In the planning for this eight week (almost) long walk, our thinking was not to make this old body walk 25-30 Kms everyday but to have days with for shorter walks and to have built-in rest days built into the schedule. So, with a distance of just over 20 Kms, today was a day with relatively short walk,
After getting ready at the caravan park, we drove back to the set of shops in Wandong, had coffee at the Kemp's bakery near the Ampol petrol station and set off for the day's walk, Over night at the caravan park on the Brockhurst Road, the temperature had dropped to just three degrees. As the day went on, it was still cold but sunny. We started to walk at 7:30 AM and took the road to Braodford via Sugarloaf Creek instead of continuing onto the C729 to Broadford via Kilmore.
We pulled over along this very lonely road to have our first break around 9:40 AM. Some twenty minutes, we resumed the walk again, Hardly ten minutes later, a car (ute) stopped opposite me and driver signalled me to stop. I was wondering as to what was happening, the mail driver parked his vehicle on the left side clear of this quiet road and waved to me. He then called out to me that he knew who I was and what I was doing because he had seen it on Channel Seven and he wanted to make a donation of $100. While I wrote out the receipt, he told me that he was the 4th/5th generation farmer and loved farming. But since he found out that this walk that he saw on TV was coming through his area, he had been looking out for me and was so proud of what I was doing for the community. A big thank you to everyone who made a donation to support our initiative.
We finally arrived at my friend Rodger's place outside the town of Broadford. Because of the short distance to be covered for the day, we arrived much earlier than I had expected or Rodger had anticipated. After chit-chatting all afternoon and right into the evening over lots of cups of tea/coffee combined with water, fruit juice followed by food, food and more food. It was hospitality with endless supply of food and drinks. My friend Jit, our pilot for the support vehicle also enjoyed the various discussions we had in our sincere efforts to solve the world's problems. The day went so quickly that before knew it, the night was right at our door step. On behalf of the McGrath Foundation and myself, I would like to acknowledge the generous hospitality extended by the entire King family as well as thank them for their kind donations. Thank you Rodger, Sandra, Tristian and Travis!
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