Hi everyone.

Today, Friday I finished just before the 40km to Darwin sign. The extra distance to Nightcliff Beach, just down the road from my newest friend and host, Terry Cleary home should make up the distance and over 31,000km. Terry will run with me and hopefully some members of the Darwin Running Club.

Two new Trans Australian records will be set. Please see this link for details HERE

Many thanks to all those people and many more mentioned, but most of all thanks to Michael Gillan for making this possible

The whole issue with the aboriginal communities as you well know is not easy, its complicated. many problems, but we also seem to forget that the white settlers introduced many of those problems. . Alcohol, drugs, modern lifestyle, splitting up aboriginal families. Unfortunately on my route I dont have the time for the tourist tours which I would love to do from time to time, or get the chance to visit the wonderful arts and crafts shops I have heard about, my main aim is to run around the world. I find it hard to research what is probably expected of me and as always I rely on the information I get from the people I meet. I hope the information I pass on is accurate, I have gotten some racist lines from people which I just ignore.

Aboriginal Australians, also referred to as Aboriginal people, are people whose ancestors were indigenous to the Australian Continent — that is, to mainland Australia or to the island of  Tasmania—before British colonization of the continent began in 1788.

Please Read More >>> Press >>>  HERE

Hi Everyone,

I reached here yesterday with circa 30,700km behind me. I have been very busy trying to catch up on some 200 emails as it’s two weeks since I last had internet.

I will run into Darwin and touch the Timor Sea on Saturday 25th May. Today, Sunday is a rest day so I got six road days to run the 320km there.

Here in Katherine, Michael and I are the grateful guests of recently moved to Darwin runner Terry Cleary. Terry uses the luxurious Ibis Hotel when here on business. Thanking him so much for putting us up and feeding us here for two nights including our rest day. We will stay a few days in his new Darwin house by the ocean when I run into town with him on Saturday. I look forward to that as Michael does too as he has felt a prisoner of sorts in his car these last nine weeks!

I have not booked my flight for East Timor or Timor-Leste as it prefers to be known as. Timor-Leste is one of the worlds newest countries since it finally managed to get independence from Indonesia. It will be the start of Asia for me. I am thinking of flying on 29th and starting a couple days later for the long, long haul through the worlds most difficult and problematic continents.

30,000km run!

Sat/Sun 44km run.Total = 30,029km in 693 road days.

I hit the road last night with an extra spring in my step. I have been running nights for a week now and its great. Not much traffic, not a fly in sight and being able to run down the middle of the road to get away from the most severe road camber I have ever run on a road. Oh! And it’s a lot cooler too.
The heavenly skies are full of stars, more stars than I have ever seen in my life. I was running towards Tennants Creek some 44km away. We were staying in the youth hostel there which has an 11am check out, so if I was nifty we could even get back for a few hours sleep.
At 15km my 30,000th kilometre would be run. How to mark it for there are no kilometre markers on this Stuarts Highway. After 10 km I sent Michael on ahead to mark out the 30k with some rocks, he thought I was barmy!

3 Zero is 30,000! And here's to the next 30, sorry I mean only 20,000km!

Just as I was running on I shouted out to Michael.
” Hey Michael is that a kangaroo? ”
” Where? ”
“No it’s a dingo! ”
” Where? ”
” Ah Michael, I am only winding you up! Thanks for everything! ”

.

Running down a dream, bit by bit!

I ran on again, feeling strong. The tiredness seemed to be out of my legs from last week. My big push to Alice Springs had taken a lot out of me. Mentally and physically I felt like I was in recovery mode from running a competitive marathon, even if I run more now almost every day. The rest day, or rather rest night in Tennants Creek had been very beneficial to me for that old spring was back in my step and I was running well again, at least well by my tired standards!
I sent Michael on again to about 4 km before town to prepare the breakfast. That way he could eat his and I could eat my bowl of porridge on the run. That way we wont waste any time cooking when we get back to the hostel around 4am.
Just after I left him, bowl in hand three aborigines frightened the life out of me when they seemed to walk out of the dark towards me. They were friendly enough, just giving me a greeting in the dark, I purposely gave a mutter through my porridge not wanting to give my accent away or get into a conversation after dark which is my norm.
Michael too got the shock of his life as they stopped to ask for a cigarette as he was packing up the cooker and stuff. Of course he doesn’t smoke and the lads just gave him a friendly good night. He packed up so fast that he left the coffee behind for which he was to received a couple of grumps from me next morning! All this despite his great efforts to keep me in coffee every morning (now night as we are on a different time zone to everyone else!) His efforts included buying a brand new gas 3kg gas cylinder!
I feel very uncomfortable about all the negative stories people are telling me about the Aborigines. It seems nobody has a good word to say. Everyone I meet be they, liberal, conservative or God loving keeps talking about all the endless money the Australian government are pumping into work and retraining schemes which are not taken up. I hear all about the drinking, fighting, arguments, laziness, unemployment, substance abuse problems and how some bars no longer serve them after sunset.
Surely it’s not like this everywhere in this community.
So I was delighted to meet a nice friendly family of about six a few days ago just about 8km from my finish. I stopped, chatted about the run for a while and took their photo.

