OK, we’re not there yet, but I’m so happy to have this time before my BIG WALK (26.12.21) to practice and prepare. Weirdly the sound in the facebook stream is FINE but when downloading and putting it on Youtube, it drops out of sync with the vision. (Maybe a clever bit of FB code to muddle with the competition !)
Anyway, met some lovely people today, just walked through and enjoyed my city, and practiced with the streams and technology.
I think I’m getting better ! (Ha, in almost every sense of the word)
Did a nice walk today, up Mt Coot-tha then down into the city, all told about 15km. Had wet-weather gear, so it was either going to be a test of weather resistance or how long I can stream with my new solar battery & power pack solution.
Fiddled with the camera, really not satisfied with the quality, but I can’t afford any major new purchases right now, so I’m stuck with my old
iPhone 7 and a selfie stick. Also it looks like facebook streams only tolerate up to 3 hours, not 100% sure it’s facebook that gave up on me or my data plan hit 0 (had to upgrade it now that I’m home).
I’m glad I have all this time leading up to THE BIG WALK to practice, and I’m so grateful for all the support and kind comments that have been coming in from the public.
After my test walk to the Gold Coast, I resolved to spend the two weeks with my kids (making the most of school holidays, and also allowing my blisters to heal up).
But as they say “the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft astray”. I had to go into the city for a dentist appointment on monday to repair radiation damage to my teeth.
I figure when I’m out and about in public, I really should be dressed up as the boofhead superhero Captain Australia. It’s practice with the gear, and the streams, in advance of THE BIG WALK (26.12.21), but with the big magic banner I carry, I’m also a walking billboard for the charity (The Kids’ Cancer Project).
So today, I went to walk the dog, and realised I needed to gear up, so instead of innocent citizen Simon taking a walk with his good mate Harry, it was the boofhead superhero Captain Australia.
If you haven’t seen it, the Channel 10 tv show THE PROJECT did a marvelous story about my Mad Quest. I think they were very kind, and got the tone of what I’m trying to do just right. If you click on the logo to the left, it should take you to the story, if you’d like to watch.
A member of the public asked me about the new boots, which are apparently high end military boots, the same kind used by the SAS (Special Air Services – elite military).
In the photo above you see the OLD Captain Australia boots (bought from an online kinky-boots store and designed for ….. ahh … professional dancers and professionals of other sorts and … sexy garment enthusiasts.
OK, so I walked from Brisbane down to the Gold Coast on friday morning. It wasn’t exactly continuous constant walking, but I wanted to do a test run of how I’d go if pressed forward and tried to walk without stopping. During the day I only had a few short breaks, but I had a bit of a nap in the evening, huddled in a little hidden nook behind some bushes.
Overall, the walk was instructive and very worthwhile. When I take CAPTAIN AUSTRALIA’S BIG WALK (26.12.21), I don’t intend to walk aggressively, it’s more about the adventure of it. But it’s good to know that if I wanted to belt out 100km, it’s achievable. (At the cost of fatigue and blisters!)
I won’t show you the photos of my feet, but they’re a bit shredded, even though the boots are GREAT, I should stop regularly and let my feet breathe (“set them piggies free”).
Here are the main things I learned:
I am in danger. People know where I am, and as serene as it might be in the dark dark night on a rural road, there are dogs in the world who will seek me out and follow me (by dogs I mean the human kind). This happened, and I’m not sure if they would have attacked, but when I calmly and firmly showed them I was ready to resist, I was able to shoo them away (“are we going to have a problem fellas?” “ok then, how about you go your way and I’ll go mine ?”). I’m not afraid and I don’t like allowing fear to influence decisions, but I do need to be mindful in my planning, especially when I’ll be sleeping or vulnerable.
Have rest periods between spurts of walking. Ideally boots off. Let my feet breathe to avoid blisters. I get it that this is probably common-sense, but I know now that much more than 30km (6 hours) at a time is problematic. I’m thinking my daily walking in TBW should look something like this morning 15km (break for breakfast) 10km (break for hottest part of day) 10km (dinner) 15km (option to push forward extra in evening, or sleep)
People are great. I’ve got to slow down and stop being shy or furtive. There are some people who want to talk to me, and in some cases those conversations may be important. I spoke to two lovely women in/around Greenslopes, and they started CRYING as I told my story. There was a real emotional connection, I was able to give them something, and they gave something to me. That’s a big part of the walk and if I get too caught up on the superhero stuff, the physical stuff, I’ll miss out on that social component.
