The final entry!

Whenever anyone reminded me that the walk was going to come to an end I would reply with 'yeh, I know - I'll be right!', and try not to think about it. Well, the walk has come to it's end and now I'm forced to think about it!

Last Monday was the fantastic walk in to Canberra. My thoughts were here, there and everywhere - I'm not quite sure what I said in my speech, I didn't really want it all to be over! It was pretty tempting to just keep walking...

The past two weeks has been a cloudy, strange time with mixed emotions and many, many happy memories. When I was preparing for the walk, I was getting ready to have more bad times than good. I was wrong, and am pretty sure I can speak on behalf of Whooshka here when I say that we really did have the time of our lives, whilst raising awareness of ABI, meeting thousands of fantastic people and learning a lot about people's lives, their strength and determination to keep going through extremely difficult times.

We have had the most amazing time. I wish I could properly explain everything I have seen, heard, looked at and emotionally experienced. It's funny when you get sudden flashbacks or reminders of an occasion and all you can do is laugh. It usually happens when I'm in a shop by myself so I look like a weirdo, but it's worth it.

A huge thanks to everyne who kept up with the Walk With a Rose story and especially to those who put on comments. In particular Lindylou! A lot of people told me they looked forward to our blogs, but our secret was that we really looked forward to the comments! We would talk daily about who had put a comment up, what they had said and regularly check for new commens. Secret admirers were always a laugh - Big Steve's wife did finally show up, to.

Whooshka whooshka whooshka, what can I say. You are a truly amazing person. You were with me every step of the way and never once lost your determination, sense of humour or ability to clean my smelly socks. Without you I don't know where I'd be...lost somewhere, probably. Sorry the walk make you lose 48 kilos, I'll let you off the nuts and berries diet now.

Time to get back to life, work, uni and more importantly, time to put all these thoughts of my next project down on paper and made some decisions.

Thanks again to all our blog readers. Whooshka and Stretch are clocking off from Walk With a Rose, but wil be returning soon.

Stretch is on holiday

Hi all, just to let everyone know that Amy's having a couple of days R&R (I can't understand why....I don't get a rest!) and will be blogging in the very near future.

Catch you later Wooshka!

It's all over

Well folks, we've reached the end of the journey, and I've gotta say it has been the ride of my life! From sunny Queensland to Wintry Canberra, this trip has been awsome! The experiences I've had and the people I've met are something I'll never forget. But the most amazing person I have met is Amy herself. Her determination, drive, and easy going personality has made it all the more enjoyable and easier to endure. We walked into Canberra yesterday with a cast of hundreds and the reception was unbelievable (and well deseverved on Stretch's behalf)

As I write this I have a lot of mixed feelings......happy to be home and sad that it's come to an end. As I said it has been an amazing experience, and one I hope I can repeat again. My kids joined me for a little of the final walk into town (a very little bit I might add....and complained about sore feet after about 10 minutes!) They even brought my faithful hound dog for a visit, and she managed to get my only clean shirt covered in paw prints!

I've spent the last couple of days sorting out the gear we had in the van and washing clothes (even after we get back, I'm still stuck washing Stretch's stuff!) The house has managed to survive my absence....thanks to my favourite daughter's attention, and it's good to sleep in one bed for more than one or two nights! And at least I know where the toilet is in the middle of the night if I need it....there was a couple of close calls while we've been away!

We were joined for the Goulburn-Tarago leg by some members of Goulburn Rotary, and presented with donations raised by them prior to our arrival (many thanks Marty!). Unfortunately, as so often happens with everyone who walks with Stretch, they soon realise the pace she sets with her loooong legs, and it has caused some early retirements. I hope everyone pulled up OK.

As I say it's good to be home, but I miss life on the road heaps! But it had to come sometime, and it's time to get back to some normality

Until next time Wooshka!

Amy's diary entry 17

With Canberra number plates everywhere and familiar sights I can feel the end drawing nearer. How exciting. I think I'm a bit nervous actually!

Brian and I had a wonder through Morton National Park the other day and threw some coins onto the wishing well. I spoke to the lady at the front desk about joining WIRES (wildlife rescue team) and it sounds like an awesome idea. I would have loved to look after Wally in my home!

