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I did the walk against want yesterday.
It was fun, the sun was shining (a little too much by the end of it), the walk went along the Yarra which I don't get to often and I talked with my Dad.
That doesn't happen that much, although I don't know why. We'll talk if we're in the same place, but when I phone I tend to talk to Mum, usually cos Dad passes the phone over to her. So it was good to talk and walk (much more quickly than Mum and my sister, who were strolling along somewhere behind us). Now I know some more of what's going on at SPAGGS, and he knows what my lettuce are doing. :-)
There didn't really seem to be that many people on the walk, although that may have been because we decided to do the 13km rather than the 6.5km walk. The 13km turned left at Moray bridge and headed along the Yarra in a south easterly direction along the bike/footpath to MacRob bridge, which we crossed and then headed north-west back along the other side. We rejoined the 6.5km mob at Moray bridge and then all headed to Swanston St bridge, crossed it, then back along the other side of the Yarra again (via the Sunday market!), through Birrung Marr (got to say I didn't really think that much of most of it - there's one huge bit which is currently just dirt. Great for kicking a footy on maybe, but no one's going to picnic there. That may of course be due to the current drought, but the dirt looked pretty permanent to me. If you can' t get grass to grow next to the river, where are you going to get it to grow?) and back to the starting point, which was at Treasury Gardens. Even at the start though, there didn't seem to be a lot of people there and when I mentioned it this morning quite a few people hadn't realised it was on. Pity, it was a lovely morning for it.
The start site also seemed a bit disorganised - I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but I think it was more like the fun runs that I've been on (yes, seriously.) The brochure had "Start time 10am" so I was subconsciously expecting a massed start ("runners go at the front, those wanting to amble at the back!") whereas what actually happened was that the Samoan dancers were still on stage at 10.05am, which is when we noticed a whole group who'd obviously decided to go for it and were headed off in the general direction of the walk. So we followed them. The finish was similarly disorganised - again, I think I was expecting a fun run kind of finish where they said/did something so you'd know you'd finished ("well done, you can collapse over there"?). But there wasn't really anything - well we could have bought a lentil burger from Friends of the Earth, but given that neither Dad nor I had money on us we just sat and waited until the other two rocked up. And ate fruit that Dad had brought with him. :-)
Having said that, the actual walk was fantastically organised - every point you could possibly go in the wrong direction there was a marshall pointing the right way, together with chalked arrows and printed arrows stuck on poles. I just wish I'd known to bring my own bottle so I could actually get water from the checkpoints - they were marked as "water" but there were (of course) no cups and I didn't get a bottle or bring one (I could apparently have gotten one at the "gold coin donation" breakfast, but I hadn't realised there'd be food so I ate before I left!)
We'll probably do it again next year. :-) Although I think my sister wants me to amble with Mum next time, she was getting frustrated by the slow pace. (And embarrassed by Mum taking her shimmy off half way along because she was hot. Honestly, wear a jumper woman, they're easier to take off!) And I'll bring a hat so my neck doesn't get sunburnt.
The reason my family did the walk together (well apart from the two of us in Canberra) was because of my uncle. He'd done it every year and it was, I guess, a memorial thing as well as a social justice fundraiser. My parents and sister got lunch at PMCI afterwards - in retrospect that was a really bad move, especially for my mother. Too many bad memories, too recently tied up there.
Then we all headed back to my place for a cappuchino and to collapse. :-)
It was fun, the sun was shining (a little too much by the end of it), the walk went along the Yarra which I don't get to often and I talked with my Dad.
That doesn't happen that much, although I don't know why. We'll talk if we're in the same place, but when I phone I tend to talk to Mum, usually cos Dad passes the phone over to her. So it was good to talk and walk (much more quickly than Mum and my sister, who were strolling along somewhere behind us). Now I know some more of what's going on at SPAGGS, and he knows what my lettuce are doing. :-)
There didn't really seem to be that many people on the walk, although that may have been because we decided to do the 13km rather than the 6.5km walk. The 13km turned left at Moray bridge and headed along the Yarra in a south easterly direction along the bike/footpath to MacRob bridge, which we crossed and then headed north-west back along the other side. We rejoined the 6.5km mob at Moray bridge and then all headed to Swanston St bridge, crossed it, then back along the other side of the Yarra again (via the Sunday market!), through Birrung Marr (got to say I didn't really think that much of most of it - there's one huge bit which is currently just dirt. Great for kicking a footy on maybe, but no one's going to picnic there. That may of course be due to the current drought, but the dirt looked pretty permanent to me. If you can' t get grass to grow next to the river, where are you going to get it to grow?) and back to the starting point, which was at Treasury Gardens. Even at the start though, there didn't seem to be a lot of people there and when I mentioned it this morning quite a few people hadn't realised it was on. Pity, it was a lovely morning for it.
The start site also seemed a bit disorganised - I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but I think it was more like the fun runs that I've been on (yes, seriously.) The brochure had "Start time 10am" so I was subconsciously expecting a massed start ("runners go at the front, those wanting to amble at the back!") whereas what actually happened was that the Samoan dancers were still on stage at 10.05am, which is when we noticed a whole group who'd obviously decided to go for it and were headed off in the general direction of the walk. So we followed them. The finish was similarly disorganised - again, I think I was expecting a fun run kind of finish where they said/did something so you'd know you'd finished ("well done, you can collapse over there"?). But there wasn't really anything - well we could have bought a lentil burger from Friends of the Earth, but given that neither Dad nor I had money on us we just sat and waited until the other two rocked up. And ate fruit that Dad had brought with him. :-)
Having said that, the actual walk was fantastically organised - every point you could possibly go in the wrong direction there was a marshall pointing the right way, together with chalked arrows and printed arrows stuck on poles. I just wish I'd known to bring my own bottle so I could actually get water from the checkpoints - they were marked as "water" but there were (of course) no cups and I didn't get a bottle or bring one (I could apparently have gotten one at the "gold coin donation" breakfast, but I hadn't realised there'd be food so I ate before I left!)
We'll probably do it again next year. :-) Although I think my sister wants me to amble with Mum next time, she was getting frustrated by the slow pace. (And embarrassed by Mum taking her shimmy off half way along because she was hot. Honestly, wear a jumper woman, they're easier to take off!) And I'll bring a hat so my neck doesn't get sunburnt.
The reason my family did the walk together (well apart from the two of us in Canberra) was because of my uncle. He'd done it every year and it was, I guess, a memorial thing as well as a social justice fundraiser. My parents and sister got lunch at PMCI afterwards - in retrospect that was a really bad move, especially for my mother. Too many bad memories, too recently tied up there.
Then we all headed back to my place for a cappuchino and to collapse. :-)
