3 Sep 2008

Day Seventeen - Sanson to Palmerston North

Another fantastic sleep at Sue Foley’s place last night seems to have done the trick, as today was the first day that I walked pain free! The group had a HUGE feed last night at the Rat Hole in Bulls and after an early night there were fresh faces all round the breakie table this morning.

I had a crew of four walk with me this today, with the usual suspects in Mel and Dave and special guest Kelvin (Sue Foley’s partner), so there was some good banter thrown around as we cruised through the 22km day.

Along the way today we had a fantastic donation from a local farmer (Graham) who caught up with us. Graham lost his son in a rail accident six years ago, a month before his son’s eighteenth birthday. Thank you so much for making the effort to come and meet us today Graham, it was a pleasure to meet you and we greatly appreciate your support.

Our resident hooligans (Patrick Jackson and Simon Wilson) managed to live up to their reputations today by “bogging” our van. We aren’t quite sure how the boys managed it, but would like to express our appreciation to Campbell (“Fletch”) Fletcher from McDougall’s who pulled our mascots out of the mud!

We were met by the Palmertson North Mayor, Mr. Jono Naylor, who walked the last kilometre into the Shell Station with us in his business suit….thank you for taking the time to come out. Tonight we are off to a local establishment called the Brewers Apprentice for a quiet beer and dinner. A late start tomorrow (midday!) before another 30km day…I am hoping a little extra rest time will get me ready for the longer haul’s we have coming up!

CC

 

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