The CrossingInto Ballarat
Ballarat With Company
John, Michelle and Jo helped turn the walk into Ballarat into a shared arrival. Later, an offer of a St Kilda apartment nearly tipped me over before the big Melbourne weekend had even begun.
For once, I was not starting a long day by myself.
John Kilmartin was waiting near Beaufort in the cold and dark, wearing orange hi-vis and ready to walk with me. He was an experienced 100 km walker, not somebody turning up for a few sympathetic steps before deciding the campervan looked better.
Ballarat wasn’t Melbourne on foot, but it was our gateway to the weekend: Williamstown, Albert Melbourne parkrun and the Heart Foundation fundraiser, followed by a return to Ballarat.
It turned into a busy media day, but we just took it in our stride. Before the day was very old, I had posted a heads-up that ABC Ballarat had a radio interview coming up at 9:20. Later in the morning Hannah and Matt from WIN News Ballarat came out to chat, film some footage, and interview us beside the highway. The obvious question, naturally, was which support crew member might get an on-screen speaking part.
In between all that, the walking still had to happen. There were four sessions across the day, adding up to 42.4 kilometres. By HAA standards that had somehow become a manageable number, but it was still a marathon distance in the middle of walking across a country. The difference was company. John was there from the start, then Michelle Smith and Jo Challis joined us before lunch. Michelle had already become part of the story two nights earlier, when she turned a passing joke about muffins and coffee into actual roadside delivery in the dark. Now she and her sister Jo were there in daylight, helping turn the final stretch into Ballarat into something closer to a small walking event.
Ballarat gave us plenty to look at as we came in. The Avenue of Honour, the Arch of Victory, Victoria Park, and eventually the Welcome to Ballarat sign. The timing at that sign was ridiculous in the best possible way: I had just reached it when Mel and Luka from The Courier turned up for a chat and photos.
The finish point was Victoria Park, which also happened to be the Ballarat parkrun finish line. That felt fitting. The whole Melbourne weekend had been shaped around parkrun, community, and the Heart Foundation, so ending the walking day at another parkrun finish line made perfect sense.
Then Carla appeared with a whole bag of baked goodies for the team. She also told me her daughter was going to use my story as the basis of a health-related school project. That landed in a place I could not really have predicted before HAA. I had set out to walk across Australia because I wanted people to believe they could do something positive for their own health, and now a young person in Ballarat was taking the story into school. That was a lot to take in after another day on the feet.
And then Lynn and Rob nearly finished me off.
They were already part of one of my favourite HAA memories. Their daughter Kirby had been following the journey online, Lynn and Rob had found us on the Nullarbor, brought supplies, and refused payment because they wanted it to be a donation. On Day 77, Lynn asked whether we were staying in Melbourne. I confirmed that we were, and later she told me that she and Rob had organised an apartment in St Kilda for me, Ben and Ols, with room for the campervan, so we could have a bit of a treat. I cannot now pin down exactly when those messages arrived, but I can still remember the effect.
I was blown away. Not in a tidy, polite, “that was nice” kind of way. Properly blown away.
By the end of the walking, I’d reached Ballarat with company, media, baked goods and another parkrun finish line. Lynn and Rob’s offer of unexpected comfort in St Kilda nearly finished me off.
Images From The Day
