Amy's diary entry 11

Wallabadah pub was the place to be on Saturday! The radio ad encouraged every man and his dog to come along...and they did. There were a few people from Sydney, the whole of Wallabadah, Quirindi and of course Rex and his family. Rex put on a fantastic show, then it was time to show the world what I was really made of.

The Stretch Walker Rex Dallas duo went off with a bang - of laughs. He did say that I had improved.

Max, a long time local, said that he overheard us in the pub the other night saying we did enjoy a touch of port from time to time. So off we went to his house (across the road) for him to give us a present. A bottle of port that was twenty years old when he was given it as a 50th birthday present. Max is now 69. Needless to say, the walk with a rose crew had their wobbly shoes on later that night.

Feeling fresh and smelling like roses we got about an hour out of town the following morning when one of the bus tyres blew and the boys were required to do the boy thing and fix it. It took over an hour to tackle the beast (nothing to do with day-after-really-good-port heads). Lucky I had the video camera handy.

Sunday night we had walked to Muswellbrook, we are now halfway between Muswellbrook and Singleton. Today Justo and I walked a monsterous walk through bushland, wading across creeks, climbing up steep hills and running into massive power stations. These power stations are HUGE things - quite a lot of extra walking goes into finding a way around the area.

We did come across something strange today. On the top of a hill, up a dirt track, Justo and I came across some weird cow burial area. Only the cows weren't buried. There were hundreds of skulls and skeletons everywhere. Walking around the area, neither of us could talk and I realised I had been holding my breath for ages (partly due to the smell of course). I couldn't believe what we had come across, it felt eerie to be just standing there. So once the bus arrived we pulled out some food and ate lunch - not the greatest idea in the world, but at least it got us talking again.

I had a good look at my feet last night. As I have now covered just over 900k's, I thought I'd better give them some attention. Neither foot has a blister, which is good, but man do my toes look weird or what. I never knew toes could mould together like mine have. The sides of each toe have a well - defined ridge on them, like they are trying to grow into each other. I think my foot modelling career has gone down the drain. Ah well.

I have been meaning to do something for a while now and that is to thank the Australian Hotels Assosciation, particularly Leslie (thankyou!!). The AHA has given us all our accommodation for the whole of NSW. Every night we have had rooms waiting for us. There is nothing more exciting than knowing that after a day's walk with meals on the road (and conversations that always turn strange after a couple of hours with whoever is walking with me) there is a pub full of people ready to have a yarn, massive meals, generous publicans with raffles organised, posters up on the walls and beds. And the beds always have electric blankets.

It has just started to rain. Tomorrow should be an interesting walk - maybe my feet will be webbed enough to swim!