The CrossingToward Two Wells
Bec's Neighbourhood
The walk towards Two Wells brought Dublin jokes, roadside encouragement and growing media interest from Adelaide. Bec Kuss arriving with pizza was the rescue I really needed.
Adelaide was close enough now that the day had a different sort of pressure around it.
Not close enough to coast. Definitely not that. There were still 56.8 kilometres to get through, and the finish would be a couple of kilometres north of Two Wells, with the overnight stop at Virginia Gardens. But close enough that the city was starting to tug at everything: media interest, event shirts, the virtual event, the follower count, the next parkrun, and the very simple fact that we were about to reach the first major city since Perth.
That morning I was still pushing the wider HAA message too. I wanted people inviting friends to follow the adventure, getting down to parkrun, joining the HAA virtual run/walk/crawl event, and using HAA as a nudge to get active.
It was the same message HAA had carried from the start. You did not have to be skinny. You did not have to be super fit. You did not need to look like David Beckham or Sally Pearson. You just needed a spark of thought that said you were in control and that something was possible.
The difference was that I was writing that while walking toward Adelaide after more than 2800 kilometres. The message was not theoretical any more. It was happening in public, slowly, painfully, one day at a time.
There was also a small social media target sitting in the background. Could we crack 2000 Facebook likes before reaching Adelaide the next afternoon? Back then, page likes still felt like they meant something, and it was another way of pulling people into the thing while it was happening.
Some of the day was just exactly the sort of silliness my brain needed.
Dublin, South Australia, gave me the obvious Ireland jokes. No more mr fat guy was, technically, in Dublin. Not the Dublin I had ever expected to find myself in, but after everything HAA had thrown up, why not? A sign then made it even better by pointing straight ahead for Adelaide and Dublin at the same time. Hearts Across Ireland was briefly available as a spin-off.
The same place gave us something more meaningful too. I bumped into the Regional Youth Bus, had a good chat, and saw the quote they had displayed:
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
That could easily become motivational-poster fluff, but out there it had teeth. HAA and no more mr fat guy were both built around stepping beyond the version of yourself you had become too used to living inside. Seeing that message on a youth bus in regional South Australia felt bang on.
Ben and Ols were also becoming visual evidence of how long we had been away from normal life. I posted photos of the pair of them and asked for Adelaide barber recommendations. Anyone would have thought they had not seen a hairdresser for over nine weeks.
To be fair, none of us were living the spa-retreat version of travel.
There was media activity starting to build as well. I was trying to line up a phone chat with ABC Adelaide, and the Heart Foundation connection was helping the story find its way into the right places. Adelaide was going to be more than a point on the map. It was a proper arrival, a proper pause, and a chance for the walk to be seen by people beyond the ones already following the dot.
But as much as Adelaide was pulling everything forward, Day 62 now belongs in my mind to Bec Kuss.
Bec had already appeared twice in the adventure. Fiona Cooper had told her to look out for us when Bec was heading from Two Wells to Perth, and she somehow managed to find me near Kalgoorlie. That first meeting started with the sort of “are you Gary?” moment that was still surprising back then.
Then, after Balladonia, Bec had appeared again on her way home with water and chocolate, including the FruChocs that entered my life with some force.
Now we were in Bec’s neighbourhood.
The finish for the day was a couple of kilometres north of Two Wells. Bec met me there so Ben and Ols could go ahead and get the campervan sorted at the caravan park. She drove me to Virginia Gardens, waited while we got ready, then took the three of us to the Empire Cafe in Two Wells.
And then she paid for dinner.
The pizza was awesome. Bec didn’t need to organise her evening around three tired blokes and a campervan, but she did. Then she drove us back to the caravan park.
Images From The Day
