My world walk blog Australia 39 comprehensive update 12/11/2017
This past two weeks I have made sporadic
posts. I spent a rest day catching up on some of writing commitments,
including stitching some of those disjointed reports together. So here
is a comprehensive summary of my last two weeks. Hopefully you will
enjoy even if you have read some of the following text and seen the
photos before.
Halloween,
was a Spook-tacular day and there was no need for me to dress up, I
suppose I always look scary! Nice and warm but with a pleasant breeze
but flies have started to become a pest. For some reason that day I
walked along a parallel secondary road which cost only an extra two
kilometres. It led to a village called Ben Lomond and my decision proved
to be a good one for there were only a few cars during the two hours
that I walked along it without a care. There is so much crap going on in
the world, this walk for me is an opportunity to tune out, should I
care to take it.
Once in the
pretty village a friendly gardener suggested that I pitch my tent under a
shelter at a disused tennis court beside a graveyard. Ah! Yes,
Halloween beside a graveyard However, the real scare there was a man, a
white supremacist, a holocaust denier who was camping in a nearby
field. Like many other so-called grey nomads I met he has been
travelling around the country for over twenty years and living out of
his motor home. He was retired and I was informed that his government
pension of 800 dollars a fortnight was more money than he could spend.
Before I left the following morning he mentioned that his unsavoury
views would have him imprisoned in some European countries. Escape from
the realities of the world only goes so far.
Next
day, I only walked 15 kilometres and stopped at the Red Lion bar for
lunch. The owner, a woman called Anne told me that it was for sale for
530,000 dollars. A lot of money I know but when you consider that the
sale included a house which would cost about half the total sale price, a
small RV park, and a 20 seater shuttle bus and a three room mini hotel
which usually has its 90 dollar a night rooms filled. I was planning to
pitch my tent on a patch of grass when a man called Alan invited me to
stay the night with him and his wife Nancy at their home across the
road. At their dinner table I heard their story about how three local
community activists had reason to wonder when three of their dogs wrre
poisoned. Only one dog survived.
A
business-like 24 kilometres took me to the outskirts of picturesque
Glen Innes where I did an interview for a local newspaper. It seemed
that word of my cancer awareness world march had spread. Then a man
called Dave came out to me and I had an invite to meet some people at a
food bank which was staffed by volunteers from a local church. It was
perfectly good food which mainly had damaged packaging or was short
dated. It was being distributed to anyone in need. The supervisor, a
kind-hearted woman called Jenny who even gave me an invitation to pitch
my tent in her garden at the far end of town.
Upon
arriving at her family home I was soon upgraded to sofa accommodation
and later to a bedroom. Such was the hospitality that I ended up
spending three fun-filled rest days there, as there was a lot to do.
First,
we went to the so-called Standing Stones which were a replica and built
as a tribute to the towns Celtic heritage. Each year the town hosts a
popular Celtic festival. I preferred to call the Standing Stones the
Holy Stones as in the episode of the hit comedy called Fr. Ted, about
the life of three Irish priests. The Irish comedy is also a hit show
here in Australia. That night we watched the Holy Stones episode on
YouTube, along with four other episodes for I can never get enough of
this hillarity. Anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about; please
do yourself a favour and check it out to watch for free on YouTube.
In
all I spent three nights in Glen Innes and even presented Jenny with a
birthday present of my 13th pair of worn out shoes. One night we went
over to her friends house where Anne and Mitch hosted us to a lovely
evening and dinner. Their passion is for their 'Fatty The Rat Rod'
project. A few years ago they came across a 1951 Dodge truck that they
pulled out of a scrap heap in Dubbo, Australia. Then they went on to
write children's books and set up children's workcamps around it.
Eventually,
it was time for me to walk on and I hadn't gotten far when a man called
Malcolm who had read about me stopped to offer a bed for the night in
his home. He lived near Dundee with his wife Dayle, 22 kilometres away.
Quick as a flash I asked him to transport Karma, and so we loaded my
trusty cart onto his pickup truck. I could walk almost the whole day
without the drudgery of pushing it. At his farmhouse we had an
interesting chat about farm life on his 4,000 acre, 4,000 sheep/lamb and
200 cow farm. Their son Ian, is conveniently married to a vet. I
remembered the story of how a previous host, also a farmer had regular
200 dollar vet fees for animal visitations. I got a laugh when I asked
how their son and daughter-in-law met. "He used to sell her firewood, so
much so that in the end he just said... Listen Kate, you don't need to
buy any more firewood, you just need a boyfriend!"
Next day, I was delighted when Malcolm kindly transported Karma the 21
kms to Deepwater as Jenny had managed to get her friends Ronnie and
Brenda to bed me!
I arrived
just before the Melbourne cup horse race began. This is an Australian
institution which is talked about and celebrated by a huge amount of
Aussies. Upon arriving at my latest hosts house I asked Ronnie if he was
watching it but alas he said that he didn't have the premium television
channel which was showing it live. Suddenly, an uncharacteristically
afternoon tiredness came across me so I took a two hour nap. When I
returned to the living room Ronnie was talking about the Irish trained
winner and what a great race it was. Puzzled, I asked him how he saw it
and we both laughed when he said he saw it on a non premium channel
which was able to show the re run of the race five minutes after the
finish. Ah! Had I of known he meant that he couldn't watch it live but a
few minutes later, as if a few minutes made much difference in my
world! Later we watched the race rerun online.