We were invited to attend and speak at the opening of the Transitional Living Unit in Goulburn Hospital along with the Mayor, staff from the hospital, staff from my Uni and members of the NBIF in Canberra. It was great seeing familiar faces, especially Dorothy, Ken and Pauline, who were the first people to help me with the Walk With a Rose project. It was a beautiful ceremony with the ribbon being cut by man with ABI who had been at the hospital for a couple of years. I hadn't actually walked into Goulburn yet at that stage and when I did the next day they all came out a couple of k's and walked in with me. The Goulburn radio had reminders about our arrival every hour that day, so it was definitely a warm and well known reception!

We were taken to have a little peek around Goulburn gaol yesterday arvo. There sure is a strange feeling about that place! Lots of people with big toys on high walls with razor wires and motion sensors. The guys working there were really informative and more than happy to answer all our questions...some of which we didn't really want to know the answers to! We all decided we'd be good.

And now the end is near etc. etc.

Well folks, I'm in sunny Goulburn.....the home stretch! We're looking forward to Monday, but in a way I'm gunna be sort of sad that's over. It has been a fantastic experience! But on a brighter note, we're both still going well and Stretch is still putting in the big ones. Over the past few days we've seen some great places and met some really nice people. We managed a short tour of the Bundanoon area and the Morton National Park's highlights. Checked out a couple of lookouts, Fitzroy Falls, and a formation called the wishing well (I don't think Amy's wish came true as I'm still here) Bundanoon was a really friendly place, and although the weather was a bit inclement, we still had a great time. Apparently it used to be the honeymoon capital of Australia........maybe I'll go there for my next one!

Next stop was Marulan, and once again our hosts couldn't have been nicer. We even joined in the trivia night, but for some strange reason (perhaps it was my partners) we didn't take out first prize...in fact we didn't even feature in the placings! Although we scored a couple of bottles of wine in the raffle which were promptly dispatched to all the other tables.

On to Goulburn, where the highlight was attending the opening of the new wing of the Transitional Living Unit for people with brain injuries. We also got in a tour of the gaol. It was a real eye opener, and surprisingly, they let us all out again......although I noticed they gave me a couple of sideways glances!

Ames has got us all the way to Tarago today, and the Loaded Dog Hotel, although we're staying at the Tattersalls at Goulburn again tonight. The kind people of Tarago and districts have donated some dinner vouchers for us to raffle tonight so I have to do more PR work....it never lets up!

Hope to see you all in Canberra on Monday, as I have a sneaking suspicion we could be in for a big one! Hoping to find an internet cafe again before then,

Wooshka

Amy's diary entry 16

Okay, so if anyone else has seen an Amy-look-alike having a lazy coffee or driving one of the support vehicles...NO, it's NOT ME!! It's my sister!!

What an awesome part of the world. Camden...Picton...Bargo...Bowral. We were walked into Picton by the Mayor as well as members of the Head Hunter group and just before we all sat down to lunch, I heard a noise. Somewhere in the distance a bark sounded that was very familiar to that of the beautiful husky I left in Canberra...and sure enough, prancing across the road came Tsar with James and Jules. It was the best suprise ever!

Finishing up in Bargo for the day, we located our place of rest and made our way over to the bowling club for dinner. Whooshka nearly pulled every muscle in his back when he tried to swing around on a non-swivel chair that night. Lucky he had his 'Wipe-on Sex Appeal' swabs he bought from the men's room in Hornsby.

Not a whole lot of cows in Bowral. We came across some donkeys on our walk in. One of them let me rub his head, but when I went to give his mate some attention he got cranky and tried to bite his leg. So I tried to rub both of their heads at the same time, thinking fair's fair, but no, neither of them liked that decision. They both made some weird noises and trotted away. I prefer the donkeys with the big ears though so I wasn't too offended. That's what I told them, anyway.

