Start:  Traralgon

Finish:  Rosedale

Distance:  14

Total:  119

No more back roads for this guy. Today was all straight down the four-lane highway. The road was busy with Saturday morning travelers going toward the Melbourne area. 

I got started about 8:30 after a great night’s rest. Though you wouldn’t think something called “The Black Bull Motel” had much to offer, this place was really nice.  You can always tell when a small motel has a good owner. They pay attention to details that not even a big name-brand hotel does. Breakfast was included for the first time in a week so that was nice too. 

Like I said, I was out in the traffic today, walking against the flow. Fortunately the shoulder was as wide as a normal lane of traffic so I had plenty of room. I got to my destination of Rosedale about 12:45 and checked into the Coach Lamp Motel.  It was the first business you come to as you get to Rosedale. Unfortunately they don’t have wifi; and they also don’t have a restaurant. So after dropping off my pack, I grabbed my iPad and walked another 20 minutes into Rosedale to find something to eat for lunch and hopefully find wifi to post this journal. I wandered into the Rosedale General Store where they have food. I looked at my phone and there was also free wifi. So BAM!  One satisfied customer. 

The Rosedale General Store is where I met Pauline and Sharron. Pauline was taking orders behind the counter and Sharron was cooking it up in the kitchen.  I ordered the fish and chips that was big enough to feed two or three grown adults.  These two ladies were super nice to me and act like they enjoy life in Rosedale. 

Tomorrow it’s 17 miles down the road to Sale. I hope everyone has a great weekend. JB 

Start:  Moe

Finish:  Traralgon

Distance:  20

Total:  105

Today’s walk was through some real backroads. After starting in Moe I didn’t go through any towns until my finish in Traralgon 20 miles later. 

The day got started at 7:30 after a bad night’s rest. The motel was so-so, but the bed was hard as a rock. It was like sleeping on the floor. Every 30 minutes I was waking up with hip and shoulder pain from sleeping on my side on this bed. I finally gave up at 6:30, got up and packed and headed downtown to find some breakfast. I found a great little Vietnamese bakery and had a pastry. Then it was across the street to the Subway shop to buy lunch for down the road. 

Like I said, I was completely out in the country all day. This is cattle country. I’ve seen hundreds of dairies and plenty of beef cattle ranches too. They’ve had plenty of rain and the cattle are fat. 

After a couple of hours I happened upon a very large electrical power plant. At first I thought it was a nuclear plant but after walking all the way around the complex I saw the huge strip coal mine adjacent to the plant.  The road I was walking went right up next to the cooling towers and there was so much steam coming down I thought I was going to need my parka. 

Next, after a few more miles, I noticed on my map I was being routed around some sort of very large industrial complex but couldn’t tell what it was. It was adding at least five miles to my walking distance. Once I got to it the signs said it was a paper mill. And there were signs at every gate entrance saying keep out; no thoroughfare; no through traffic. So I quit looking for a shortcut and followed my phone the long way around.  I did however sit outside one of their entrance gates and eat my Subway sandwich for lunch. 

I finally made it into Traralgon about 3:00 and stopped at the train station to get some logistical advice for the days ahead. I didn’t need train help; I needed bus help and the same folks handle both. That’s when I met Cassandra Green who knows everything about bus schedules in these parts. There are a few places coming up in the next 2-3 weeks where the towns are too far apart to walk in one day.  However, the state transportation system actually has bus service in rural areas and have bus stops at road intersections along my route.  So if I can  coordinate my walking time to be at a remote bus stop and ride into the next town, I can avoid camping on the side of the road. I’ll just need to catch the bus back to that same bus stop the next day to pick up where I left off. So Cassandra at the train station helped me decipher the bus schedules based on my route. 

Medical update:  No big issues. I feel like a shin splint is coming on in my right leg, and I have a big blister on my right foot. And after walking all day with my pack, I immediately get all stiffened up after relaxing for an hour or two in my room. If I walk somewhere to eat later in the evening people probably think there’s something seriously wrong with me. But after a nights rest I feel great!  

That’s it for today. I went over the 100 mile mark and Melbourne is a distant memory. JB

Start:  Yarragon

Finish:  Moe

Distance:  11

Total:  85

Today was a fairly easy 11 mile walk on flat terrain along a service road beside the freeway. Once again the train track ran along beside my road so every hour along came the trains, one going east, one going west. 

I took advantage of today’s shorter walking distance to get a little more sleep and also make a few calls for motels a couple of weeks down the road. One week from today I’ll make it to my first coastal town.  Because it’s summer vacation down here, I need to stay a little ahead on my reservation scheduling or else the motels may be booked, especially on weekends.  Checkout time this morning was 9:30 so I delayed breakfast until after checkout, then got on the road about 10:00. 

