Cooma Monaro Express: The missing diary

• Further article on Leszek Wereszka

From the outside it is nothing special - a non-descript exercise book like the ones children write in at school. But inside is a precious gift: some of the last words of Polish-born German cyclist Leszek Wereszka. Mr Wereszka, 49, lost his journal in February when he passed through Nimmitabel on an early leg of the 20,000km cycling trip around Australia that had long been his dream. The missing memoir took on a newfound importance on August 13 when Mr Wereszka was hit and killed by a truck near Adelaide, a cruel 70km shy of finishing the seven-month venture.

“On that day I felt something was not right, I did hear about an accident on Port Wakefield Road,” said Mr Wereszka’s Adelaide-based cousin Janusz Wereszka. “We were waiting with dinner and then a friends of ours rang and said, I believe it was Leszek, because he did recognise his bike.

“We cooked his favourite meal, but he never turned up.” Mr Wereszka left behind more than 1400 photographs of his adventures and three travel journals detailing the later stages of his trip, much to the delight of his relative. The existing diary entries - written in Polish - reveal the physical strains and fatigue associated with the journey, but also Mr Wereszka’s wonderment at the Australian countryside and moments of self-discovery.

“What is this all about? Where will this road lead me at the end?” he wrote while touring the Wombeyan Caves shortly after leaving Cooma in early March. “Could you wish for anything more than 50 years of childhood? Ha ha, I don’t think so,” he wrote from Noosa Heads on March 31.

“But at least I have grown up and gotten to the point where I know who I want to be. “I want to be a good man - there aren’t many of them around.” Mr Wereszka separated from his wife 10 years ago and had spent the past few years getting to know his daughter Ania again.

Ania, who is frequently mentioned in the journals, will arrive in Adelaide today ahead of her father’s funeral. Her uncle would love to give her the diaries - all of them. “We’ve got three others, but not the first one,” he said. “It’s sort of like a fresh chapter, the beginning of his journey around Australia …”

The missing journal is an A5-sized exercise book filled with Polish writing. It was lost in what has been described as a visitor information booth in Nimmitabel, on or about February 25, 2007. If anyone knows the location of the journal, please contact the Express on 6452 1066.