Crazy, crazy day. There isn't an internet cafe` in Moss Vale, so we went to the library but thought that their asking price was a bit rich so drove to Mittagong where we discovered the internet cafe` had closed last July so we went to the Mittagong library which closed half an hour earlier, so we went to the Bowral library which opened every day but today. An abundance of churches, but very few places to blog. After a quick prayer for sanity, we arrived with our tails between our legs at the original library where we were greeted by screaming children and strange looks. I think the screaming children was pay-back for thinking we could get a better internet-usage deal and I'm pretty sure the strange looks had something to do with our lack of talent in finding public washing machines...

Off to Bundanoon tomorrow. I like saying that word, Bundanoon. It's a bit like nashi pear - just a good word. We have a nashi pear in the car, actually. I'm going to eat it in Bundanoon so I can say I ate a nashi pear in Bundanoon and get to use great words in one sentence. Maybe Bundanoon has donkeys with long ears who like nashi pears? We'll see.

One week to go!

Oh well all good things must come to an end, but I can't believe that this time next week we'll be in Canberra and it'll all be over! Since I last blogged we've lost Justo as he had work commitments in Canberra and we've managed to make it to Moss Vale. On the way we've caught up with the Mayors of Picton and Moss Vale as well attending a Rotary dinner in Camden. We also met Pat Farmer, the former ultra marathon runner turned politician.

The weather, however, has turned a little nasty, but at last I have 2 windscreen wipers! It would have been an interesting trip through Sydney in the old bus, but nothing I couldn't have handled. The Southern Highlands are a really pretty place and it is good to see a bit of rain up this way. Unfortunately early yesterday morning I decided to sneak out to buy the paper, only to discover I'd managed to lock myself out of my room! After a very cold breakfast, I discovered the window to my room didn't lock and I could've gone back to bed until a reasonable hour! I have a strange feeling Stretch may have a photo of me climbing back in the window!

With just the Seagull and myself (if your not sure who the Seagull is check out today's Canberra Times) the constant demands on me are increasing rapidly. Not only am I expected to drive the support vehicle, but I also have to deal with accommodation, media enquiries, keeping up the food supplies (which in itself is a full time job) but now I have to do the laundry as well! This wouldn't be a problem, but as you can imagine, after a days walking, Amy's clothes can get a bit on the nose! But as usual, I just do as I'm told without complaint!

Yesterday was a rest day, so I managed to have a bit of a tour of Bowral, and checked out the Bradman Museum. If you are ever up this way check it out, the memorabilia is fantastic. It is really good to get back to the country after the hustle and bustle of city life. What is the go with every suburb nowadays.....if they have a street that actually takes you somewhere they have to turn it into a mall or a one way street! Fair dinkum, it took me 4 trips into Parramatta to figure out how to get out of the joint! Every time I drove out I managed to do it by a different route and by the time I had it sorted it was time to move on! Amy and I had an indication of how bad the road system is when we tried to ask directions, and people didn't even know how to get to the next suburb! Mind you we both managed to get ourselves lost in Westfield shopping mall in Parramatta!

As I said it's only a week today till we hit Canberra, so I hope everyone comes out to cheer the Seagull home, and we're both looking forward to a BIG party Monday night! Have to go and do the washing now, so we've got some clean clothes for the next 7 days.

Catch you later....Wooshka

PS ........Hi T see you in a week, miss you heaps, and love you too!

Amy's diary entry 15

It is now day 51 and it is up to Brian and I to see the walk through. The two remaining battlers.

Even though our numbers have significantly dwindled, our determination is still strong as ever and my legs are far from wanting to call it quits. One of my toe nails fell off the other day but these things happen.

We had a lunch at the Liverpool Hospital a couple of days ago where we were able to meet patients with ABI and many members of the staff. It was great to hear an ex-patient speak of his experiences at the hospital after the accident that caused him to be left with a brain injury. He made a great point that while parents need a break from taking care of their child, that child needs a break from being taken cared of by them too! Very light hearted yet also very touching. I was presented with a bunch of flowers and 'an energy pack' they called it. This energy pack turned out to be a huge box of choccies, marshmallows, toffee and more. Whooshka's eyes lit up like never before!

