Next day Cad showed his humane side yet again when he came across an injured hawk that he thought was close to death. He called the RSPCA to see if they could help his feathered friend, who he called ‘Henry the Hawk’, and gave him a free ride until he could pass him over for treatment when he approached Rockhampton. He was more impressed with the lifeless bird than the lifeless locals, who afforded him far more curious stares than hellos let alone any donations, and he relayed this without any ambiguity about this on his video blog.
DAYS 503–509, 12–18 MAY 2012
ROCKHAMPTON TO HERVEY BAY (168 KM)
In a really special show of support, a good mate and former cricket teammate of mine, Greg Nicholls, who’d known Andrew since he was six, drove 320 kilometres from Emerald to a little place called Bajool, south of ‘Rocky’, to personally pass on a donation and tell him how awesome his effort was. Cad and ‘Nicko’ had lunch at the local pub, where Cad was treated to a free pizza and a beer he didn’t want but the owner insisted he accept. They laughed about the crap cars Cad and I owned, which Greg, a mechanic by trade, often helped us fix up over the years.
Next day he saw another familiar face in Scott ‘Garlo’ Garlick, a mate from back home who was living in Gladstone. Scott picked him up on the highway and took him near town to stay with him at a mining camp; Cad was ecstatic when he won a small trifecta on the greyhounds and $1350 in poker machine jackpots at the local pub.
The joy subsided next day when he had to contend with 20 kilometres of almost continual roadworks and confronting new stop-go staff at each section. One female worker followed him in a ute as he almost sprinted past, insisting he put the pram in her truck and get off the road. After he argued that he was causing no hazard, a bloke in an excavator turned up, then a third worker demanding he quickly get on the shoulder side of the witches hats. I can imagine the conflict, with Cad refusing to give in. In the end, he walked on the newly laid bitumen with a ute trailing him all the way, the driver explaining, ‘Mate, we’re just trying to look out for your welfare, bad drivers come through and ignore the speed limit, we don’t want you to get killed.’ It was a lecture that would be repeated at least six more times before he’d left Queensland. The funny side of the episode was that, as he walked through the long roadworks section, he received constant donations from other workers who had no issue with his presence.
By the time he’d reached the next section three kilometres further ahead, it was obvious that the workmen had been warned of his pending arrival via two-way radio. He spoke to the ‘stop-go lady’ and asked if it was alright to walk down the outside of the works and she saw no issue; neither did the traffic controller at the next section.
The following night came another treacherous encounter. For a long stretch in the night Cad was watching YouTube videos, checking Facebook or listening to music and was walking with the traffic rather than into it. His concentration had lapsed and he wasn’t wearing his high-vis vest and, because his batteries had run flat, did not have his head torch on. He was inviting disaster. As he walked around a bend he wandered onto the road and a truck driver coming around the corner swerved at the last second to avoid him. ‘It scared the shit out of me – gee, my heart was pumping. It must have been millimetres away from the side of my pram; it would have broken the handle or ripped my arm off. After that I thought maybe I better pull up for the night.’ He saw a farm gate soon after and bashed through it and called it a night, just near Miriam Vale.
He was back to constant roadworks again next day but met a series of accommodating traffic controllers and foremen – except one, who explained, like his predecessor days earlier, that it was all about Cad’s welfare and the safety of people working there, and he could be endangering people’s lives if he continued to walk close to the works and the traffic. Andrew wouldn’t budge in his mission to walk every step, and at one stage traffic in both directions was stopped while he walked an 800-metre section. Ironically, drivers of the stationary cars loaded him with donations as he passed.
As another works vehicle pulled up in the same section of work and Cad braced himself for an additional verbal onslaught, out jumped a mate from his from Gosford skate ramp days, ‘Ads’ (presumably Adam). Adam’s cousin, who also worked on the road gang, had heard on the two-way a walker was coming through and, as he had been tracking Cad through the YouTube blogs, knew it was him. The foreman, whom Cad had just abused, suddenly had a change of heart and advised Andrew he was going to chaperone him through the works and raise some money along the way. Ad’s cousin turned up with other workers, and handshakes and high fives were happening everywhere.
