The Crossing Bullabulling to Coolgardie
One Day From Rivendell
Day 13 took us through Coolgardie, past the 10% mark, with radio, GPS weirdness, Grant Wholey appearing on the pipeline, and Kalgoorlie suddenly close.
Day 13 started with a number that made the whole thing feel both huge and possible.
By the end of the day, we would be more than 10 percent of the way to Brisbane. Not just out of Perth. Not just through the first week. Ten percent of the whole ridiculous thing.
That number mattered. I noticed milestones all the way across: totals, town names, distance signs, halfway marks, parkrun units. Anything that helped make something impossible feel measurable was worth grabbing onto.
Kalgoorlie was suddenly close too. Close enough to talk about arrival times, the council building, Rydges, parkrun, people joining in, and the mobile Lock In The Love display. Rydges had come through with three donated nights of accommodation, so the next day had an itinerary instead of just a direction.
The morning included a phone interview with Glen Wilson from 981 Radio West, with Allison Hunter sending through the recording. The Kalgoorlie support network was already around us before we arrived.
The GPS was less helpful. Some of the splits were absurd: six minutes, three minutes, or less for a kilometre. If the signal was going to play games, I would have preferred it to create a quantum leap forward instead of just messing with the numbers.
Then Grant Wholey appeared.
I was walking along the pipeline, minding my own business, and suddenly there was this ultra-running, parkrunning Goldfields local sharing a few kilometres with me. Grant was a co-founder of the Goldfields Pipeline Marathon, and the surprise of him appearing there was awesome. It made the day feel like the Goldfields had come out to meet us properly.
That sort of thing fits Grant. Years later, during COVID hotel quarantine, he would turn a 17 metre course inside his room into a 50 kilometre hotel-room ultra. Some people are just very committed to making small loops ridiculous.
There were other little Goldfields moments scattered around the day too: dramatic Coolgardie skies, a wonderfully odd property beside the highway, a shortcut joke, and the repeated mental trick of translating the remaining distance into parkruns. When you are tired, “one parkrun to go” is much easier to carry than “five more kilometres after nearly two weeks of this.”
We officially made it to Coolgardie on foot in the late afternoon, which was funny because we had slept there the night before. That was the rhythm now: drive forward for sleep, go back to the previous finish point, and make sure the crossing had no gaps or breaks.
Coolgardie had history in it even when we were too tired and too late to take it all in properly. I remember the width of the main street, wide enough to turn a camel train, and the feeling that the place carried more than we could stop and absorb.
By evening there was one parkrun to go for the day. One more five kilometre unit. One more small trick to make a huge thing measurable.
Day 13 ended about 9 or 10 kilometres beyond Coolgardie, with more than 600 kilometres done, almost two weeks into HAA, and Kalgoorlie waiting one day ahead.
That last part changed the mood. We were not just moving across blank distance anymore. We were close enough for other people to make plans around our arrival. The town had names in it now: Allison, Glen, Grant, Rydges, parkrun, council, radio. The first major milestone was no longer an idea on a schedule. It was one more push away.
Videos From The Day
981 Radio West interview with Glen Wilson
The Day 13 phone interview with Glen Wilson from 981 Radio West, with the recording supplied by Allison Hunter. The audio quality is rough, but it captures the Kalgoorlie build-up as it was happening.
Open on YouTubeCooking with Ols episode 2
Cooking with Ols episode 2: tuna pasta at the end of Day 13, with production values apparently on the rise.
Open on YouTubeImages From The Day
