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