We stopped to help this Aborigine family

Their car had run out of petrol. We stopped to see if they were ok. There was a young child with flies crawling all over her face, she didn’t seem to be bothered. We gave them water, food and an umbrella for it was 9am and the sun was already baking high in the sky. One of the family had hitched a ride to the road house to get a can of petrol. As their old car chugged down the road they honked and waved.

I stood on a long thin strip of black tyre and got the shock of my life thinking it was a snake. I had noticed it on the road when we were commuting back this evening. I stopped to take a look, it was dark, not really sure, no Tony you don’t need to know if it was a snake, just keep on running. Then I played it on my ipod Running Down A Dream.   Press HERE

Well a 20,000km home stretch!

Hi all.
I have spent a huge amout of time updating the blog Route Page. It’s not perfect as I don’t have the technical skills but have persisted to get some kind of routing up.

My thoughts on the road ahead to Dublin are.
After finishing Australia in Darwin about 1,040km away I will fly to East Timor to begin running across Asia. This may take about 14 months.

From East Timor I will cross the border to Indonesia and island hop some 3,500km and continue on this western peninsula until I cross the equator. As the main peninsula leading to China and eventually Europe begins with Singapore which is above the equator I will stay on this western peninsula until I cross over the equator and then commute to Singapore at a more southern point.
The next sea crossing after Singapore will be at Calais, France.
From Singapore to China border is about 3,000km. I expect to be there around end Oct, ie: Dublin Marathon time when I will have one year exactly to finish this run.
It will be approaching winter when I arrive in the Peoples Republic. 5,000km I am figuring on 4 months but may take 5 depending on weather and other conditions. By this stage I should be comfortably on schedule for my finish needing about 1,000km per month.
Due to certain ‘ new circumstances ‘ and other plans which will be reserved for the book I have decided to revert back to my original Asian route. That is from China to Kazakhstan to Russia. These routes have not been totally decided upon but I am thinking about 4 months total for the latter two. From the Russian Ukraine border it will be about 2 months to Calais, France where I plan to take the ferry to Dover, England.
Now this is the big news. I had planned to run to Ireland from Dover to Wales and still may include off route Wales but I have decided for two reasons to run north to Scotland.
Reason one is I want to push this run over 50,000km as it was a bit short.
Reason two and this is big for me.
From Scotland my plan is to take the ferry to Larne in Northern Ireland.
There is nothing more I would love than to enter the island of Ireland on northern territory. In the past our two communities have had so many problems, to put it mildly. This is my very small way of making some kind of a bond, however small or insignificant that may seem to others, it’s important to me.
It would be nice to get off the ferry in Larne and run to Belfast and perhaps even meet the mayor there and then run over the border west and south perhaps towards Co. Donegal, Galway, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny and other places in between. It is small things like these thoughts that keep me going over the endless highways of the world.
So there is my plan for the next 20,000km over the next 18 months set out to you on the night I set out to run the 30,000th kilometre of this world run. I hope you will be still there with me for the finish.
Please check out the route page, sorry for it’s untidiness! Thanks for your support.

Hi All, just a quick note. 29,985km run. Finished Friday morning with 43km run and commuted to backpackers hostel in Tennant Creek. I could have run the 15km on Friday but as the distance from where I eventually decided to finish was about a marathon to town we decided to run it next day, or rather night. We had already been thinking of taking a rest day or rest night here, so that’s why it’s Saturday. Anytime I take a rest day I get emails wondering if I am injured! I say give me a break! Talk later, thanks for messages
PS Re: Lindie Naughton’s message of support we have two questions. You say your tent was stolen in this area, Michael asked me if you were in it?
I read with interest that you were attacked by emu’s getting off a bus? So I have decided I will give buses a wide berth just in case any decide to get off when I am running by
This is just another hazard for me on the long list many fatalistic ‘ grey nomads ‘ here warn me about!
Still no kangaroo sightings but Michael did manage to video a dingo. I can no see why people say ‘ you would be lucky if you see a snake! ‘
By the way there is a poster on the hostel wall titled ” Dangerous Land Snakes Of The Northern Territory ”
12 terrifying pictures and descriptions from over two metres long, with horrifying names such as the Desert Death Snake, the Whip Snake, Tiger Snake or the much feared Taipan which was described to me in Tasmania as the ‘ pit bull terrier of snakes ” for it goes after you for no reason (sorry that I can agree with and no apology to pit bull owners!)

