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With Every Step

Page 30

by Cadigan, Neil;


  If we never make it back to how far we’ve come along this way

  We search around for solid ground that will help to carry us away

  If the memories I left throw the light that helps to guide you through

  We trickle down to our goodbyes but a part of me will stay with you

  What we’ve spoken over time

  Never broken or compromised

  Dream on together

  Leaning against each other

  However it happens I hope it’s

  Whatever makes you happy

  Whatever makes you happy.

  ‘Whatever Makes You Happy’ (Fanning, Mushroom Music Publishing). Reproduced with permission.

  If you would like to donate to Cad’s Cause, or to the PhD scholarship to study MDS, please visit www.ozonfoot.com.au.

  A.The Cadigan family - Andrew, Chris, Nicole and me.

  B.Chris Simpson, the mate to whom Andrew dedicated his walk.

  C.A young Cad, aged ten, when we were living in England.

  D.Andrew and Nicole on her wedding day.

  A.Early during Oz On Foot, Cad stayed with Owen and Trish at their property on the New South Wales South Coast; he was fascinated by Owen’s potty and chainsaw collection.

  B.A typical sight, Cad with bushy beard, which first appeared on the Nullarbor.

  C.Cad wore a high-vis vest most of the time so he was more visible to oncoming traffic.

  Home is where the need is … A selection of camping shots: a graveyard at Tower Hill (Victoria), a picnic shelter, a highway underpass near Ballina, a roadside in the middle of nowhere!

  A.Jenny (from Slough, England) had set herself the challenge of doing something new every day, and posting the results on her website – so Cad had a piggyback!

  B.Doing some oyster farming in Cowell, Western Australia.

  A.The famous Nullarbor Plain – or ‘Nulla-boring’, as Cad referred to it.

  B.A roadside shot of Cad, showing how long, straight, isolated and lonely his existence was.

  C.His four weeks’ worth of supplies, which he organised to be left for him at roadhouses along the way.

  D.Cad’s ‘mud map’, which proved inaccurate and would inconvenience him.

  It caused me and others great distress when we ‘lost’ him for several days.

  Some of the inked artwork that dominated Andrew’s legs, and other parts of his body. Many were added during his Oz On Foot expedition.

  A.Cad honours a commitment to the Pitcher family, whom he met on the Nullarbor Plain, to give a talk to students at Karinyup Primary School.

  B.Father and son in Albany, Western Australia. I’d driven down from Perth so we could catch up. I had a weird desire, after I’d driven for an hour back towards Perth, to head back so we could take a photo together. It’s the last one of just the two of us.

  C.Cad’s mate Kane Foley, a handy artist, with a typically left-field sign created for Oz On Foot after they’d had a raging night together.

  D.Andrew – dressed in those dreadful ‘happy pants’ – with Tom, the publican at Port Hedland, whom he’d reluctantly partnered in a karaoke performance, and his wife.

  A.Cad acting the goat and ‘riding a horse’ in the form of an unusual dead tree in Western Australia.

  B.Cad dons some armour and joins the Twin River Guard – or, as he eloquently put it, ‘a few guys dressed up in Robin Hood shit in a little park, banging swords together’.

  C.Striking a pose in front of the striking Pinnacles, near Cervantes in Western Australia.

  With ‘the other Simmo’, Chris’s older brother Josh, who joined Andrew on the road for three weeks.

  A.Cad and Josh catch up with Spanish cyclist Aitor and his Italian companion in Western Australia

  B.Taken during Josh’s first day en route, with Andrew sporting a cut-down ‘Sink One For Simmo’ T-shirt.

  C. and D. Some unsophisticated marketing: painted signage on their backs.

  Andrew connected with hundreds of people along the way. Here are just some of the photos he kept.

  A.The ‘crew’ from Exmouth, Western Australia, who drove way out of town to give Cad a farewell outback barbecue.

  B.Cad proudly holding his catch after fishing with the Brownes in Karratha.

  C.Staff at the Eramurra mining village in Western Australia, who made Cad welcome and raised over $1300 for his cause.

  D.The Ride2Rescue cyclists, whom Cad envied, not knowing how much they respected and envied his solo effort.

  A. and B. Typical scenery along the Great Northern Highway, through the Kimberleys: a giant termite mound, a straight road, red dirt … loneliness.

  C.A ‘weather chart’ at Halls Creek says it all: who in their right mind would walk over 40 kilometres in a day in November through the isolated Kimberley Ranges, as far away from the east coast as you can get?

  D.Cad takes to the razor to shave passing fellow carpenter Cam Foster at the Hi-Way Inn at Daly Waters, Northern Territory, during the World’s Greatest Shave in March 2012. It was all in the name of raising funds for the Leukaemia Foundation.

  On the final leg: Brisbane to Sydney.

  A.Cad poses with his much-loved niece and nephew, Kayla and Max, while staying with Nicole and Glenn in Brisbane. They’ll hardly remember him, but I hope they’ll know and be inspired by his story.

  B.Cad’s last state border, taken during a terrible rainy period as he entered New South Wales.

  C.Taking time out during ‘Triple Marathon Madness’, his 128-kilometre one-stint epic, which took him home to the Central Coast. From left: Josh Simpson, Cad, Billy Holloway and Cad’s uncle Ken Knight. (Kaine Dobbs arrived soon after.)

  A.Cad shot this to signify the end of the walk: his walking shoes in the bin.

  B.On the set of Channel 7’s Sunrise program the next morning.

  C.Chris, Andrew and I pose as my sister takes a photo of us. It’s the last one ever taken of us all together.

  D.The gang who walked the last day with Cad. From left: Tristan Norris, Redmond Stephens, Wayne Simpson, Chris Cadigan (partly obscured), Andrew, Kaine Dobbs (at rear), Kim Simpson, Josh Simpson, Adam Martin, Matt Delaney and Matt Ruff.

  A. and B. The crash site in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The other vehicle came from behind the wall into the street; a sign in Thai clearly says ‘No entry’.

  C.It was Matt Delaney’s idea to break the tension and get a group shot of those of us in Thailand, all there for Cad, at a photo studio around the corner. Standing, from left: Ken, me, Todd and Matt. Sitting, from left: Chris, Mandy and Jaime. (Nicole had left a couple of days before.)

  Memorials …

  A.I help Ken Knight and Adam Martin, in the Cannonball Express, in to shore after they have completed the Hawkesbury River Canoe Classic, finishing the effort Cad had to abort in 2009, very much in his honour.

  B. and C. I’m not a real ‘tatt man’ but these touched my heart. Left: Matt Delaney had Todd Bailey ink this on his left calf so he always had a bit of Cad with him. Bottom left: Andrew’s cousin Matt Ruff had what he reckoned was Cad’s worst tattoo replicated during a visit to Thailand in early 2014.

  D.Daniel Walker, who came across Cad a couple of times on the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia and, like many others, was captivated by his spirit, had this memorial made; it was to be placed near Halls Creek.

  Memories …

  A.A special memory from Cad’s service on 11 October 2012: Kayla in front of a line of family members, arranging for us to send balloons to Andrew in heaven so he knew we loved him.

  And here are two photos taken during Cad’s last year alive, ones that Chris and I love:

  B.During Luke and Kristal’s wedding reception in Fiji, with Cad in happy party mode, as usual.

  C.Near Gracetown, on the West Australian coast, in July 2011, with his trendy hat. (His old man has caught the fashion tip!)

 
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