The CrossingBack From Canberra
Welcome To The Grind
After a brilliant Canberra weekend, it was back to the Hume: Gundagai on foot, the Dog on the Tuckerbox, big New South Wales scenery, Marshy on the hard shoulder, and a noisy truck-stop night near Coolac.
Canberra had been brilliant.
Very very cold, but brilliant.
Then Monday arrived, and the message before dawn said it plainly enough:
Rise and Shine.
Welcome to the Grind.
After a lovely weekend in Canberra, it was time to get back to it. We were about five parkruns from Gundagai and about 80 parkruns from Sydney. The plan was to get roughly 30 km beyond Gundagai by night, then push on toward Yass the next day. If things went well, Matt Napier would join me for a bit on Wednesday, Sydney would arrive the following Monday, and after that there would be the small matter of the last 600 km or so toward Brisbane.
No pressure then.
The first job was to go back to the marked point where the walking had stopped before the Canberra weekend. Then the Hume started again.
By mid-morning I had officially reached Gundagai on foot.
Before anyone asked, I had not passed the Dog on the Tuckerbox yet. That was still about 10 km away.
Gundagai gave me a proper little town pause: the tourist sign, the statues, a bit of local history, and enough civilisation to make the weekend feel like it had not completely vanished behind us. Then I left town with another sign doing the HAA maths for me: Yass 98, Sydney 379.
Or, more importantly:
75.8 parkruns to Sydney.
Also, STILL no mention of Canberra.
Six kilometres later there was lunch, and then finally, the famous Tuckerbox puppy.
Finally lol.
I had been joking about it all morning, so it would have been rude not to stop. It was one of those roadside Australian things that had existed as a name before it existed as an actual place in front of me. HAA was very good at turning names on signs into places under my feet.
After lunch, the day shifted into something quieter.
Being surrounded by beautiful country had, to a degree, become my “norm”, but there were still moments that stopped me. Natural light over the hills. Animals looking back at me. A stark foggy landscape. A bend in the cloud. A paddock that somehow looked completely ordinary and completely magnificent at the same time.
Australia really is massive, diverse and incredibly beautiful.
I knew I was privileged to be seeing so much of it in that slow, detailed way. There were plenty of hard days, sore feet, cold mornings, trucks, noise and practical problems, but the country itself kept giving me reasons to keep moving.
That thought took me back to Mick, the traveller I had met earlier, who lived on the road permanently. He had said something like the wilderness is where you find God, or whatever word fits your worldview.
I am not a religious man, but out there, I knew exactly what he meant.
Then came Marshy.
A car pulled over, signalled for me to come over, and I ended up standing on the hard shoulder chatting while trucks went by.
His name was Eddie Marsh, or Marshy as he is more usually known. A Dockers supporter from Perth, originally from New Zealand, and apparently driving around the country raising money for kids.
His opening line was, “you doing your bucket list?”
His second line was, “you alright for water?”
Complete character. Genuinely laugh-a-minute roadside encounter.
Onya Marshy.
By the end of the day, the first one back after Canberra had been exactly the strange mix I expected: getting back into the swing of things, but with a bit of freshness from the break.
We parked up in a truck stop next to the highway, a few kilometres north west of Coolac. I had walked to that spot, which meant the next morning would be simple: no drive forward, no drive back, just open the door and start again.
The downside was also obvious. No power, likely cold, and the Hume Highway for background noise.
That was fine. We were aiming to average around 53 km a day, and I wanted something closer to 55 the next day if everything held together. With a 7pm finish and no drive forward or back, it seemed achievable.
Sydney was about 70 parkruns away.
Week 14, Day 3. Day 94 overall.
Almost all the way across, and getting ready to head north to Brisbane.
Videos From The Day
#HAA2015 #OMG
My favourite pre-event or morning-of-event motivation video, shared because it fitted the post-Canberra restart: time to get back out and recommence the grind.
Open on YouTubeImages From The Day