Michael submitted the following for publication at my request. I cannot speak highly enough of the man and of his excellent recovery techniques which have help me so much on this grueling leg of my world run.

Michael Gillan has been involved in Ultra Marathon running and walking for many years. In 1995 he developed a simple light legs recovery system that encouraged walkers and runners back out onto the track quickly so they could get more distance for less effort through a better recovery

Since then Michael has worked all over the world including France, Denmark, Montreal, and a run across the United States. Currently he is the support driver and recovery specialist for Tony Mangan on the Australian leg of his world run from Melbourne to Darwin.
Michael has worked with many top athletes which include Cliff Young, Sandra Brown, Yiannis Kouros, Jesper Olsen and Tony Mangan

Michael’s sporting recovery website is http://www.aching-legs-recovery.com He is available to do workshops with clubs and interested athletes to teach his Light Manual Muscle Relaxation recovery techniques.

Running around the world I have lots of time to think up new inventions which I may work on someday!

The designer of this site, Simon Evans, thought up this wonderful invention of “the bike that grows with the child”. Simon previously cycled around the world, so he knows a thing or two about bicycles!

Twist starts as a balance (pedal-less) bike that allows your child to learn to balance and steer with the comfort of having their feet near the ground.

When your child grows out of the small balance bike, the rear of the frame rotates turning Twist into a big balance bike with higher saddle and longer handlebar reach.

After your child becomes confident whizzing around independently, a pedal and crank assembly can be fitted to the balance bike transforming it into a fully functioning pedal bicycle.

Twist can be used from ages 2 to 7 while keeping the correct fit for your child.

Find out more at twistbikes.com.

Hi Just a brief update and thanks to Wycliffe Well Holiday Park for an hours free  online!

Am running nights now as it’s cooler, no flies on me! and because of a serious camber on the road so designed to rapidly shift the flash floods. Also Michaels a/c is busted so you can imagine the torment for him sitting in that vehicle which is prob 30 degrees hotter than for me on the road. A fly spray would work for him, or rather several but he is allergic!

I can see the traffic well at night when there is typically only about 8 vehicles, this means I can also run in the middle of the road.

Many thanks to Tom Deniss for sponsoring my birthday meal of kangaroo steak and also for Michaels and my host John in Alice Springs.

Total to date is 29,898km for 690 road days, think thats an average of 43.33km!

I expect to run the 30,000th on Friday, it will be about 30km before Tennants Creek.

All is well, sorry gotta rush, thanks for messages of support,

Please reread previous post as I have just uploaded a lot of photos and added more text

Thanks to my support driver Michael for shooting this video of my birthday speech after the Alice Springs running and walking club presented me with a birthday cake at the end of the 6km race on Saturday morning. As always those km’s don’t count. Please press HERE to view the video which Michael went to huge trouble to convert from his system to Youtube. Thanks again Michael.

I am going to take another rest day today Tuesday and hit the toad on Wednesday 1,500km north for Darwin!

We are staying in a really nice backpacker hostel with great and cheap internet, so both of us getting lots of work done.

I almost forgot to say that yesterday we had tea with the mayor or as his title reads ‘ His Worship the Mayor Damien Ryan ‘ mayor of Alice Springs. We got some nice pictures chatting in his office, I will upload soon. Thanks to everyone for their best wishes and comments.

Michael and me with His Worship Damien Ryan Mayor of Alice Springs

Also a very happy birthday to my Mam today Tuesday as her birthday is just three days after mine. I love you Mam, Hope you have a wonderful day X

My earlier part of the Mainland was not blogged too well. Here I just want to thank people again for their wonderful help and am so sorry for not getting the chance to do justice to your wonderful help.

Thanks to Robyn for running with me and to her husband Mitch also for putting us up in their wonderful hotel the Balcony Hotel in Murraybridge

Ash's parents Barbara and Guy. Ash is my friend from Ireland and we had a lovely night staying on his parents farm.

Thanks to Nancy and her son Mark who gave us an invite to stay a night in Gawler after hearing me on ABC radio. They crewed me out of town while Michael was doing some business.