Stop and smell the roses: likewise I go in search of spiritual nourishment, and if I don’t stop when I see a beautiful place and ENJOY it and SHARE it, I’m doing the wrong thing.
With solar battery (bought one at a camping/fishing shop along the way), I can potentially stay online continuously during the day. I’ll need to look at a wearable camera (go-pro?) and the possibility of setting up a channel where it’s just Captain Australia walking .. main thing being to share our magnificent country as I see it (and also, it’s like a dash-cam, if I did get caught in an antisocial situation, at least it’s recorded — those ‘dogs’ I mentioned before, I can’t show you anything to substantiate the encounter, I was too busy reaching for my heavy maglite torch and the metal spike that holds my charity banner into the ground, because I was 50/50 worried about a 3v1 physical fight happening. (They had been following me in secluded rural total darkness for half an hour)
Get better with storytelling. By that I don’t mean fiction! but rather I am creating a (hopefully interesting) story as I go, and I need to get better at all the aspects of recording and sharing it. Wobbly videos, ill conceived rambling speeches — I don’t want to undermine the importance and seriousness of the charity by not putting the proper effort into showing good video. I want to be completely authentic, but not lazy and shoddy.
Kids are fascinated by me. I need to lean into that, I *loved* hanging out with this young family, the dad (Dan) contacted me about meeting up, and I had the privilege of meeting his young boys. Through the day, I saw kids on the way to school, and made a point to stop and fist-bump, or grin and wave. I just need to be mindful that I don’t expose any personal information about these kids, or even video the encounters ? I’m not sure – there’s something so sweet and fun about hanging out with kids and asking their questions, but I’m not sure if that’s something to share with the wider public or hold it back. But yeah, had a blast hanging out with this family, it was really nice.
it may be hot during the day, but be prepared for cold at night. I was shivering sleeping rough last night 11 degrees, as my core (gut) and arms were covered in really just a t-shirt layer. I should also look at a hammock or some kind of easily deployed sleeping solution.
I can walk continuously for almost 24 hours, but by the end I’m wrecked. Even building stamina to the point where I can sustain it without wrecking myself, I don’t WANT to. That’s not what my BIG WALK is about. It’s good to know I can though. I think by the time I start my BIG WALK (26.12.21) I’ll have lost the last of this cancer/thyroid weight. (December I weighed almost 140kg – today it’s around 93, but peak weight for me is probably about 80)
Anyway that’s where I landed, and yesterday afternoon and today have been about restoring my sleep cycle, resting my weary bones, and letting the blisters on my feet heal up.
I’ll try and break the video into smaller more digestible pieces – this compilation comes in at almost 2 hours ! But here’s the video stuff for anybody who wants a look. I’ll also figure out what training/test/promotion/doom-dare I plan to do next. Leading up to the BIG WALK, I want to keep pretty active, get stronger, and also build awareness and support for the charity.
It’s The Kids’ Cancer Project, and if you can find it in your heart, please DONATE today, all funds go directly to research into bettering treatments for paediatric cancer.
All my life I thought it was about a 100k drive down to the Gold Coast, but not according to my old friend Google Maps, which tells me that my walk on friday will be 85km or so.
This is the actual first leg of the BIG WALK starting 26.12.21, so friday’s practice run will give me a sense for the kind of obstacles I’ll face getting out of the city.
I figure the most practical approach is a series of 15km marches with short breaks in-between, 15 minutes to wiggle the old toes, 30 minutes to listen to some favourite music.
I need new underpants, socks and a solar charger, so I’ll go shopping Wednesday or Thursday, but other than that, I think I’m pretty much fully prepared for THE BIG WALK in December, and Friday’s test run to the Gold Coast will be validation of that.
The only point of difference will be that in December the sun and heat will be harsher, but I plan to acclimate to that over the coming months.
