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Do you live on the route?
It will be cooold in June in the places Mark is going! If any kind soul that lives along the route that Mark is following would like to accommodate Mark for a night during the walk, please contact Mark.
 
Fancy a stroll?
I am more than happy to have people join me for a day or two as I walk. If you feel like a day's walk through the  countryside, check out the route, pick a day that suits you and contact Mark.

 

Update 5

 

I lost one or two fairly ordinary photos due to a corrupted floppy disk (isn't technology wonderful?). The remaining photos (only two, sorry) numbered 500 onwards can be found here

 
 June 29:  Goulburn to Tarago (38km)
Cold.

6ºC, a stiff norwesterly blowing all day, and just enough rain to keep you perpetually wet.

In short, a c--- of a day.

Actually, if the truth be known, the weather didn't get me down. I started walking at 7:30am, and seven hours later, at 2:30, I'd walked all but 30 minutes and covered 31km. Colin, the lovely gent at the Lake Bathurst Tea Rooms, opened up especially for me and rustled up a lunch out of nowhere, while Carol and David, the couple I stayed with for two nights in Goulburn, drove my pack ahead to Tarago and organised accommodation for me there in the pub.

I was buggered and cold when I walked into town at 5 (38km is a long way), but it was a pretty good day, all in all. It's heartening to cover such a long distance with relatively little ill-effects.

I passed the halfway point today, so it's all downhill from here (er, except for the parts that are uphill).

 June 30:  Tarago to Bungendore (31km)
Apart from my splendid evening's accommodations, today was a great big nothing day. Not warm, not cold, not short, not long - just generally not interesting.

Or maybe I'm just too tired to write a journal of it.

The high points: Yolanda (of the massaging fame) and her husband Kasse came to visit me in their mobile home. They stayed the night in Bungendore (that name always sounds to me like something you would shout if you hit your thumb with a hammer - "Aww Bungendore") and had dinner with me in the local pub.

Second high point: The total friendliness and hospitality of the couple I stayed with. Geoff and Caroline Banbury run a gorgeous old B&B in Bungendore ("The Old Stone House"), and somehow got roped into putting me up for the night. But nowhere will you find more gracious and friendly hosts. Thank you, both of you.

 July 1:  Bungendore to Queanbeyan (26km)
I've decide that I don't have the energy at the end of each day to share with you, the readers, my observations on life, myself, my situation and the society we live in. I think about all this stuff constantly - all day - but by the time I get in at night, shower, have dinner, talk to my hosts, write this web update prepare for the next day and try to be in bed by nine, there's no emotional or intellectual energy left to discourse on the way of things.

I'll write something at the end of the walk and post it on this web site, I promise. In the meantime, you might like to read the collection of thoughts (my "ramblings") that went through my head during my world trip last year. You can find them here.

Today was just a little one. Almost a rest day. Even with the 10% extra added on for GST, it was still only 26km. A regular stroll! I had a walking companion for half of it (Hi Hilde!) so it went even faster.

A great chap and rabid AFL player/supporter by the name of Glenn contacted me through my web site and offered to put me up for the night in Queanbeyan. Isn't Australia wonderful?

At the end of the day's walking today I was suffering less walking pain than on any other day so far. I guess I'm finally getting used to this thing. So I'm going to try for an extra big day tomorrow.

P.S. A big thank you to Colin and Jan for the meal they shouted me at the Queanbeyan Kangaroos Rugby League Club.

 July 2:  Queanbeyan to Michelago (45km)
Well, it had to happen.

After two weeks on the road I have turned into a walking machine. Now, I can't deny that my feet hurt like buggery (not that I'd know how buggery hurts) and that I limped sorrily into Michelago, but the bottom line is: I walked 45km today! I've never done that before, not in my entire life. It's further than a marathon (I'm going to entirely ignore the fact that Olympic marathoners do this distance in a little over two hours). In the 10 hours from 7am to 5pm, I walked all but 75 minutes. After - ooooh - 35km it started to hurt. The last 10km - two hours - were a bit of a blur. My poor feet - I've calculated that each one suffered about 25,000 impacts with the bitumen today.

So why? Why did I put myself through that, I hear you ask?

Well, I am very keen to make it to Cooma in three days, so that I can have a full rest day there. (Actually, I can have as many rest days as I want, but I really want to get to Kozzie by next weekend). Because I wasn't carrying my pack today (four days in a row), I wanted to cover as much ground as I could in case I'm forced to carry my pack for the last two days into Cooma. So now you know.

I spent virtually the entire day pondering and worrying over personal issues that I'd rather not go into, so there's not much to report.

P.S. A big thanks to Glenn (a mate of Glenn's) for taking my pack in his car today.

 July 3:  Michelago to Bredbo (28km)
Okay. Today you don't get a journal entry. I'm going through so much emotional turmoil (over things that are nothing to do with the walk) that I hardly even know what road I'm on. I can't bring myself to write about it - sorry - as it is intensely personal. I know that probably makes you want to know even more what's up, but I just can't. I can't go there, not on a web site.

25 minutes before I reached Bredbo, my friends Mark ("Toenails") and Lee pulled up next to me on their way back from the snow. They felt like catching up for a drink (and of course I did too), so they met me at Bredbo Pub, where they shouted me a few drinks, dinner, and a nights accommodation! Such good friends. Thanks for that, guys.

 July 4:  Bredbo to Cooma (35km)
I'm in Cooma. Somehow this feels like an important milestone (why don't we ever use the word "kilometrestone"? It's not totally without romance). I've crossed the great townless void between Goulburn and Cooma (well, one town - Queanbeyan), added 200km to my total in six days (up to 450km now), and I finally feel like there's nothing standing in the way of my getting this bloody trek finished. Everyone I meet tells me that it's going to be cold up in the mountains - too cold - but I'm not worried. I've got warm clothes, and I'll really only be walking one day in the true mountains anyway (Jindabyne to Thredbo). After that it's only a half-day's uphill cross-country skiing from Thredbo Resort up the slopes to Crackenback, then across to Kozzie (and yes, I know, Kosciusko is officially spelled "Kosciuszko". A hearty thanks to all those people who have taken the trouble to write to me and correct me on that).

Today I crossed the most desolate part of my journey - the stretch of highway from Bredbo to Cooma. There is a stretch in there that goes five kilometres without a bend in the road or a single tree. It's all kinda just prairie (check out photo 502, here). Paradoxically, in this most desolate area, more people stopped to offer me things (lifts, food, donations) than on any other day so far.

Mission Australia in Cooma mobilised the troops on my arrival, organising accommodation for me in Dodd's Hotel and shouting me dinner. What a fine part of the world this is.

 July 5:  Rest day in Cooma (0km)
Does anyone mind if I just rest today? No walking, no web updates....

Bliss.

 

 

 
The Cause

All monies collected on this walk will be donated to Mission Australia to care for the homeless.  To learn more about their work, visit www.mission.com.au
 
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The more people that know about this walk, the more successful it will be.
Please TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

 

 

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