The CrossingThrough Coopernook And Kew
Another Day Closer
I began Day 110 in darkness, crossed the Manning River as the sun came up and kept heading north until Brisbane was down to 115.6 parkruns.
By the time the sun came up across the Manning River, I had already been walking for about an hour and a half.
I had started at 4:51 am from the previous day’s finish near Kiwarrak. The first hour was dark, then a faint line of daylight began to appear behind the trees. The river was calm enough to hold the reflection of the sunrise, and I stopped for more than one photo as I crossed the bridge north of Taree.
Beyond the river there were more waterways, paddocks and cattle. A waterbird was gliding through one of the quieter stretches of water. The highway traffic was still there, but for a while there was plenty happening beyond the bitumen too.
I have awesome memories of walking through that part of New South Wales, with all the waterways, waterbirds and changing scenery. It was just a lovely part of the world. Sadly, it is also prone to awful floods, so I always feel sad when I see the area flooded on the news.
Coopernook came during the morning. Its town sign sat neatly between three tall pines, followed by a whole collection of signs for the general store, post office, food, accommodation, George Gibson Drive, Lansdowne and a motel that was now open.
North of Coopernook, fences and barriers squeezed the available space in places while cars and trucks kept coming past. One B-double filled almost the entire view in front of me as it approached along a particularly narrow section. There wasn’t much spare room, so the traffic demanded my full attention.
Around lunchtime, the hills had started to rise around the route and a sign put Kew at 20 kilometres, Port Macquarie at 60 and Brisbane at 599.
The grey morning gradually gave way to patches of blue sky. I passed Moorland, Johns River and Kew, then an old brick railway bridge among the trees. The sun was getting low again by the time I began the sixth and final session.
I was trying to spend as much of the day “in the moment” as possible, but every now and then the numbers appeared.
Near the end of the day, another sign had Port Macquarie at 38 kilometres, Coffs Harbour at 181 and Brisbane at 578.
115.6 parkruns to Brisbane.
We measured 55.1 kilometres of forward progress, right on target. My six walking sessions recorded 58.7 kilometres of total movement. There were two more big days to get through before the distance began to taper towards the Coffs Harbour weekend.
My Mum looked at those numbers and told me I was within a “hair’s width” of Brisbane compared with how far I had already come. She also reminded me to look after my very hard-worked feet and legs.
Fair advice.
I finished on Herons Creek Road just after 7 pm. We stayed at Kendall Showground that night. I checked and photographed the soles of my shoes, had a shower, and took one last photo looking considerably happier for it.
Another day done. Another day closer.
Images From The Day
