Interview and story by Beth Jessup
John Travers, 65, a 6ft 1inch English/South African and Mario Martinez, 57, a Spaniard, two-thirds his size are middle-aged adventurers. They first met on a wharf on Scotland Island twenty years ago.
JOHN
Mario was cleaning his dinghy at the end of the jetty one afternoon when we struck up a conversation. We both lived on the island for sometime but had never crossed paths. After a few hours I mentioned I was going cross country skiing in the Snowy. His face lit up, “Cross country skiing! I’ve always wanted to do that!” Mario had married and had children early. He’d dreamed of skiing in the wilderness, climbing mountains and being an adventurer.
We bonded that trip…all boys stuff, crossing freezing rivers, camping out, miles from nowhere, no arguments, it worked a dream, Toward the end though he was getting anxious. Unbeknownst to me, he’d told his wife, Marika, we’d be back in five days. He knew it would take longer. I’d told my then partner, Mary, nine days. Seven days later, Marika got worried, phoned the cops and all hell broke loose!
On our last day, we heard this “cluck, cluck, cluck” noise coming up the valley. It was two helicopters. We waved and surprisingly they landed, so we rushed over to have a chat”!
The copper said, “right, you’re John and you’re Mario”! You could have punched me in the stomach! I’ve done a lot of sailing and you just don’t get rescued! I was mortified, Mario thought it was wonderful! It got on national news.
Our group of two has grown over the years to five, sometimes six but Mario’s the visionary. Only a small percentage of his dreams come true but he dreams enough to make things happen. I have a deep friendship for him. He’s unbelievably enthusiastic. Mention Tierra del Feugo or ice flows and his eyes glaze over. He gets us all fired up. He knows he has a waiting team who’ll do his bidding but he’s cunning. He’s got this saying, “look, it’s nothing, my grandmother could do it!”
He tried that on us down in the Snowy a few years ago. We arrived at an ice lake that none of us would step foot on but Mario felt obliged. As he was walking, he was explaining “how it was as safe as houses, my grandmother…..” Then one leg goes down, he’s half submerged saying, “don’t worry bout that, it’s nothing”! He climbs out…plop! All we could see, was his head and his arms flailing about which stopped him going through the ice. We all collapsed laughing.
He’s thorough but he’s not cautious. Another time, he decided to paddle solo from Manly round Barrenjoey and back to the island. He’d picked a certain weekend, the fact it was blowing a gale didn’t stop him. Marika dropped him and within an hour it was howling. He figured he was okay and he was but Mario being Mario didn’t go far enough out to sea, rounded a Point too close to the breakers, a rogue wave hit him and down and down he went. Luckily, the kayak broke in half enabling him to swim out. He took the two ends, used them as floatation and got ashore. A surfer who’d seen him alerted Care Flight. Just as he reached the beach the chopper approached. He hailed them that he was alright. Absolutely wrecked, he walked to Pittwater Road thinking Marika might be driving by. He laid on the median strip with the two bits of kayak and went to sleep. Awhile later Marika was coming by and the kids yelled out, “look, there’s Dad”!
He’s become a known factor with Care Flight. Has a dozen or two care bears perched on his office window. The one with the goggles, the one sun baking in Hawaii, Superman, the nurse etc. Whenever there’s a new model, he’ll buy one, cause he feels he should.
We’re very different; it’s surprising we’re so close. He knows what’s right and wrong, whereas I don’t know anything really. I analyse stuff too much and I’m all over the place. I’m a stoic where he’s like a Latin caricature, one minute he’s a great lover, the next he can be a real prick!
When I was a little kid I used to dream of being a polar explorer and that’s Mario for sure.
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MARIO
John had travelled widely before I met him. His stories of sailing and other adventures fascinated me. We’d often discuss different places and he’d say, “I was there in ’64 or ’75.
During apartheid in ’78 he decided to buy a boat, stow all his worldly possessions and escape South Africa. He’d done a bit of sailing on the bay in Capetown but it took a year before he got the courage to go outside. So the day he sailed out and made that right hand turn, he knew full well there was little chance he could get back in. He was out for good and he didn’t have a motor or radio, the life raft leaked! His navigation was rudimentary at best and he had a crew who were depending on him, cause they didn’t have a clue! I’m in awe of that, it’s unbelievable, and he’s the worst swimmer! I remember his quote “I was expecting to find Africa on my right-hand side and low and behold on the right day there it was…. Africa!”.….Pretty hard to miss Africa!He was a red hot, right winger when I first met him but he’s swung right over and worked up his social conscience now. He’s quite environmental and sympathic to the aboriginal cause. He’s got enough of a brain to realise what went on in South Africa wasn’t right.
That first ski trip was a roaring success. We broke into cabins we shouldn’t have, read Banjo Patterson books in Mawson’s Hut during bad weather. From then on, every year we went on a ski trip.
Two years ago, I said to the boys, “Why don’t we become lifesavers and contribute a little. John and Stephen agreed. We went down to Mona Vale Surf Club and joined up. In our very first class as potential life guards, John says to the instructor, “is it necessary to know how to swim?!?! We just stopped – the lifeguard said, “nobody could be that silly. But John was serious saying, “I’m not really a good swimmer but I can breastroke! So Stephen and I spent many, many afternoons at the rock pool teaching him to swim.
He’s nice to everyone, the consummate gentleman but his shirts are always wrinkled! He’s the only person I know who’s done the 111km Hawkesbury River Kayak Classic in a pink business shirt. He only cottoned onto Lycra a little while ago. In some ways he’s quite old fashioned, you’d never call him a twitterer! But I trust him implicitly where life decisions are involved. I can tell when he’s serious. That confidence is what I like.
These little blocks of hard adventure really do bring out the best in us. I want to sail to Lord Howe Island but John wants to do it in a dinghy. I don’t want to do it in a bloody dinghy….it’s always the hard way round with him.
We’re getting older but we’ve not quite finished growing up yet.
- signing off, Marika Martinez - Women's Own Adventure
