Tasmania by Bike: How a Stone Soup Traveler Gets Going

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

You know the story. Old man shows up in a village with a rock and pot to his name. Puts some water in that pot, the rock too, and pretty soon both are boiling. A villager walks up, asks the man what he’s cooking and the man replies “stone soup”.

Then the old man says the soup he’s making would be better if it had some carrots. And you know what happens next. The visitor goes home, returns with a carrot, throws it in the old man’s pot. And the next person shows up. Asks “whatcha’ cooking….?”. And the cycle continues. Pretty soon, the old man with the rock and the pot are eating pretty well.

The others are too. The guy who only had a carrot to his name is enjoying vegetable stew. If it weren’t for the old man and his empty pot, Mr. Carrot would have eaten his root alone that night and gone to bed depressed because he had no friends (Okay, I made that part up). The point is, the stone soup scenario works as well for the chef as the carrot provider.

Funny thing is that story applies to more than just food. It applies to most any story where a person hungers really, really hard for something — but doesn’t quite have all the ingredients. It could be a story about homebuilding, where a person of modest means scrounges, recycles and takes on cast off lumber to erect a beautiful tiny home. It could be about a person outfitting an old boat with cast off anchors, lines and sails.

Or it could be about a person who wants to go on a voyage really, really, badly. So badly that he just takes off, deciding it’s better to get going now than waiting ’til he has all the proper gear.

Which would describe my upcoming voyage to Tasmania.

Yep, like the old man that hit the road with his rock and pot, I’m just heading off for Tasmania with the bare necessities. I’ll find what I need on the road. Sure, there’ll be times when the soup is thin. But that’s a small price to pay to be able to say you’re on the road. Learning about a new country. And diving into that magical world where nothing turns into something — from soup, to lodging, to, with a little luck, a trusty steed.

Stone soup alert: Just as I’ve traveled both ways across the US by mule, I hope to visit Tasmania by horse. If anyone is reading this in Tasmania, or knows where I might find a suitable mount in the Hobart area, contact me…… You might be holding the carrot for the proverbial stone soup — of which I’ll be sure to let you have a taste.

---

Let's Keep in Touch

Sign up for The River, the RiverEarth newsletter, for occasional doses of rambling and homestead life. Plus you'll get a free copy of my 155-page illustrated ebook 19 Million Mule Steps.

Just enter your email below and hit Subscribe.

Explore More of RiverEarth

• Travel by Horse and Mule
• Travel by Sail
• Tasmania by $10 Bike
• Around the Homestead
• Travel Grit Website: Interviews with Long Riders, Sailors and Adventurers