The CrossingCoolgardie to Kalgoorlie
A Finish Line At Rivendell
After nearly two weeks on foot, I walked into Kalgoorlie with local parkrunners beside me. It felt like a finish line, even though Brisbane was still thousands of kilometres away.
Kalgoorlie had been Rivendell for days by then.
It started as a Lord of the Rings joke because a walk this size needed stories big enough to carry it. Southern Cross had become the Prancing Pony. Kalgoorlie became Rivendell. Not the end of the quest, but the first place where you could stop, take stock, patch yourself up, and realise the impossible thing was actually happening.
Day 14 was only 31.6 kilometres, which by HAA standards almost sounds modest. It did not feel modest. It felt like the final approach to the first proper milestone. It was the remainder of the highway into the first major urban area since Northam, with almost two weeks of dirt, small towns, pipeline, truck noise, sore feet, and support-crew improvising behind us.
The signs started doing the emotional work before I had time to process it. Goodbye Shire of Coolgardie. Welcome City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Kalgoorlie straight ahead. Perth 590 kilometres behind us.
That last one mattered. Perth was no longer the place we had just left. It was a number on a sign pointing backwards.
We stopped for lunch knowing we were close, which is a particular kind of road-trip torture. Ben made fried egg sandwiches in the van, and somehow, shockingly, the best runny yolks ended up in his own sandwiches. I mention this only because justice matters.
The lunch stop was funny because the town was so close, but close is not the same as finished. HAA had already taught us that. You still had to walk the remaining distance. You still had to reach the actual place with your actual feet. You still had to avoid letting the emotional pull of arrival make the last few kilometres sloppy.
Then the day changed from highway mode into arrival mode.
Allison and Louise Miller from Kalgoorlie-Boulder parkrun came out to join us. Sarah from GWN7 News was there too. Later we would also chat with Mary and Tegan from The Kalgoorlie Miner. After days of red dirt, road signs, trucks, and the little moving bubble of the campervan, suddenly there were people walking with us, filming, asking questions, smiling, and making the last stretch feel like a welcome.
Allison had already been part of the invisible support network that made HAA work. She and Nigel had rallied the local running community, helped connect us with the town, and Allison had contacted Rydges Kalgoorlie. That one act turned into something much bigger than a bed.
Nicholas Parkinson-Bates and the Rydges team gave us three nights’ accommodation and breakfast. They gave us somewhere to park the van, a massage, meals, and space for the heart display in reception too. But the thing that still jumps out is the finish line.
There was bunting across the hotel entrance, and I walked through it like I was finishing something.
I was not finishing HAA, obviously. Brisbane was still absurdly far away. The Nullarbor was still ahead. South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Canberra, and Queensland were still ideas on the map rather than places under my feet.
But I was finishing the first act.
That is why the bunting mattered. It was entirely unexpected and brilliant. It did not pretend the whole journey was done. It gave the first milestone its own shape. It let the body and brain understand that something real had been completed, even while the larger impossible thing still waited. The effort Rydges made to welcome us that way also foreshadowed the way they looked after us for the whole weekend.
Two weeks in, bang on time, with 639 kilometres covered, we had reached the first major milestone. We had learned that HAA would change us physically and mentally. We had learned that the support crew could solve problems while moving. We had learned that local communities could appear around us before we even arrived. Most importantly, the idea had survived leaving Perth.
We could actually do this.
That night Ben and Ols were excited about their first parkrun the next morning, which was perfect. We had walked into Rivendell, been fed and welcomed, and the very next thing on the calendar was a free timed 5k with the local running community.
Of course it was.
Videos From The Day
Support crew downtime on Day 14
A Day 14 support-crew downtime clip while I was still walking toward Kalgoorlie.
Open on YouTubeRydges Kalgoorlie finish-line moment
The Rydges Kalgoorlie finish-line-style bunting moment as the first major HAA milestone became real.
Open on YouTubeImages From The Day
