By Bill Jayet
In the last 200-plus days John Olsen has seen and experienced much that the Australian landscape can offer during a 500 kilometre walk across Australia.
John has pushed through the desolate Great Victorian Desert, been attacked by a male bull camel and experienced the mental and physical exhaustion associated with not only the walk but also the extreme weather elements.
Icy conditions overnight in the desert, to 40-plus degrees (in the shade) during the day have been part and parcel of the trek.
However, there have also been many highlights – including his walk into Parkes on the eve of the annual Elvis Festival.
“I couldn’t have timed it better,” John said on his arrival in Parkes on Wednesday morning.
He’d spent the previous five days trekking along the Newell Highway from Dubbo where he got to hear lots of talk on his radio about the Elvis Festival.
After four years of preparation, John set out from Steep Point - the most western point of Western Australia - on a 4,800 kilometre walk across Australia’s remote deserts and Great Dividing Range to Cape Byron in NSW last June.
The 57 year-old father of four who hails from Geelong in Victoria is aiming to raise $200,000 for the Australian Lions Children’s Mobility Foundation (ALCMF) and the Australian Leukodystrophy Support Group.
He is being supported by Lions Clubs throughout Australia.
Here in Parkes he was greeted by local Lions Club members and handed cheques worth a combined total of $170 from both the Parkes Lions Club and the Parkes Clarinda Lions Club.
Harnessed to a small metal trailer that contains camping gear, food, water and other supplies, John is now walking his way back to his partner Vida in Geelong – herself a victim of Leukodystrophy.
“Vida has Adreno which is the most common form of the disease that most Australian’s would have become aware of through the movie Lorenzo’s Oil,” John said.
“Unfortunately for Vida she also inherited my walking bug when she met me.”
John established his reputation as a long distance walker in 2004 by displaying sheer guts and determination by trekking solo from the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula to the southern tip of Tasmania.
That walk saw him travel 5,622 kilometres in 167 days.
John’s preparation for his walk across Australia included him burying food and water at strategic points in the desert.
“I got a bit panicky when at one point I found evidence that dingoes had discovered my supplies. Fortunately they’d given up. But it made me nervous that my other locations may not have been so lucky,” John said.
“Fortunately this wasn’t the case.”
Asked if had felt lonely during the marathon walk John replied that one thing he had developed through age was mental stamina.
“I talk to myself a lot. But the one thing that motivates me the most is the knowledge so many people are behind me. I have never thought of giving up,” he said.
The hardest part of his journey was walking across the Great Victorian Desert which took more than 48 days to complete.
“I virtually had to walk backwards for some 110 kilometres pulling my trailer through the sands. It really was sole destroying stuff,” John said.
One incident that got his adrenalin flowing also occurred in the desert while John was five days out of Coober Pedy.
A male bull camel came onto the scene and decided to attack.
“This particular male bull was on heat, frothing at the mouth and bellowing as it charged at me. I thought the best thing to do was attack back, so I picked up a large stick and started running towards it – yelling and hollowing at the same time.
“It had the right effect, with the camel digging in its toes before giving up on me.
“I don’t mind admitting that I shook quite a bit afterwards,” he said.
Anyone wanting to contribute to either of John’s selected charities can do so via the website www.LionsClubs.org.au/alcmf (The Australian Lions Children’s Mobility Foundation) or www.alds.org.au (The Australian Leukodystrophy) Support Group Inc.
“So far my walk has raised $61,000 with another $13,000 in pledges lodged with the Geelong Lions Club,” John said.
“Hopefully by the time I get back home in a month’s time this figure will have increased even more.”
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