Nightscliff Beach Darwin At Long Last! A Long Way From Queenscliff, Melbourne

Started on Australian mainland in Queenscliff, Melbourne on March 13th.

Distance run at the mainland start was 27,242km.

Finish Australian mainland in Nightscliff Beach, Darwin  (Nightscliff Pool) May 25th.

Distance run at finish was 31,019.

Distance run on the mainland was 3777km in 69 road days.

Average distance run per road day was 54.73km.

5 rest days taken. Average distance including rest days was 51km. for the 74 days

This has been declared as a new Melbourne to Darwin Trans Australian record by Phil Essam former Australian ultra running vice president, historian, statistician and author.

Hobart Airport to Burnie, Tasmania and including the mainland has also been declared a second Trans Australian record for Tasmania to Darwin.

Distance at start in Tasmania was 26,955km. Total Australian distance run 4,064km

Michael does his stuff in Terry's house before the last day in Australia.

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We returned to Fridays finish location for the last day.

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55km per day limit!

The traffic was very heavy for the run into Darwin. I ran all the way with Terry and for a while with Dennis, the president of the Darwin running club.

Running with Terry and Dennis.

So we took a break in Palmerston rest area so as I could take an ABC radio interview. There were a couple of caretakers emptying the bins there listening to the radio as they worked.

Chocolate, can this get any better!

Waiting for the interview call I ate and ate! Till.

Please no more!

I did the interview and ran on with Terry. While Michael was cleaning up our stuff the workers started talking about the interview. They were disappointed when Michael said.

” Yes he was sitting right here and has just run on! ”

I got to thank my new clothing sponsor UVU for sending me on some light comfortable and easy to wash running clothes for the hotter and more humid road ahead through South East Asia.

This UVU outfit has been tested in jungles around the world. UVU is especially suitable for ultra runners and stands for ‘ You Versus You ‘ WEBSITE

They rushed me this package from China on Monday arriving in Darwin on Thursday.

Thank you guys looking forward to running with you!

This was the closest I could get to a welcome to Darwin sign as my finish location was not in the city but in the ocean

We turned off just before the city centre and headed for the ocean running through some nice city parks. The earlier part of the morning had been tough having to get used to heavy traffic.

It was a surreal experience running into Darwin after almost two months in the Australian Outback.

At long, long last I saw it, the ocean...The end of the road for me in Oceania!

Except for one last thing.

The end of Australia and Oceania.

Oceania began in Suva, Fiji on January 9th 2013 at km 25,143 for the run. It comprised of Fiji, both New Zealand islands and Australia including Tasmania. My third continent finished 5,876km later in Nightscliff, Darwin after 117 road days which is an average of 50.22km per road day.

The average for the run so far is 43.5km per road day or 735 marathons for the 713 days.

Terry ran the whole day with me, showing me the way around the city to the ocean.

And yes, just like at the start of the mainland Michael my great crew man was there.

His days always began before mine as he quietly slipped out of his tent to prepare breakfast.

He would then give me a wake up call, clean up, wrap up the tents and follow me on down the road. He would then spend his whole day waiting by the side of the road, for so many days with the torment of the flies and busted air condition in his car. Every 30/40 minutes he would drive by swapping out my drinks bottle and a snack. Sometimes he would surprise me with an ice lolly or meat pie if we had passed by a roadhouse, that is after we had run through first having taken a break there. Sometimes I sent Michael on ahead to make a thermos of tea.

Most days I sent him on ahead when I had about an hour or two to run to find our campsite and cook dinner, he always managed, kind and free with his time.

A great conversationalist, addicted to striking up conversations with strangers, Always a great story to tell. One day he told me someone threw a plastic bottle at him from a car as he was waiting by the side of the road.

” The Outback attracts strange people here you know! ”

” Runners and crewmen. ” I quipped.

” N0, I read in the paper a few days ago about a male passenger who was heading this way with his girlfriend for a weekend break.

” They were overtaking a road train the man flashed his backside at the road train driver.

” He fell over onto his girlfriend who was driving, she crashed her car.

” While passing the road train driver managed to get a photograph of the mans backside which he was able to produce in court. ”

” And you read that a few days ago and are only telling me now! ”

Just proves we were never stuck for a conversation!

See story HERE

Also we had been getting reports about a couple of raw food vegans, Alan Murray and Janette Murray-Wakelin, originally from New Zealand,who have been running around Australia since January 1st. Their plan is to run a marathon a day for all of 2013 in Vibram 5 finger barefoot shoes. WEBSITE  Unfortunately they are a couple of days behind us.  One day I sent Michael on ahead about 15km to the picnic area where we would camp. I took two bottles of water with me and asked him to leave another one ten kilometres further up the road. Well I missed that bottle. He told me he had left an orange beside it. Days later he heard from a crew member for the vegan runners that they had been having problems getting fresh fruit and veg in the outback and how they had stumbled on that same orange and how the person who left it had saved their lives!

I had mentioned to Michael when he was dropping it that if someone else picked it up I would not be worried as they may need it more than me, how right. We hope to meet the raw vegan runners when they arrive in Darwin on Tuesday as they have organised a celebratory meal in a vegan restaurant which we have been invited to. Actually Terry met him on the road when he was returning to Darwin from his work in Katherine. He told them that they and their two crew could park their caravan in his garden, so we are going to have a full house as two Dutch backpackers are arriving on Saturday! Thank you for your great help Terry.

And what can I say, thanks for everything Michael, you were wonderful. I was so lucky to have you, free and so generous with your precious time. ‘ Adventure before dementia ‘  as is your favorite catchphrase. I will miss you when running through South East Asia!

Michael’s WEBSITE

Unemployed!

End of the road

Then he presented me with a certificate which he had purchased in a roadhouse for crossing the Stuart Highway and the Outback. It had a box for method of travel which included RUNNING! We laughed at that as surely that was a joke category.

Michael had the choice for dinner that night, so we had fish and chips.

Before we went out to dinner that night we had a visit from one of Terry’s permanent lodgers.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 26th, 2013 at 1:30 am and is filed under jogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.