The CrossingKimba And The Big Galah
Halfway Across Australia
Kimba had a Big Galah and a sign saying I was halfway across Australia. My left foot was sore and our distance figures needed attention, but it was still a moment worth standing beside.
Kimba gave me a milestone I hadn’t known was waiting.
Not halfway from Perth to Brisbane. Not even the mental halfway point that Adelaide had become. This was Kimba’s “Halfway Across Australia” marker: west to east, coast to coast, Perth to Sydney as the crow flies.
I hadn’t known about the landmark before leaving Perth, so it was a brilliant surprise. After measuring progress by roadhouses, rest areas, signs, sessions, feet, food and fading light, there was a big public marker telling me I was halfway across Australia. It didn’t have to be the halfway point of my route.
Before Kimba, the country had been green, open, and unexpectedly familiar. To this day, I can remember, clearly, spotting distant hills that reminded me so much of Glastonbury Tor and the Mendip Hills, rising from the Somerset Levels. That was a strange thing to have in my head while walking through South Australia in a yellow beanie and hi-vis, but the comparison kept landing. Farms, fields, winter light, distant rises. Very much Australia, but with odd flashes of somewhere older in my memory.
The feet were less poetic.
I had been paranoid about foot care for nearly nine weeks, and that had served me well. Then a bit of wet grass caused my first proper blister-ish problem since leaving Perth. The hard skin on the ball of my left foot had been doing a good job of protecting me, but it had got wet and started peeling. Underneath was softer skin, and below the second toe I had a sore bruised blister.
Naturally, every piece of gravel seemed to know exactly where to land.
It wasn’t a disaster, but it was a warning. More care, more taping, more attention. I couldn’t ignore my feet.
The technology was having its own moment too. Earlier that morning I posted an update from Strava support explaining why some of my activities had been getting flagged. Using UltraTrac mode on the Garmin had recorded fewer GPS points, which confused Strava’s pace and moving-time calculations and made parts of the activities look faster than they really were. The flags were removed, and by July I had already switched back to normal recording mode anyway.
The more important measurement issue was the one we were solving ourselves.
That night I logged 55.5 km as actual route distance. The activity total was higher because the watch captured movement that wasn’t always progress along the Perth-to-Brisbane line: photos, the campervan and the inevitable wandering around stops. GPS wasn’t perfect either.
The fix was to drop a pin in Apple Maps and check the next section against the distance from that pin. Start where I’d stopped. Measure the route rather than every movement of the watch.
The four sessions still added 57.9 km to my activity total, taking it to 2,394.6. The route-progress figure was 55.5 km, and that was the number that decided whether we stayed on schedule.
Then came Kimba.
The Big Galah was always going to get a photo. Clearly. The Halfway Across Australia sign did the more important work. It made an abstract milestone visible. I could stand there, tired and sore, and see the line I was trying to cross in a different way.
It was also very HAA that the evening still had more walking in it.
After the Kimba photos, I kept pressing on. During the final session, Heather and John of Kimba stopped to check I was OK. When they heard what I was doing, we chatted for a while and they very generously donated to the Heart Foundation. Later, a bearded truckie named Simeon pulled over to check everything was all right too, then sent me on with a “good onya”.
The Big Galah and halfway sign got the photos. Heather, John and Simeon gave the last session its warmth: a check-in, a donation and a “good onya” while my foot still hurt.
By the end, we had pressed on past Kimba and spent the night at Kimba Caravan Park.
Halfway Across Australia wasn’t halfway to Brisbane. I knew that. For one evening, the sign was enough.
Videos From The Day
Kangaroo country on Day 54
A Day 54 kangaroo moment in the green country on the way toward Kimba.
Open on YouTubeImages From The Day