Next
morning I had only walked a couple of kilometres when a man called Gerd
stopped me for a chat. He invited me inside for lunch but instead I
stopped for a coffee. I was delighted when they took me up on my offer
for me to walk on for a few hours and I would be transported back and
returned to my route in the morning. As Gerd and his son Simon were
going to Tenterfield the following day and that plan was perfect, they
would transport Karma for me there. A fourth consecutive day with
pushing her
They have a friend who works in a car dealership who would take delivery of Karma until I arrived.
I
was returned to Gerd's house by Simon. On the way he spoke of a bicycle
trip he made half way around Australia. His dream is to one day do a
full lap of his country. That night we had a steak dinner at an
interesting bar called The Longhorn Bar. The owner was a budding artist
and and had her studio in in a corner of the bar. That way during quiet
periods she could paint portraits of her locals. Back at his house and
over copious amounts of cans of Heineken Gerd spoke about how he was a
wandering 23 year old backpacker who didn't want to return to Germany.
After visiting the Australian embassy in Singapore it seemed that he
impressed the immigration officers when he said that all he knew about
Australia was that they had previously held the Olympics in Melbourne
and there were kangaroos there. "So why don't you go and check it out?"
He was asked, and he did and loved it. A little later at a German club
he met his soon to be wife Brigitte. After almost fifty years in
Australia, Germany is still very much in his blood.
"Yes
I know Heineken is a Dutch beer but I love it so much. I love watching
football and now that I am retired I can get up and watch Champions
League soccer at three in the morning and enjoy a few grogs! Life is
great now and I can always go back to bed after the football!"
Next
day I arrived in Tenterfield and after picking up Karma I camped in the
town park. Many years ago when Australia was picking its future capital
city Tenterfield was on a short list of potential contenders along with
Canberra, the eventual winner.
Just before I left I
got a photo message from Gerd who had nailed a pair of my abandoned
socks to a tree in the shape of a letter T. I was told they would
immortalise me as long as the tree stood there!
While
walking out of town I got talking to a Scotsman called Duncan who
treated me to a fish and chips lunch. He has been living here almost
fifty years since his father answered a newspaper advertisement in a
Scottish newspaper. A Tenterfield cultural society was looking for a
master bagpiper. Obviously, in those days such tedious job search
negotiations and applications had to be processed by snail mail. There
was an element of trust involved that he could play his bagpipes as
required. A few months later he arrived along with his young wife and
four children. Duncan was a young teenager.
The
restaurant where we ate was once the same one where Paul Hogan, aka Mr
Crocodile Dundee once had a milk shake during the filming of another
movie.
After three months
and almost 2,000 kilometres of sheer bliss I walked from New South
Wales to Queensland state. Thanks to the countless amount of people who
helped me to make NSW one of my favourite places on earth
Before
I crossed the state line I saw a dead redish-brown snake with black
hoops and was about 3 or 4 cm in diameter and less than a metre long.
Later, I was told that it was a young red bellied black snake.
After
camping at a town park at the state line in Wallangarra I walked about
18 kilometres before stopping at the Ballandean Tavern. I only stopped
to charge up my phone and battery pack and soon found myself invited to
stay a couple of nights at a nearby cabin resort called Rovers Rest
which Tracy and Graham, the taverns proprietors own, such extraordinary
generosity.
I had been planning to camp in a park
across the road and the reason I stopped at the tavern was because I
hoping to listen to Ireland vital world cup qualification game against
Denmark on the radio and needed to charge up my phone and battery pack.
In the bush near the cabins I saw some kangaroos and Graham said there
were plenty living on his fifty acres. I went out before dark and other
times but unfortunately, the only ones I spotted where too far away to
photograph. Nevertheless, I had an enjoyable experience and a nice rest
day.
These days I am
just moseying along the road and like a train off its tracks I don't
care what distance I walk. When I get to Toowoomba City in a few days
time I plan to take my aforementioned summer break from Australia to
walk New Zealand.
Before that, I will spend a
couple of days in Brisbane with some members of the Irish community.
Then I fly to Sydney for some speaking engagements. I fly to Queenstown,
NZ on Dec 3 and walk the south island first. I should be in the Christchurch area around Christmas. On Feb 14th
I return to Australia and a little later I will continue walking north
from where I left off in Toowoomba City towards Rockhampton, Mt Isa and
Darwin. Yes, I know that it will be still warm at that time. I am well
prepared and will walk during the cooler hours
20-12-2017
A tough 40 kilometres took me to a hamlet called Studholme. On the way, I passed a major milestone, the 45th parallel, halfway between the South Pole and the Equator. I would have to find a way to celebrate that night!Looking for a place to camp in Studholme I asked the security guard of the Fonterra milk processing plant if I could pitch my tent on a nearby patch of grass. Instead, he pointed me down a laneway towards The Studholme Hotel.
