The final entry!

Whenever anyone reminded me that the walk was going to come to an end I would reply with 'yeh, I know - I'll be right!', and try not to think about it. Well, the walk has come to it's end and now I'm forced to think about it!

Last Monday was the fantastic walk in to Canberra. My thoughts were here, there and everywhere - I'm not quite sure what I said in my speech, I didn't really want it all to be over! It was pretty tempting to just keep walking...

The past two weeks has been a cloudy, strange time with mixed emotions and many, many happy memories. When I was preparing for the walk, I was getting ready to have more bad times than good. I was wrong, and am pretty sure I can speak on behalf of Whooshka here when I say that we really did have the time of our lives, whilst raising awareness of ABI, meeting thousands of fantastic people and learning a lot about people's lives, their strength and determination to keep going through extremely difficult times.

We have had the most amazing time. I wish I could properly explain everything I have seen, heard, looked at and emotionally experienced. It's funny when you get sudden flashbacks or reminders of an occasion and all you can do is laugh. It usually happens when I'm in a shop by myself so I look like a weirdo, but it's worth it.

A huge thanks to everyne who kept up with the Walk With a Rose story and especially to those who put on comments. In particular Lindylou! A lot of people told me they looked forward to our blogs, but our secret was that we really looked forward to the comments! We would talk daily about who had put a comment up, what they had said and regularly check for new commens. Secret admirers were always a laugh - Big Steve's wife did finally show up, to.

Whooshka whooshka whooshka, what can I say. You are a truly amazing person. You were with me every step of the way and never once lost your determination, sense of humour or ability to clean my smelly socks. Without you I don't know where I'd be...lost somewhere, probably. Sorry the walk make you lose 48 kilos, I'll let you off the nuts and berries diet now.

Time to get back to life, work, uni and more importantly, time to put all these thoughts of my next project down on paper and made some decisions.

Thanks again to all our blog readers. Whooshka and Stretch are clocking off from Walk With a Rose, but wil be returning soon.

Amy's diary entry 17

With Canberra number plates everywhere and familiar sights I can feel the end drawing nearer. How exciting. I think I'm a bit nervous actually!

Brian and I had a wonder through Morton National Park the other day and threw some coins onto the wishing well. I spoke to the lady at the front desk about joining WIRES (wildlife rescue team) and it sounds like an awesome idea. I would have loved to look after Wally in my home!

We were invited to attend and speak at the opening of the Transitional Living Unit in Goulburn Hospital along with the Mayor, staff from the hospital, staff from my Uni and members of the NBIF in Canberra. It was great seeing familiar faces, especially Dorothy, Ken and Pauline, who were the first people to help me with the Walk With a Rose project. It was a beautiful ceremony with the ribbon being cut by man with ABI who had been at the hospital for a couple of years. I hadn't actually walked into Goulburn yet at that stage and when I did the next day they all came out a couple of k's and walked in with me. The Goulburn radio had reminders about our arrival every hour that day, so it was definitely a warm and well known reception!

We were taken to have a little peek around Goulburn gaol yesterday arvo. There sure is a strange feeling about that place! Lots of people with big toys on high walls with razor wires and motion sensors. The guys working there were really informative and more than happy to answer all our questions...some of which we didn't really want to know the answers to! We all decided we'd be good.

Amy's diary entry 16

Okay, so if anyone else has seen an Amy-look-alike having a lazy coffee or driving one of the support vehicles...NO, it's NOT ME!! It's my sister!!

What an awesome part of the world. Camden...Picton...Bargo...Bowral. We were walked into Picton by the Mayor as well as members of the Head Hunter group and just before we all sat down to lunch, I heard a noise. Somewhere in the distance a bark sounded that was very familiar to that of the beautiful husky I left in Canberra...and sure enough, prancing across the road came Tsar with James and Jules. It was the best suprise ever!

Finishing up in Bargo for the day, we located our place of rest and made our way over to the bowling club for dinner. Whooshka nearly pulled every muscle in his back when he tried to swing around on a non-swivel chair that night. Lucky he had his 'Wipe-on Sex Appeal' swabs he bought from the men's room in Hornsby.

Not a whole lot of cows in Bowral. We came across some donkeys on our walk in. One of them let me rub his head, but when I went to give his mate some attention he got cranky and tried to bite his leg. So I tried to rub both of their heads at the same time, thinking fair's fair, but no, neither of them liked that decision. They both made some weird noises and trotted away. I prefer the donkeys with the big ears though so I wasn't too offended. That's what I told them, anyway.

