The CrossingGoulburn And Forty Parkruns
Morning Tea From Canberra
Peter Jordan and David McCooey drove from Canberra with coffee, Danish pastries, and enough enthusiasm to make a Hume Highway morning feel ridiculous in the best possible way. By nightfall I had reached Goulburn, met Louise Edwards for an impromptu interview, and Sydney was down to 37 parkruns.
The morning started somewhere east of Yass, on another cold New South Wales stretch of the Hume Highway: traffic, shoulders, open country, and distance still to cover.
Then a small support vehicle arrived from Canberra.
Peter Jordan and David McCooey had driven about two hours to find me beside the highway, bringing coffee and Danish pastries. I could not stop laughing and smiling. A roadside coffee delivery service had not been part of the original HAA plan, but if anyone had offered one, I would definitely have ticked the box.
As well as coffee, this visit also brought me 2 km of roadside company. Having become acclimatised to the environment myself, it was amusing to see how Peter felt about the B-doubles rumbling past only metres away!
I think he decided the secret was my hi-vis vest of invincibility. I was happy to accept that explanation.
David also doubled back to the campervan with a box for Ben and Ols.
Morning tea for the crew too.
This may have involved waking them up, but as David pointed out, it was already half way through the day. Support crew life was not all sleep-ins and glamour.
That Canberra weekend had already been huge for HAA, and somehow the support was still spilling out onto the highway days later. People had gone from cheering at Gungahlin parkrun to physically appearing beside the Hume with coffee and pastries. That sort of thing still made the distance feel less lonely.
After that, I kept heading toward Goulburn.
A sign told me Sydney was 204 km away. In the standard HAA unit of measure, that meant Sydney was just 40 parkruns away. A few weeks earlier, Sydney had still felt like a name somewhere past Canberra and the Southern Highlands. Now it was on the signs in numbers I could calculate quickly while walking.
Goulburn also brought the Big Merino.
I was not sure whether it was the famous Big Merino or the evil overlord of Goulburn on a day visit from the realms of darkness. Either way, I took photos. You don’t walk across Australia and ignore a giant sheep beside the highway. That would be poor form.
Goulburn itself was bigger than I expected. There were some really pretty old buildings too, which was a pleasant surprise after so many hours of highway signs and roadside views.
The other Goulburn surprise was Louise Edwards.
My running buddy Clinton Bishop had seen that I was coming through town and tagged Louise, asking her to keep an eye out for his mate walking from Perth to Brisbane. Louise was from Perth but living in Goulburn, and somehow that turned into an impromptu interview for her wellness page.
No selfie to prove it, unfortunately. Very poor form from me there.
Goulburn did at least give me Clinton Street and Bishop Street, which felt like a decent effort from the town given Clint’s role in making the Louise connection happen.
By the end of the day I had gone a little beyond Goulburn. We drove back into the Goulburn area for the night, then would return to that finish point in the morning.
The next day had a few things waiting already. I was due to talk to Gus from Triple M’s The Grill Team at about 9 am, we were going to turn off the Hume for a while toward Sutton Forest, and Saturday morning should put us through Mittagong.
Mittagong mattered because it was Hoka OneOne Australia territory.
Sydney was now 37 parkruns away.
Images From The Day