After back to back interviews we made it to Liverpool and over to our accomodation. Usually sharing a room with Whoosh isn't a problem - considering he doesn't snore. The only thing that lessens the chance of a snore free night is a lack of beverages. Well after five window-shattering 'WHOOOOSHKA!! STOP SNORING!!!!' screams I think he got the hint. The fifth one would have been around 5am, so as you can imagine I wasn't the happiest chappie the next day. Ah well, it was a rest day. I ate chocolate and got my hair done. I spent the afternoon looking like a girl again, not smelling and actually wearing clean clothes.

It was a long day today. It was one of those days where I wasn't quite here nor there. I don't think I had a worthwhile thought all day, I was just in my zone, walking walking. It's not like there's nothing to think about - quite the opposite actually, but sometimes it helps to just switch off all together and get into the walking rythm. It took over five hours without breaks to walk from Liverpool to Camden, but it was a nice suprise to be greeted by Pat Farmer to walk with me to our hotel! It was great to talk to Pat about the walk and about his runs, similar difficulties we have encounted and to share funny stories.

Something we both found was the need to stay disciplined. There has been so many times throughout the walk when I have just wanted to keep going through to the next town rather than stop and wait until the following day. I have had so many thoughts about pushing through Canberra and just keep on walking. It's hard to make yourself stop sometimes but really, at the end of the day, it's not a race and it's not to 'see how far I can get'. Also it's not over! I have walked from Brisbane to Sydney, but still have to walk from Sydney to Canberra!

Amy's diary entry 14

Yesterday I walked in the rain for five hours. Every footstep came with a really pretty squealching sound. I could hardly see because of the flow of rain over my face, and the road was turning into a fast slowing river. Every so often my toes would go numb, so I started to run for a while to get the circulation going again. The rain did bring with it two benefits, though - it saved me from having to wash my hair this week and cleaned my clothes for me.

My first burst of laughter came from Brian when he called to say he somehow managed to turn onto the Freeway and couldn't see a spot to turn around. He received a good amount of pay - outs...then I managed to do the same thing. At first I was going to keep it as my little secret, but then I called to tell him I'd found him a present (a spanner) and he just happened to ask where I was...

The Hawksbury River is an amazing place. Every couple of minutes I'd see a hidden house and think to myself "oh, I'd love to live there..." then change my mind and choose the next house...and so on. I stood on a bridge to take a photo of my head with an awesome background. I didn't like the way I was smiling in the first five I took but finally got it right, all the while talking to myself, to turn around and see a guy sitting in his car at his driveway staring at me. Well it's not like there was a shop to walk into or a hole to jump into so I just kept on walking and pretended I hadn't seen him there. What a loser.

We arrived in Brooklyn to find a Post Office with Internet access. Mufasa was working in the store that day, and boy oh boy did he have some goods to buy! Everything was negotiable and it was ALL things that we really needed, like the Nokia phone finger sling thing. You can plug it into your phone and the sling wraps around your finger and you can carry it around like that. What an invention.

That night Jules nearly jumped through the roof at finding a dead spider under her pillow. It took me a while to get to sleep after that as I had the giggles bad. Nice sister I am.

A black cloud settles over the walk!

Well, all good things must come to an end....a pall of sadness has engulfed the crew. Well the bus driver at least! Today is the last day I have with the beloved Beddy....Rodney is coming tomorrow to take her back to Canberra for a Variety Club Bash. While I'll be sad to see her go (and my main claim to fame as well) many thanks must go to Rod for the loan. At times I think she was more of a star than Stretch Walker herself! Also, at this point we only have 16 days till we get to Canberra, which I for one am looking forward to and dreading at the same time, as I've had so much fun on the road. Life will seem pretty ordinary after this. At the moment we have stopped for a coffee ( and to give Stretch a chance to dry off as it's been raining all day!) at a place called the Road Warrior Cafe just North of Brooklyn on the old Pacific Hwy. A top little spot popular with all the motorbike riders, so if you get the chance call in! My roomy (Justo) is a bit under the weather today and at the moment is sound asleep in the bus.....must have been something he ate!