As Cad walked through with his new-found posse, he could hear dialogue on the two-way radio between the truck drivers and excavators, like, ‘I’ve got a visual on the walker, geez, he’s moving, he’s walking quick,’ and, ‘He’s come from Sydney, he’s been all around, he’s got a bit to go.’ ‘Ads would knock on every excavator’s door and say this is my mate walking around Australia, I picked up over $200. There were heaps of legends, lots of Kiwis among them too.’
Cad ended up staying at the home of the head surveyor, and going out for dinner. The next morning he was asked by the project manager to address the staff at the morning’s briefing. He was introduced with: ‘This young man is walking around the country; he was sitting down yesterday having something to eat and I pulled up and asked if I could give him a lift through the works, but he was pissed off and he was ready to kill someone; he had this look in his eyes. He told me straight up he’s walking every single metre and I’m not putting this in the back of your ute because I’m doing this for my dead mate. I thought straight away, “This is a bloke not to mess with.”’ Cad departed with more donations, a ‘sick’ jacket from a young Kiwi (‘which is exactly what I needed’), new rain gear, a new high-vis vest and a photo with the Leighton gang (pram centre-front).
After climbing what seemed endless steep hills, Cad walked until 12.45 am, meaning he’d been awake for seventeen hours after only six hours’ sleep. He was thinking of pushing on to Childers as he wanted to get into the 90-club, having only recorded an 80 kilometres and one 100-kilometre effort to date. But after a car crossed double yellow lines to overtake a truck and missed Andrew by less than a metre, he knew it was safer off the road than on it and pulled into a rest area.
Next day my sister Narelle picked him up at Torbanlea and took him to Hervey Bay, where she lived, as did my other sister Denise and her husband, Peter, and Cad’s cousin Ryan Hunt and family. They had a good family catch-up before Narelle took him back to the highway the next morning, his departure unfortunately delayed by her battery going flat while they unpacked his gear and said their goodbyes. (Finally, a motorist stopped and provided a charge.)
DAYS 510–520, 19–29 MAY 2012
HERVEY BAY TO BRISBANE (241 KM); CENTRAL COAST, SINK ONE FOR SIMMO
It took Cad three days to traverse the 167 kilometres to Kenilworth where a former schoolmate, Adam Broomhall, lived and worked in his family’s café, which had raised $920 for Andrew. The pretty town of just 300 people, nestled in the foothills behind the Blackall Ranges north-west of Brisbane, contributed another $260 while Cad was there overnight and for breakfast the next morning.
Adam dropped him back to the Maleny–Kenilworth Road, from where Cad took the ‘back road’ to Brisbane as pedestrians were not allowed to walk on the Bruce Highway. Walking without the pram, as ‘Broomy’ had agreed to transport it to an agreed point on the main road, he was pointed to a shortcut that involved a gravel road and monster hill climbs; one stretch was a 10-kilometre ascent up a mountain range, with cliff falls on each side. But Cad was taken by the beautiful countryside of green rolling hills below, dairy farms and ‘cool Queensland cottages’. He was surprised he’d averaged six kilometres per hour despite the rugged terrain; shedding the more than 45 kilograms of Redge’s weight was a major factor.
It was Chris Simpson’s birthday on 22 May, and Cad had a good long chat w
ith Josh, who was obviously struggling emotionally. Josh, who knew better than anyone how taxing Andrew’s daily existence was, couldn’t understand why he was in such a hurry to get home and why he was putting so much physical stress on himself. Cad could only answer that he just wanted to get it over with and start the next phase of his life. (As it happened, Josh offered me the same advice while I was trying to finish this book on a self-imposed deadline for the same reason.)
After he’d cleared Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, altitude 425 metres, Cad felt he was on the downhill run to Brisbane. A woman he’d never met (named as ‘Mel McD’) but who had followed his trek on Facebook arranged to meet him and offered a bed for the night, but he was determined to get as close to Brisbane city as he could and walk until midnight. Mel, whose husband had lost his battle with cancer, brought him a goodies bag including toothbrush, socks, deodorant and heat balm, which he greatly appreciated; it was yet another gesture of kindness from strangers.
