“It was my trial walk,” he said. A Lions’ member, his club supported him and he used the walk to raise money for charity.

To Page 20.

“I got as far as Toowoomba and I suddenly knew that one day I had to do the west-east walk. It’s taken me a few years but here I am,” he said.

Money raised from his marathon walk will be equally between the Australian Lions Children’s Mobility Foundation (ALCMF) and the Australian Leukodystrophy Support Group Inc. (ALDS).

Both charities help children and adults with mobility problems.

His partner Vida suffers from Leukodystrophy.

Thoughts of Vida and his family have kept him going during the lonely nights where the real challenge hasn’t been the Australian outback, but himself.

“I couldn’t have done this 20 or 30 years ago. I would’ve been physically capable, but not mentally. I wasn’t t tough enough. I think that mental toughness is something that only comes with age,” he said.

He needed all that toughness as he walked from Steep Point to Laverton in Western Australia. It is 400km north of Kalgoolie. Although inhabited for centuries the first European explorers documented the area at the western edge of the Great Victoria Desert the middle of the 19th century. On one of these journeys future Premier of Western Australia, John Forrest crossed the desert in search of Ludwig Leichhardt and his expedition.

“It was very remote. I didn’t see anyone for six days ad I was starting to wonder if the world had been destroyed and I hadn’t heard about it,” he said.

Unlike Ludwig John managed to survive.

But ti wasn’t easy.

John pulls a cart weighing between 90-100kgs.

Sand meant that on some days, he dragged it, more than pulling it.

“That really slowed me down and the worst day I did was 13km. It was hard yakka.”

Despite being mentally prepared for the isolation loneliness did set it.

“I couldn’t even pick up a radio. Sometimes late at night you might get the ABC,” he said.

Instead of listening to the radio he thought; about the house he plans to build once he gets back to Geelong.

And he thought about his life.

“You really do get to know yourself,” he said.

“You look back on your life and you can learn, in hindsight, from the good and the bad.”

And you learn confidence.

“I’m far better at handling the day-to-day problems we all have. In the most part they are little things. If something comes up now I say to myself, ‘this is nothing to what I faced crossing Australia. I can handle this. Just think it through and come up wit a solution’. I have much more self belief now,” he said.

That’s what happens when you charge a rogue bull camel.

“The first camel I saw on the track I said to it, ‘This track’s not big enough for the both of us’ in my best John Wayne accent.

“On the whole they were pretty docile.” But not all.

“Then one day – I hadn’t had a tub for 30 days so I probably was a bit on the nose. Maybe he thought I was another camel. Anyway I ran into this massive bull. He came charging down the track, purple froth spraying from his mouth.

“I’d heard stories how they would sit on you and crush you. I had nowhere to go so I just picked up a piece of wood and raced, roaring at him, thinking that I had better get a good one in because if I didn’t knock him down, I was going to be in trouble.”

The bull stopped, bellowed and turned tail.

So what did John learn from this experience, apart from mad camels are no match for mad 57 year-old Lion Club members?

“I know now to call their bluff. Not that I want to do it again,” he said.

But that’s not all he’s learned over the past five months.

“My faith in the goodness of the people has been reinforced,” he said.

“The support I’ve had has been wonderful. I met a couple who came from Goondiwindi on a property called “One Pah”.

Wes and Sonia heard about me and drove out 60kms to find me and make me and cook me a barbecue. Great people.”

Unfortunately John did remember Wes and Sonia’s last name.

“Maintenance people on the dingo fence were also fantastic,” he said.

John was hosted in Goondiwindi by the Lions’ Club of Goondiwindi.

“The Lions are a great group of people and Goondiwindi is obvuiously no different,” he said.

After a shower, a barbecue with fellow Lions and a good night sleep John was ready to begin early the next day heading to Texas and then Tenterfield..

“I’ll be a little later than normal. I have to give an interview with Red Symons on Melbourne radio,” he said.

John’s fundraising efforts have gone “ok” but “there haven’t been many people” for most of the trip which is why he’s trying to build up some awareness on the east coast for his endeavors.

“That’s why I’m walking from Byron to Geelong. So I can make a bit more money for the two charities,” he said..

If anyone would like to help John’s fundraising efforts visit:

To donate on-line go to web site:

www.everydayhero.com.au/John_Olsen

Laverton is located 120 kilometres east of Leonora and about 400 km north of Kalgoorlie. Established as a gold mining town more than a century ago, the remote town has seen ebbs and flows with each new discovery.

John Olsen a 57 year old grandfather will commence his “Longest Walk for an Aussie Kid” in June 2008. He has been an active member of Lions International for 23 years. In his early twenties he qualified as a chef and was then attracted to the dangerous outdoor occupation of rigging at high-rise construction sites. During the 1990’s to the present time he has worked as a welder and paver and describes himself as a “Jack of all trades”. During the course of the past two decades he has been a single father raising two boys and two girls. He is a committed family man who always makes time to assist people who are less fortunate.

Just like Burke and Wills.

Exceot for the obvious difference.

John Olsen is a walking testament to how to cross this isolated conteient of hours, and survive.

John buried food and water along the route which would take him from Steep Point in Western Australi to cape Byrone NSW.

He covered the food and water in plastic and then brushed it with tar to deter anaimals. H ethen buried the 13 life-saving parcels at various point including remote outback properties and police stations.

However his meticulous planning almost came unstuck when he came to the first drop-off point and found that a dingo had dug part of the package.

“The tar proved too much for it, thankfully. But I was on tenterhooks from then until the enxt drop-off point.”

John covered onaverage around 40km a day.

His best was 51km. His worst 13km.

He has lost more than 20kilograms in weight.

“It’s just starting to cut into my muscle now,” he said.

To “build up” for the trek he tucked into mars bars and pasta prior to the trip.

“It’s all gone now though,” he said.