The CrossingNew Shoes Near Yass
Walking With Matt And Wendy
Fresh Hoka Valors arrived via Yani and Matt, Yani's cakes did not last long, Chris recognised the van from the news, and Matt and Wendy walked nine kilometres with me after the Yass Service Centre stop.
The morning started in fog near Yass.
We had slept at Yass Caravan Park, thanks to Darrel and Brett from Barney’s at Bookham, then went back to the previous night’s finish point near Bowning. The first job was simple enough: get moving again, get the camper refuelled, and meet Matt and Wendy Napier at Yass Service Centre.
Matt had already been part of the HAA story before I met him in person. His Perth-to-Sydney walk, bouncing an AFL ball, had been one of the things that reassured me before I started that the Nullarbor was actually doable. We had finally met in Canberra a few days earlier. Now he and Wendy had driven out to meet us properly on the route.
He was also on parcel delivery duty.
Two pairs of Hoka Valors, US size 15, had arrived from Hoka OneOne Australia. Yani had provided the delivery address, Matt had picked them up and brought them out, and Muz from Runwest and Roger from Hoka Oz had once again helped keep the shoe situation under control.
This was very practical shoe news. I had started HAA in US size 14 shoes, but several ultra and extreme-endurance people had predicted that my feet would go up a size. They were right. My feet were wider, sore along the edges, and not especially interested in being squeezed into anything.
One kilometre in, I loved the Valors.
They felt good even brand new, which was exactly what I needed. New shoes can be a risk when your feet have already been hammered for more than four thousand kilometres, but these gave me space and comfort straight away: spacious, delightfully comfortable marshmallowness, which is not exactly technical shoe-review language, but it does the job.
Yani had also sent cakes.
Any self-respecting parkrunner knows the importance of new shoes day and cake. Getting both on the same morning was excellent planning by the universe, assisted by a lot of very good people.
While we were stopped at Yass Service Centre, Ols got talking to Chris. He had spotted the stickers on the van and asked whether this was connected to the bloke walking across Australia. Apparently he had seen the story on the news.
After a couple of photos, I insisted on the now-traditional beanie selfie. Obviously.
The best part of the day came after that: nine kilometres with Matt and Wendy.
It was good to compare notes with someone who had done his own huge walk, and with someone who understood the support-crew side of that sort of undertaking. More than that, they were genuinely nice, positive and passionate about what they were doing.
One small memory from that stretch still amuses me. Matt asked how much money I had found by the roadside. None, somehow. Then he kept stopping to pick up coins, as if the highway had been saving them for him personally. I decided he must have collected the lot when he walked across the country himself, leaving none for me to find.
Matt and Wendy were already putting their energy into Walk to a Better World, and hearing about that was genuinely motivating. Spending part of the day with people who were turning their own ridiculous-looking effort into something useful made it easier to imagine HAA growing beyond the kilometres.
With all that going on, we finished slightly late, but the day still ended with another 50-plus kilometres tucked away as we kept heading east through New South Wales.
By the time I stopped east of Yass, near Gunning, the new shoes had passed their first test.
The cakes had passed theirs much faster.
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