Hours later, he hit the wall as he approached Caboolture. Feeling that he was so close to the northern perimeter of Brisbane, he made a call to his sister, Nicole, who lived in the southern suburbs. He explained that he really needed a bed, a good meal and some friendly faces, and begged someone to come and pick him up a night earlier than they’d organised. He laughed at Nicole’s first reaction: ‘But I don’t have enough for dinner!’ His mother was staying there too, but Nicole’s husband, Glenn, was happy to drive the hour each way to rescue him.
Andrew was disappointed that his five-year-old niece, Kayla, and two-year-old nephew, Max, whom he had hardly seen, were asleep when he arrived and when he left early next morning. Nicole had to leave at 5 am for a flight to Sydney for a conference, so Chris dropped her off and continued, taking Andrew back to Beerburrum, where he’d finished the night before. From there he motored into the city the next day, sans pram, pulling up stumps 15 kilometres short of his target for the day, the Storey Bridge, before Glenn drove him back to their place. It was State of Origin clash number one of 2012 that night, the biggest rugby league event of the season, but while Glenn was glued to the television, Chris and Andrew were off to bed before halftime, neither being footy fans.
Cad loved spending time with the kids that evening and next morning, and he loved that Max insisted Andrew take him to his preschool. (‘I could hardly keep him in my arm – he weighed more than a bag of cement!’ Cad commented.) After breakfast at Wellington Point with Chris, Andrew was off to the airport for his flight to Newcastle. I was there to pick him up and take him back to the Central Coast, where he was reunited with his trusty old mutt, Redge, and caught up with friends and family (including Nicole, who stayed down overnight) over the next five days.
There was a very social par-three golf day for Simmo followed by a fundraising night in a factory at West Gosford. Beforehand, Cad enjoyed dinner with Chris Simpson’s parents, Wayne and Kim, whom he had previously met only briefly, and Josh. ‘It was pretty special; we all got a bit emotional and teary. I had a nice dinner and a really nice night. Wayne pulled me aside and said how he was really proud of what I did, not just doing it for Simmo but that I had guts and determination to pull it off, and it was very special what I’d done. It meant a lot to me.’
Four days later he was back in Brisbane, refreshed and ready for the final 1000-kilometre leg.
DAYS 521–526, 30 MAY–5 JUNE 2012
BRISBANE TO COFFS HARBOUR (430 KM)
After arriving in Brisbane late afternoon, Andrew had another night at Glenn and Nicole’s and again enjoyed time with them and the two kids. There is a wonderful photo of Andrew, Kayla and Max on the lounge taken that evening that is a very special memento of what was to be the last time the kids and Glenn saw Andrew (that photo is now the wallpaper on Chris’s iPad). Nicole, Kayla and Max said goodbye just after they woke, and Glenn did when he dropped Cad back to resume the walk north of the city. Nicole did see Andrew again – sadly, in hospital.
Cad hit showers almost immediately, and the rain rarely let up for the thirteen days it took him to reach the Central Coast. After embarking on an involuntary 6-kilometre detour in the southern part of Brisbane, he walked to Coomera on the northern edge of the Gold Coast the first night and made it to Tweed Heads the second night – after taking a wrong turn and heading west at Burleigh Heads, meaning he had to backtrack to the coastal highway.
When he was on the highway outside Coolangatta Airport, in pouring rain, a bolt on the wheel snapped and the pram bounced violently before collapsing, a wheel rolling down the road. He sat on the road’s edge contemplating what he could possibly do, then fortunately realised he should call Glenn’s father, Grant, who had just moved to Burleigh Heads with his wife, Heather. Glenn relayed Cad’s dilemma to Grant, who came to the rescue with a bolt from his pushbike that quickly saw Andrew back on track.
He felt a massive sense of relief when he crossed the border into New South Wales and saw his first signpost to Sydney for almost eighteen months. He pitched his tent in the mud just off an on-ramp.