Crazy, crazy day. There isn't an internet cafe` in Moss Vale, so we went to the library but thought that their asking price was a bit rich so drove to Mittagong where we discovered the internet cafe` had closed last July so we went to the Mittagong library which closed half an hour earlier, so we went to the Bowral library which opened every day but today. An abundance of churches, but very few places to blog. After a quick prayer for sanity, we arrived with our tails between our legs at the original library where we were greeted by screaming children and strange looks. I think the screaming children was pay-back for thinking we could get a better internet-usage deal and I'm pretty sure the strange looks had something to do with our lack of talent in finding public washing machines...

Off to Bundanoon tomorrow. I like saying that word, Bundanoon. It's a bit like nashi pear - just a good word. We have a nashi pear in the car, actually. I'm going to eat it in Bundanoon so I can say I ate a nashi pear in Bundanoon and get to use great words in one sentence. Maybe Bundanoon has donkeys with long ears who like nashi pears? We'll see.

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!

Amy's diary entry 14

Yesterday I walked in the rain for five hours. Every footstep came with a really pretty squealching sound. I could hardly see because of the flow of rain over my face, and the road was turning into a fast slowing river. Every so often my toes would go numb, so I started to run for a while to get the circulation going again. The rain did bring with it two benefits, though - it saved me from having to wash my hair this week and cleaned my clothes for me.

My first burst of laughter came from Brian when he called to say he somehow managed to turn onto the Freeway and couldn't see a spot to turn around. He received a good amount of pay - outs...then I managed to do the same thing. At first I was going to keep it as my little secret, but then I called to tell him I'd found him a present (a spanner) and he just happened to ask where I was...

The Hawksbury River is an amazing place. Every couple of minutes I'd see a hidden house and think to myself "oh, I'd love to live there..." then change my mind and choose the next house...and so on. I stood on a bridge to take a photo of my head with an awesome background. I didn't like the way I was smiling in the first five I took but finally got it right, all the while talking to myself, to turn around and see a guy sitting in his car at his driveway staring at me. Well it's not like there was a shop to walk into or a hole to jump into so I just kept on walking and pretended I hadn't seen him there. What a loser.

We arrived in Brooklyn to find a Post Office with Internet access. Mufasa was working in the store that day, and boy oh boy did he have some goods to buy! Everything was negotiable and it was ALL things that we really needed, like the Nokia phone finger sling thing. You can plug it into your phone and the sling wraps around your finger and you can carry it around like that. What an invention.

That night Jules nearly jumped through the roof at finding a dead spider under her pillow. It took me a while to get to sleep after that as I had the giggles bad. Nice sister I am.

Amy's diary entry 13

Walking into Wyong I managed to eye-ball a bug that decided to stay there for a good five or six minutes. Mmmm that felt nice.

Brian's kettle in his room at the Dam Hotel brought a few laughs - it boiled at random, usually every 3 mins or so. Apparently little Lisa is still with us from the haunted hotel in Branxton...

For the first time ever the following day I shook hands with someone whose hand totally engulfed mine - Paul Harragan. Very tall guy, but also very down to earth and ready for a laugh. We all had a ball walking with him and The Footy Show producers and couldn't wait to see the footage on the show on Thursday night...and what an exciting night that was! Sitting in the Gosford Hotel pub, after doing a pokie - winning - dance, we were all so proud to see the story and hear Chief and Peter Sterling speak highly of the project. It was a proud moment with lots of smiles.

We had a few visitors come and go over the past few weeks. Lots of laughs with Michele and my mum (having mum join us ensured our food supplies are topped up!). It's always good to walk with fresh faces and minds...it was learnt that one should really refrain from drinking local water. Especially a whole bottle of it. It was also learnt that walking up and down hills on sandy terrain for a good couple of hours left ouchy feelings in the backside the following day.

We all had dinner with my relatives in Gosford the other night. Driving the bus with all lights glowing and the horn blaring in the suberbs certainly got a few looks - some that were happy - to - see - us looks ... and some that weren't. We were all spoilt with a huge dinner and drinks - that vegetable lasagne is sure to keep my feet stepping it out for the Sydney to Canberra remaining trek! Great food and great company...what more can you ask for.

