Canberra Was Brilliant

Sunday was the quieter half of the Canberra weekend.

That was exactly what I needed.

After Saturday’s parkrun, breakfast, sightseeing, lunch, massage and dinner, I slept in as long as possible. There was no walking to do, no highway shoulder to get back to, no session target waiting in the cold. Not yet.

I still had a thank-you to catch up on from the day before. The Gungahlin parkrunners had treated me to a mobile massage from Mel’s Massage, booked by Kat and paid for by a number of parkrunners.

I had been too relaxed afterwards to manage the thank-you properly on Saturday.

So, thank you Gungahlin parkrunners. Thank you Kat. Thank you Mel, for helping keep these feet and legs on the road.

Later that day, I tried to put the weekend into words. I want to keep the whole thing here because it reflected my full heart in that moment:

I really do not know where to begin… we have had such an amazing weekend in Canberra, and so many thankyous are due to so many people, mostly Gungahlin parkrunners!

it all started when Yani, one of the event team at Gungahlin, invited us to visit their parkrun as part of our little journey across Australia

I had hoped that we would have the usual experience; have a 5k run, talk to a few people, have the local Heart Foundation team turn up and get a bit of fundraising in…

so of course, this weekend blew all expectations out of the water. Let me just list some of the truly amazing things we have been the recipients of this weekend:

2 nights accommodation in a unit at the Ibis Styles Eaglehawk Canberra - paid for by a “fairy godmother”

Friday dinner cooked and brought to our hotel room by Yani

A 7am pickup by Yani, to take us to parkrun, with a coffee stop along the way

An absolutely awesome parkrun, a wonderful introduction by superstar legend David McCooey. David had also spent the previous day writing chalk messages on the course. He basically captured our journey to date with key place names and events. I smiled a lot when I saw Keith got a mention - David clearly follows this page very closely lol

After parkrun I had a wonderful chat with the local HF team - Tony, Sally and Rowan. I look forward to continuing our discussions on how to improve the health of the nation!

Then it was time for post-run breakie, with a wonderful family of parkrunners shouting the HAA team breakfast

I was also handed a couple of envelopes; one contained payment for a mobile massage treatment that had been booked for me by Kat, and the money given by a number of parkrunners.

the second was an amazing gift to the HAA team, a contribution to our costs to help keep the show on the road. thankyou Peta, the hand written note from your daughter was such a lovely thing to receive.

After breakie, Yani dropped us back at the hotel, waited while we changed and then took us all sightseeing, then to lunch. I was able to take possession of the bill and pay for lunch as a thankyou!

Then it was back to the hotel, a massage for me, and the boys went off with Yani for a bit. about 5:30 we all set off to the Gungahlin Lakes Club for dinner with a few awesome parkrun peeps. Was so good to meet a few of my amazing supporters, and really glad I got to have a good chat with David and Connie in particular.

I then had an early night, while Yani played host and took the lads out on the town.

Today was a little more chilled. I slept in as long as possible before eventually arranging to meet Matt Napier for lunch.

The three of us headed in to Kingston where we met Matt, his wife Wendy and mum Mari - and had lunch at Matt’s footy club, Eastlake. while Matt and I compared notes, the boys and Wendy swapped stories about being support crew lol

Matt then very kindly offered to give us a lift back to the hotel and said he would get out and do a few kms with me in the week.

Just to finish off a totally amazing weekend, Yani had left us a bag of meals she had prepared for us.

I am beyond blown away. it has been such an amazing weekend full of incredible people and the very best aspects of human nature on full display.

I can never thank you all enough, but thank you everyone for being part of this wonderful adventure!

#HAA2015 #AwesomeSupporters #parkrun #loveparkrun #PeopleAreAwesome

The lunch with Matt deserves a bit more context than that post had room for.

Matt was a huge part of HAA before I ever met him. When I was trying to work out whether this Perth-to-Brisbane idea was even possible, the Nullarbor was the biggest hurdle in my head. I had never driven it, never seen it, and as far as I could work out it was about 1200 km of desert with a lot of practical questions around fuel, water, food and safety.

So I did the normal thing and Googled things like “walking across the Nullarbor”.

That led me to Matt’s blog about his walk from Perth to Sydney. He had covered similar daily distances to the ones I had in mind, and his daily record gave me something incredibly useful: not just inspiration, but evidence.

Someone had done something close enough to what I was trying to do.

That helped.

I eventually contacted Matt by email, and he was generous with advice. We spoke on the phone the day before I left Norseman, and I still remember him telling me I was about to do his favourite part of the whole thing. The next day, heading out toward the Eyre Highway and the country beyond Norseman, I understood why.

Now we were in Canberra, Matt’s hometown, and we had a chance to meet properly.

The three of us headed to Kingston and met Matt, his wife Wendy, and Matt’s mum Mari for lunch at Eastlake. Matt and I compared notes. Ben and Ols swapped support-crew stories with Wendy, who knew exactly how much work sits behind someone else’s big public adventure.

Matt had already helped with the Nullarbor. More recently, he had helped confirm our route into Sydney.

Good bloke. Lovely people.

What Matt and Wendy have gone on to do through Towards a Better World is well worth a look too.

Canberra was brilliant.

Very very cold, but brilliant.

Thank you.

Images From The Day

View the full day gallery