The CrossingToward Ararat
Drop Bears And Ararat Ahead
A Giant Koala loomed out of the dark before Shev joined me through Stawell. Ararat supplied the jokes, the media interest and a finish close enough to make tomorrow feel straightforward.
The day started under the watchful eye of the Giant Koala.
By daylight it might have been a normal piece of Australian roadside tourism. In the dark, with a head torch, tired legs, and another huge day ahead, it looked more like the evil overlord of the drop bear realms.
It was just a joke, a bit of fun before sunrise.
As the light came up, the next names lined up: Ballarat, Glenorchy, Warracknabeal, Stawell, Melbourne. I was having trouble grasping how quickly we’d come from Nhill, let alone Adelaide.
Then there was the small matter of becoming famous in Wimmera. The Stawell Times-News and Wimmera Mail-Times had published a piece about what we were doing and why. I was still a bloke in a yellow beanie on the Western Highway, but there it was: HAA in the local paper, complete with photo evidence. Media coverage always helped. It gave the story another push, another set of people who might notice, donate, follow along, or simply wave when they passed.
The day also kept offering exactly the sort of signs I needed. Deep Lead was always going to become “twinned with Purple Zeppelin”. A roadside marker that looked like it might be a giant Sharpie turned out, 300 metres later, to be a proper historic marker at Doctor’s Hill. Not giant. Not stationery. Just historic.
By late morning, Ararat had started to enter the conversation too. I had not realised that Ararat was the town featured on The Biggest Loser Australia. At one stage it had been called Australia’s fattest town, which meant no more mr fat guy was now heading toward what I immediately turned into “no more Aussie fat town”.
There was a bit more to it than the joke. Ararat had taken that TV moment and built the Ararat Active City idea around health and activity. HAA was about changing health, changing belief, and giving people a reason to move, so it felt like an interesting place to be heading.
Stawell gave the day its best human moment before lunch. Shev, the Heart Foundation nurse ambassador I had met with Rylan the day before, came back out after doing interval training. She met us on the edge of town, officially welcomed HAA to Stawell, and walked a kilometre or so with me to where the crew were parked.
The company was good and we had a nice chat on the way in. I seem to remember being amused that she had donned the HAA high-vis “uniform” for the occasion.
She’d followed the page, cared about HAA, understood the Heart Foundation connection through her own work and taken the time to join the day. Stawell also seemed like a proper running town, which made me wonder about approaching parkrun Australia.
In the afternoon I posted an update from the numbers in front of us. We were looking likely to finish about 8 kilometres outside Ararat, which meant I would officially reach and pass through town first thing the next morning. The last couple of mornings had been a struggle, and I was definitely looking forward to the Melbourne weekend rest, but Ballarat still looked on track for Friday afternoon.
Then Michelle Smith did something I won’t forget.
Michelle was someone I had got to know through the Facebook running community. She and her other half had passed me earlier while heading to an event in the Northern Territory, and I had joked that they could have brought a muffin and coffee. Later that night, Michelle walked up the verge in the dark, with trucks whizzing by, carrying a bag of goodies she wanted to drop at the campervan: muffins, drinks, and a few other bits and pieces for the three of us.
Walking along the highway at night with no high-vis was well beyond the call of duty. It was also pure HAA. A throwaway joke became actual support because people were watching, caring, and finding ways to help.
The day finished short of Ararat. We drove in to sleep at Acacia Caravan Park, where our hosts discounted the site.
Another 54 kilometres were done. The next morning would be Ararat proper, then the push toward Ballarat, then Melbourne.
The names ahead were getting bigger again.
Images From The Day