The video below covers it – it’s a compilation of Streams from 7am through until late evening (when sadly my phone died). I covered almost 60km across the day, and I’m honestly quite pleased with myself. When I do my BIG WALK from Brisbane to Melbourne (26.12.21) I won’t have to worry about such long marches, I can do a quick 10 or 15, take a rest, visit locals, see the sights, do another 15, and so on. But it’s good to know I can do a couple of long marches if I need to. As I lose this last little bit of stubborn weight around my middle, the walking will only get easier and more comfortable. And the boots are marvelous !
Video is a bit long – for me the high point is at about 15 minutes, when I run out of road and have to carefully balance across a swamp/sewer/creek on a thin metal pipe.
I met some truly lovely people, and my biggest learning is that I need to get better at recording things. I think that there’s a possibility that I could paint my experiences into quite a lovely and optimistic picture of life, hope, people and their kindness. But it depends on my technical skill with the selfie stick, and I’m not happy with the result so far.
Thankfully still another few months before I take off for the BIG WALK, so I’ve got time to practice and improve.
As I walk around the city dressed as the bumbling boofhead superhero Captain Australia, I see people wave and smile or clap and cheer and I find myself musing over what they are cheering for.
I think it’s probably applauding someone willing to make a fool of themselves for a cause.
But I’m *more* than that.
I came to play.
I fought cancer. Stage 4 cancer. 6 months to live. Aggressive chemoradiation. Horrible side effects. I fought it, and I won. I’m not a joke. The cause isn’t a joke either, the idea that little children face up to the same horrors and lifelong side effects that I did is devastating.
I worry about that a little, because I want to achieve one or more of the following:
Amuse people, make them happy, make them see that we, all of us, can step outside the hum-drum daily grind
Inspire people, make them see that it’s not crazy to do the RIGHT THING, to stand up, to aspire to values that some cynics might dismiss as ‘comic book’
Help people, if I stumble across people as broken as I was, I can help them to stand. To see that deep, dark pit I was stuck in, and how I somehow managed to clamber out. It’s a BIG WALK, but I want to leave a path other suffering people can follow.
Heal myself, I am quite literally walking away from cancer. It tries to kill you, it tries to hurt you, and it tries to case a shadow over the rest of your life. I go on my BIG WALK to rediscover a sense of hope & healing that I found when I was younger.
Have an adventure, a real, old school Quest. As I age, I want to show that even though life may often feel like a withering of joy, it’s in us, all of us, no matter how old or broken, to go one one more big adventure
Meet fascinating people, I’d love to meet interesting people on the road, do live streams, share their stories
So I’m concerned that people look at me, walking along with my big banner and think things like:
“Crazy fool, he’ll NEVER walk all the way from Brisbane to Melbourne”
“Look at that fat idiot, thinks he’s a superhero, he‘s just goofing around”
I’m very happy if people get a giggle. In fact, I love it – if I can help people be 0.5% more joyful, then that’s a fantastic thing. But I want them to see that we can be responsible. Strong. And together stronger still. We can do things that are unexpected, even powerful.
When I do my BIG WALK, the plan is 30km – 60km every day. That’s chipping away at a total distance more than 2400km. But until I’m doing it, I haven’t earned your support, and we need your donation NOW.
So I thought tomorrow I’d do a BIG WALK to test my gear, my present level of strength, my glorious new boots.
I’ll walk from Brisbane CBD to Wellington Point (and get to see the ocean, YAY!), a distance of around 25km. Then I’ll find a lovely place to rest, sit down, stretch my legs, maybe in the ocean. And mid afternoon I’ll turn and walk back again.
So far the furthest I’ve done in all my post-cancer walking was about 40km, so tomorrow should be quite a test. I figure on riding a bus into the city, and getting started from the CBD around 7am. I should get to Wellington Point around lunchtime. I’ll rest there for 2 or 3 hours, get out of the midday sun, and head back at around 3pm. I figure on another 5-6 hour hike (slower coming back no doubt), getting me home late evening.
I’ll plan on doing a series of short streams – when I set out, midway, arrival at Wellington Point, headed back, midway, arrival. I can then blend them into a YouTube video for anybody that wants to see it.
My goal is to show that I am 100% earnest, that the charity The Kids’ Cancer Project is completely worth committing to, and that you, me, WE can find ways to push ourselves beyond the every day. We should try to be heroes.
Captain Australia Online (and THE BIG WALK) 