr Thomarat will be pulled along by a motorised unicycle, part of a French craze dubbed "Roll'ex".
"The Roll'ex is original and will attract publicity, and I prefer to give that to someone who needs it," he said.
"I'm aware about the problems of disabled people, and muscular dystrophy is one of the hardest because when you get this disease you lose something you have already."
Roll'ex, named after the roller skates and the Solex moped which supplies the motor, was created in Brittany about six years ago.
Travelling at speeds of up to 35 km/h, Mr Thomarat expects to take three months to pass through Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Port Augusta, Ayers Rock and Alice Springs.
He will then double back to Port Augusta by car, and cross the Nullarbor Plain to Perth.
A friend will follow him in a car to provide essential supplies.
However, for the several weeks when he will be alone, he will carry his own supplies.
He will pack up to 20 kilograms of tools, spare parts, a tent and sleeping bag, dried food, clothes and two five-litre tanks of water into space at the front of the Roll'ex machine.
Mr Thomarat worked with disabled people for three years in France.
He has plenty of practice covering vast distances by Roll'ex. In 1989, he travelled 7,000 kilometres in two months from the Arctic Circle in Norway through Scandinavia, England, Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and Spain to Gibraltar.
He arrived in Australia two years ago on a temporary visa, and has been preparing for his journey ever since.
"The hardest thing was to plan it," he said.
"When you prepare, you never have time to train properly, so the first two weeks will be the time to get fit for the rest of the trip," he said.
Mr Thomarat will arrive back in Sydney at the end of July.
© 1992 Sydney Morning Herald