Week Two
Week two began at Woodside Beach, Victoria caravan park, the starting point of my 90-mile Beach leg. Woodside Beach is located on the southern end of Australia’s second largest beach and stretches an astounding 144km of uninterrupted sand. Once arriving at the caravan park, I was notified of the poisonous blue-green algae outbreak that had run from local freshwater lakes and rivers, contaminating the 90-mile shoreline. The gorgeous woman who ran the caravan park, questioned my dramatic eye roll when she informed me of the situation. I simply responded, “You’re telling me I can’t get my feet wet on Australia’s second largest beach? The Universe really knows how to boot a girl when she’s already down doesn’t it!” which resulted in an eruption of giggles and story sharing of when you think life can’t get any worse and it proves you wrong out of spite.
With my 17 kg pack, I took off at first light to tackle my first day on the sand. Once breaching the dunes, I found myself amongst some of the thickest sea fog I had ever witnessed. Unable to see more than 5 meters in any direction I headed North towards my next destination, Seaspray, a small town 27km from Woodside. This was one of my toughest days both mentally and physically. With the poisonous algae keeping me from the water’s edge, the soft sand created a whole new world of hurt. My heavy pack made each step sink deeper into the sand as fire ripped through my shoulders and back, the pain was all I could focus on. Breathing became difficult due to my pack strapped tightly around my waist to alleviate the pressure on my shoulders. I distinctly remember looking at my navigation to realise I had only covered a mere 7km in distance. I burst into tears, took off my pack, and laid down in the sand.
I find the concept of quitting very interesting, for example in life we are often in a situation where when things get hard we have the option to simply stop or quit. But in moments just like these, you can say the words “I’m done, I can’t do this anymore” and wholeheartedly believe them, but the reality is you are still on that beach and nothing will change that. It is incredible what you can do when you no longer have a choice. Once I had allowed myself to cry and feel sorry for myself, I got off the ground, brushed off the sand, and got to my feet. Crying out in pain as I hoisted my pack into position once more and continued forward one foot in front of the other. This stop/start process continued throughout the entire day. Two voices screamed at each other to stop and to keep moving forward. I often wander to the tops of the dunes, scouting for tracks to free me from the sand only to be met with thick marshlands and disappointment. This was the day my pack received its name, "Monster”.
I reached Seaspray by 4 pm where I pitched my tent at Seaspray Caravan Park. Kim at the park was an exceptionally warm and fun woman who helped me out greatly and also donated my tent site for free. A true kindred spirit of adventure, who admired my bravery in undertaking such a journey. Due to limited cell reception in Woodside, my mother volunteered to ring ahead for resources in Seaspray to make sure the stores were open in the time frame of my arrival. This is when something truly special happened.
The owner of Seaspray general store Fiona went to the local butchers and bought me steak as she knew it was important for my muscle recovery. She cooked me a gorgeous meal and provided me with artisan soap, muesli, teas, and treats. She then proceeded to make me breakfast and coffee the next day before setting me off on my way towards Golden Beach (28km). I also hurt my knee on my previous 27km beach walk so she dropped my 17kg pack at my next location to save me from carrying the extra weight with my bad knee. I am in absolute awe at the lengths of generosity this beautiful woman was willing to go to help a stranger and support her cause, to bring awareness to the mental illness epidemic. After my challenging day, Fiona’s kindness made me feel the most at home since I left my real mother Fiona in Newcastle weeks ago. It lifted my spirits to keep my head high, she will never know how much she helped me that day.
This was the beginning of incredible generosity provided by the Gippsland communities for the rest of my 90-mile walk. I spent a couple of days in Golden Beach recovering. With bad rain forecast, I was lucky enough to receive a generous donation of accommodation at 90 Mile Beach House & Villas. The most incredible aspect wasn’t just Floss’ (the owner) generosity and kindness, it was that I never got the chance to even meet her and thank her in person! Unfortunately, she was in Melbourne when I was staying at Golden Beach.
From Golden Beach, I headed off the sand and followed what Google Maps described as a ‘Walking Track’. Let me tell you….. It was not!! The track died off into thick overgrowth about 12 km into my walk, with no way out other than to come back to where I started. This doesn’t sound like a massive problem to most, but this for me is a wasted day hiking and means I am at square one and have to re-resource food and accommodation. Very frustrating indeed! This is also the time my navigation on my phone chucked a wobbly and refused to work. I made a bad choice and decided to use google earth to visualise a track and bush bash to reach it. Dumb!!!
I moved forward in the direction of Loch Sport and after a while stumbled upon an old 4WD track. But something didn’t feel right. The environment felt too quiet and the only thing that I could hear was just crows. I picked up my pace knowing this track led to the main road. My off feeling made sense when a piece of silver caught my eye partially buried in the dirt. It was a shell casing. The deer tracks I had seen previously, and the bullet casing finally made sense, I ‘queen dumb-ass’ had accidentally stumbled onto a hunting reserve. Let’s just say it was more of a jog than a walk to get out of that section.
More kindness found me once I safely arrived at Loch Sport when I met Ryan, a manager of ‘Loch Sport Holidays’. He helped by donating a night’s accommodation in a gorgeous lake house. An Incredible man who not only helped with accommodation but also shared my story with the Loch Sport community page, which instigated the community to rally around me while I was in their gorgeous community.
