The CrossingToward Beaufort
A Bounce Back Past Beaufort
Ararat finally gave me the Dobie joke I had been waiting for. Hot chocolate and roadside kindness followed, and by the finish beyond Beaufort both Ballarat and Melbourne felt close.
The walking had stopped short of Ararat the night before. Before dawn, I was back from the marked point and soon standing beside the Ararat sign, saying good morning to Ararat Active City.
It was a short visit, but it still felt like a useful one. Ararat had already amused me because of The Biggest Loser Australia and the whole “no more Aussie fat town” line, but there was something more serious underneath that joke too. This was a town that had been pulled into a national conversation about health and then tried to do something active with it. HAA was never going to stay long that morning. Ballarat and Melbourne were already waiting. Even so, Ararat fitted.
Then came Dobie.
I had been waiting for that sign. Somewhere between Ararat and Beaufort, I took a selfie in the bright yellow beanie and finally made the Dobby from Harry Potter joke I had been saving.
Not every morale boost needs to be mature.
There were more useful human moments as the morning opened up. After leaving Ararat, I stopped at the Caltex servo next to the Grampians Soaring Club and got chatting with the staff about what I was doing. By the time I had poured a much-needed hot chocolate, they had the HAA page open on a phone and were reading about it all.
Years later, I can still just about picture that servo.
A short way after the servo, a car pulled up to check whether I was okay or needed a lift. They had apparently seen me on the other side of Stawell as well, so I must have looked both deliberate and slightly questionable for quite a while. Once I explained what I was doing, Kelly Griffiths made a generous donation.
Naturally, I failed to take photos or selfies of either of those moments. At the time I blamed the cold for affecting my thinking, which is as good an explanation as any.
The cold was a theme. I recorded the vlog on a track running parallel to the highway. It offered a softer surface underfoot, but it also took me away from the trucks. Every time one passed, the turbulence combined with the already strong, cold wind to deliver an icy punch. This part of Victoria kept giving me England-adjacent weather: grey skies, cold air, damp mornings, and enough familiar chill to make the yellow beanie earn its place all over again.
The day improved. After a run of harder mornings, I finished strong. The totals don’t show the difference between dragging myself to a finish and arriving with some life still in me.
This one finished just past Beaufort.
Beaufort supplied a perfectly timed sign: the last highway town before Melbourne. Ballarat was tomorrow. Albert Melbourne parkrun, friends, fundraising and a city bed were close enough to picture.
We drove back to Beaufort for the night. Another 55.7 kilometres were done, and for once the line I posted at the end of the day felt simple and accurate: tomorrow we march on to Ballarat, and a weekend of parkrun and R&R in Melbourne.
Videos From The Day
#HAA2015 #week11 #day6 #vlog
HAA week 11 day 6 vlog recorded on the long day finishing just past Beaufort.
Open on YouTubeImages From The Day
