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!