We walked past a shop that was called Wally's Warehouse. It made me think of Wally the champion wallaby and if he was ok. I wish I had kept him. How much fun would a pet wallaby be bouncing around the house!

Now it's time for the parrot story. This parrot caused me the biggest stomach pains from laughter. We went to a mate of Rex's farm to have a peek around and Corey the parrot came over to me and sat on my arm for a while. We had a yarn, catching up on the good old days, then he flew off and we got in the car to go back to the hotel.

Well we must have made a good impression on Corey, because he didn't want us to go (I really shouldn't write what he was screaching out). As we were driving off, Corey flew over the car, sat on the roof, then slid on his butt down the windscreen to stare at us. We were picking up speed, yet Corey just turned around to face the wind as if to say he didn't want to get his feathers messed up. He was moving his head up and down like he was riding a surf board or something - then he flew off. Well, after the laughter had settled in the car, you wouldn't believe what happened next. Corey was flying, at the same speed as the car, next to the drivers window staring in! He stayed there for a while, then flew over the top of the car to the passanger's window, and did the same thing! It started to get a bit freaky after a while - it was like he was about to head butt the window to get inside the car - but then he flew off. Crazy bird.

Rex gave me a call the other day, too - and yes, he is coming to Canberra for the 31st July to yodel with me! What a treat for everyone!

Amy's diary entry 12

We all miss Wallabadah terribly, especially Rex. If ever we get the chance to yodel again I think he would be really impressed; my triples are really improving. Triples you ask? Sorry, yodel talk.

The last week or so has continued to be quite educational for the team. We all know everything there is to know about coal mines, especially how absolutely enormous they are. We have gotten into the habit of counting the number of carriages on the coal trains which at times leaves you quite dizzy and grazes the knees occasionally as we trip over objects on the path while we stare at the trains but we can proudly say we have counted all carriages on all passing trains. The longest one had eighty. Felt a hint of travel sickness after that one.

One exciting adventure we had was the saving of young Wally. Wally is a fighter if ever there was one. We discovered Wally's mum lying on the side of the road. She had gone to animal heaven. Wally's legs were poking out of her pouch, so we grabbed him out, wrapped him in a towel and took him to the vet. Brian swears he was a kangaroo but I'd already named him Wally the Wallaby so we're going with them being wallabies. Brian occasionally makes things up to annoy me anyway.

For the two nights were in Branxton we stayed in a haunted hotel. It had been closed for months - we were the only people staying there. Scary stuff. Brian tells us little Lisa wasn't happy about us being there and that she was going to play the organ during the night to make us leave. I never did see little Lisa that night. It is possible that Brian made it up to scare me, but he's not usually like that.

Our welcome into Newcastle was really exciting. There were people waiting to walk with us across the forshore up to the old tram sheds. Most of these people were carers, parents and people with ABI. It is times like those that remind us how much of an impact we are having and how important our task is. It is such a good feeling to talk to people with acquired brain injuries about what we are doing and see a great big smile extend over their faces. Eveyone has a unique story, personality and energy, but they were all there for one reason - to join us across the forshore in gratitude. It was an amazing feeling.

We were also fortunate enough to be joined by Michael Hagen, Andrew Johns and Luke Davico that morning! We felt very privileged indeed. After a few minutes of walking and chatting, though, I realised how relaxed it all was and had an interesting time talking to them. They too were very supportive of the walk and it was a real benefit having them with us.

Walking up to the tram sheds there was a band playing to welcome us as well as the members of the community, the Lady Mayoress of Newcastle, the Hunter Brain Injury Unit and the Lions Club. What a crowd and such a fantastic group of people.

On our walk from Newcastle to Swansea yesterday, Chris (new member to the team!) and I found something by the side of the road. Similar to Wally's mum, he was in animal heaven, but we couldn't quite figure out what it was. I really did look like a squirrel, but Cris informs me it couldn't be. We decided it must have been one of those posscats.

We arrived at Camp Breakaway about three hours ago, having walked here from Swansea this morning. We were greeted by happy campers, parents and volunteers and all had lunch together in their hall. Tonight we will be staying at the camp and tomorrow night we will be at the Dam hotel in Wyong. We may have to check to see if the beer is cold.

It was our arrival to Newcastle that first made me realise we weren't going to be surrounded by cows all day every day anymore. I do miss talking to the cows. Maybe we'll see more posscats? They must be native to this area.

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!