The trip through the Central Coast has been fantastic, and it made a nice change to see the ocean. Although the weather has turned nasty today, it's still been a beautiful drive through the misty mountains. We've had Australian Story and The Footy Show visit us over the laat couple of days, which has been an experience in itself! Stayed in some great pubs, and met some great people, who are very appreciative of what we are doing. Amy granted us a rest day yesterday, so we got some R&R aqnd even got in a game of outdoor pool at Iguana Joes in Gosford. The tables are actually on a covered deck that goes out over the water! Justo and I were going to try and squeeze in a game of ten pin bowling, but there are just so many hours in the day, and there are quite a few pubs in Gosford! The night before last we had dinner at Amy's Uncles house with all her family....thanks must go to them all for their hospitality (although Uncle Paul did try to bring me undone last night!)


Just for a change, my phone just rang with Amy informing she is lost AGAIN! She's about to hit the Sydney Newcastle Freeway, but in her defence I must admit I did the same in the bus about an hour ago!


Anyway, I'm going to go and see if I can spruce up the bus ready for her farewell tomorrow. I have no idea what we are getting to replace her, but I know we won't be able to fit in even a tenth of the stuff we have now, so I'll have to do some serious culling (getting rid of some of Amy's clothes would be a good start)

Catch you all later....Wooshka!

Amy's diary entry 13

Walking into Wyong I managed to eye-ball a bug that decided to stay there for a good five or six minutes. Mmmm that felt nice.

Brian's kettle in his room at the Dam Hotel brought a few laughs - it boiled at random, usually every 3 mins or so. Apparently little Lisa is still with us from the haunted hotel in Branxton...

For the first time ever the following day I shook hands with someone whose hand totally engulfed mine - Paul Harragan. Very tall guy, but also very down to earth and ready for a laugh. We all had a ball walking with him and The Footy Show producers and couldn't wait to see the footage on the show on Thursday night...and what an exciting night that was! Sitting in the Gosford Hotel pub, after doing a pokie - winning - dance, we were all so proud to see the story and hear Chief and Peter Sterling speak highly of the project. It was a proud moment with lots of smiles.

We had a few visitors come and go over the past few weeks. Lots of laughs with Michele and my mum (having mum join us ensured our food supplies are topped up!). It's always good to walk with fresh faces and minds...it was learnt that one should really refrain from drinking local water. Especially a whole bottle of it. It was also learnt that walking up and down hills on sandy terrain for a good couple of hours left ouchy feelings in the backside the following day.

We all had dinner with my relatives in Gosford the other night. Driving the bus with all lights glowing and the horn blaring in the suberbs certainly got a few looks - some that were happy - to - see - us looks ... and some that weren't. We were all spoilt with a huge dinner and drinks - that vegetable lasagne is sure to keep my feet stepping it out for the Sydney to Canberra remaining trek! Great food and great company...what more can you ask for.

We walked past a shop that was called Wally's Warehouse. It made me think of Wally the champion wallaby and if he was ok. I wish I had kept him. How much fun would a pet wallaby be bouncing around the house!

Now it's time for the parrot story. This parrot caused me the biggest stomach pains from laughter. We went to a mate of Rex's farm to have a peek around and Corey the parrot came over to me and sat on my arm for a while. We had a yarn, catching up on the good old days, then he flew off and we got in the car to go back to the hotel.

Well we must have made a good impression on Corey, because he didn't want us to go (I really shouldn't write what he was screaching out). As we were driving off, Corey flew over the car, sat on the roof, then slid on his butt down the windscreen to stare at us. We were picking up speed, yet Corey just turned around to face the wind as if to say he didn't want to get his feathers messed up. He was moving his head up and down like he was riding a surf board or something - then he flew off. Well, after the laughter had settled in the car, you wouldn't believe what happened next. Corey was flying, at the same speed as the car, next to the drivers window staring in! He stayed there for a while, then flew over the top of the car to the passanger's window, and did the same thing! It started to get a bit freaky after a while - it was like he was about to head butt the window to get inside the car - but then he flew off. Crazy bird.

Rex gave me a call the other day, too - and yes, he is coming to Canberra for the 31st July to yodel with me! What a treat for everyone!