After next morning catching up with family friend of thirty years Debra Jeffery, who had immediately gone out searching for him after seeing his Facebook post from Tweed Heads, Cad walked all the way to Bangalow, where he desperately needed to restock his food supplies. After 76 kilometres for the day, at 12.45 am he camped under an overpass in the midsection of roadworks on the Ballina bypass.
It took him just three days to travel the 213 kilometres to Coffs Harbour, where he attempted to camp behind a twenty-four-hour service station in town after a sixteen-hour shift, only to be ordered away by an overzealous employee (yes, a very vocal argument developed) forcing him to continue until he found a well-grassed oval – at 1.30 am. When he left Brisbane Cad had said he would do seven straight 70-kilometre days; he did better, averaging 73 kilometres, with his biggest haul 82 kilometres.
DAYS 527–531, 5–9 JUNE 2012
COFFS HARBOUR TO BULAHDELAH (329 KM)
Next day came his biggest single donation on the road when a truckie named Mark gave him $50, then doubled back with another $20 before retracing his steps again and handing over $50 more.
A strange encounter happened soon after when an overbearing insect-repellent salesman bailed him up and offered free product (which Andrew rejected as he said he was nearly home and the bloke was a year too late), and that he had ‘contacts’ to give Cad extensive promotion. Half an hour later a woman approached Cad and said she’d just heard about him on the radio; the salesman had been true to his word and got on air to alert Coffs Harbour residents to Cad’s cause, but apparently also took the opportunity to plug his repellent offer. Next day the bug repellent guru left several phone messages saying he’d been trying to get hold of Andrew and had several more radio stations who wanted to talk to him. His last message was: ‘Turn your phone on, buddy. I’ve lived up to my end of the bargain and got you some publicity, good luck, buddy.’
Cad wasn’t too concerned about the missed opportunities – his focus was simply to get to Sydney.
By lunchtime he had made it to Urunga, where had lunch with his cousin Josh, who had driven in from his home at Bellingen. Cad really enjoyed their rare catch-up. Incredibly he was able to continue walking until 4 am, reaching Clybucca; an 82-kilometre day. He’d planned to do a twenty-four-hour 120-kilometre stretch but dropped in for a shower at a roadhouse, his first since Brisbane eight days earlier, and couldn’t convince himself to start again. He did his video blog before he went to sleep boasted of his first 500-kilometre week with: ‘I reached the 500-club for the week, pretty stoked about that. Everyone talks about getting in the mile-high club but 500-club shits on getting a squashy root in an aeroplane dunny, I’ll tell you that for free. Anyway, see you tomorrow.’
After only four hours’ sleep, he was back on the bitumen at 9.30 am in surprising good spirits, and a truck driver pulled him over to say he had just heard about him on Ray Hadley’s radio program on 2GB. I gather another truckie had calle
d in after seeing Cad on the road, and Ray put to air an enormous ‘rap’ on his efforts.
As he became closer to home Andrew was overwhelmed with the amount of people offering accommodation and requests for media interviews. He recorded: ‘After doing it by myself for so long I’m a bit overwhelmed now by people wanting to get involved and help me out. It’s great everyone wants to help, but there is too much going on all of a sudden and I just want to get home next Wednesday. I don’t want to slow up or get distracted; it’s starting to get on top of me a bit, all the attention.’
At that stage his goal was to finish on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Wednesday, 13 June. When I realised that coincided with the second State of Origin match that night, I quickly called contacts at the NRL to see if it was possible for him to walk into a packed stadium to a massive roar, which would have been an amazing moment for him and good public relations for the sport and Sydney, considering he was raising money for the Leukaemia Foundation. Unfortunately, it was too late to make an alteration to the night’s pre-match run sheet. If only I had considered the coinciding of events and thought of the idea weeks earlier …
He’d targeted reaching Port Macquarie in the driving rain, but at 1am he pitched the tent under an overpass on the Pacific Highway at Telegraph Point, on the Pacific Highway 17 kilometres short of ‘Port’ (which was 8 kilometres east of the highway, so he saved a 16-kilometre round journey). He woke up to sunshine for the first time in ten days but desperately needed more sleep and wasn’t underway until 11 am.
With Every Step Page 24