The weather was overcast and very muggy during my 3 1/2 hours of walking. As you recall from yesterday I mentioned the pesky fly problem I had. Last night I went into a little pharmacy and bought some Deet 40% spray. The lady at the pharmacy said the high humidity they’re having is very unusual but the humidity and rain is stirring up the flies. I can confirm that. So today I coated myself with Deet spray and humans could smell me coming from 10 feet away. Suffice to say the flies could smell me too and weren’t as bad today. However, when I got to my destination of Moe (pronounced Mow-ee) I went to the local outdoor rec store and purchased a mosquito net for my head and neck. Between the spray for the arms and legs and net for the head and neck, that should about fix the fly problem. 

Tomorrow it’s back to a more normal day; 19 miles further east as I go pass the century mark away from the starting line in Melbourne. JB

Start:  Longwarry Station

Finish:  Yarragon

Distance:  21

Total:  74

Today was forecast to be stormy and rainy most of the day and that proved to be accurate. From past experience I know there will be weather challenges to deal with. Sometimes it works out that I can take a day off and not walk in the weather. Unfortunately, with it being so early in this trek, and with confirmed motel reservation for several nights down the road, not walking today was not an option. In addition, last night while reviewing my route for the day, I realized I had accidentally planned to walk along the freeway for a few miles. So I modified the plan which made today two miles longer than the original plan. Luckily I was slack-packing today. That means I left all my heavy stuff at the motel and only carried water and a few necessities so my pack was light. 

I got out the door this morning at 7:00, stopped in the bakery next door for a pastry and juice to go, and caught the 7:30 train back to Longwarry Station where I stopped walking yesterday. When I got off the train it started raining. I put the rain cover on my pack and then covered up with my parka and off I went down the backroads. It rained all morning and by lunch I’d made it to the city of Warragul, so I stopped for a bite to eat. That’s where I met Tom and Sharon Hartman.  They live on a farm outside town and raise beef cattle. They were super-nice to talk to. 

After lunch I still had 11 miles to walk. While I was eating, the rain had stopped. I started walking and got about a quarter mile down the street, not even out of town yet, and I heard a loud rumble of thunder. I looked behind me and it was very dark. I called up the radar on my phone and it was about to rain very soon. I was just in front of a camper dealer so I walked inside and asked if I could hang out for a little while until the storm passed. They were very nice, offered me a place to sit, and I spent the next hour waiting on the rain to let up. It finally stopped about 1:30. 

So it was decision time. I could call it a day and walk down the street to the train station and ride one stop down the track to my hotel and add what’s left of today’s walk to tomorrow’s walk, making it a 22 mile day tomorrow. Or I could go ahead and walk my last 11 miles today, probably in the rain, and have an easy 11 mile day tomorrow.  Well, I was already wet, so I decided to press on and walk 11 more miles today. Now I’m glad I did. It quit raining soon after the thunderstorm cleared out and tomorrow will be a breeze. 

One last thing. They have some killer flies here. They will seek you out and not leave you alone. They are relentless.  They don’t bite but land on your exposed flesh and will not stop. At any given time, a gang of 10-12 will swarm around you. All day long I’m swatting these crazy flies off me. After I finished my walk today I bought some repellent with 40% Deet. Tomorrow I’m going to look for an insect net to wear over my face. If I can’t get some relief I’m afraid I’ll need psychiatric help soon because this would drive anyone CRAZY. 

That’s all from down under. Thanks for following along. JB

Start:  Parkenham

Finish:  Longwarry Station

Distance:  18

Total:  53

Today went as I had planned it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a challenge. 

The weather forecast called for severe thunderstorms with possible hail beginning around 1:00 in the afternoon. At my normal pace I’d need about 6 hours plus some lunch time to walk my 18 miles.  So to beat the bad weather, I headed out the door at 5:45, stopped for a quick breakfast, and started east. The bike path I’ve been enjoying finally ended after about two miles. After that, I was walking on the side of the road facing traffic. 

After about the 10 miles mark, the train track started running along the side of my route.  My plan for the day was to walk to the little town of Longwarry, which has no motel but does have a train stop, and take the train forward on my route to tomorrow’s destination, Yarragon. Tomorrow, I’ll take the train back to Longwarry and walk to Yarragon. Since the train track was right by the road, I saw the trains coming by about once per hour. I knew there was a train leaving Longwarry at 11:52. If I didn’t make that train, I’d be waiting an hour for the next train at 12:52.  As I walked, I started calculating my time and with three hours left to walk it looked like I’d just miss the 11:52 train. So I started picking up the pace. With one hour to go I would just make it, but I needed time to figure out how to use the ticket kiosk and buy a ticket. By the time I got to the station I had 10 minutes to spare. However, the ticket kiosk and I were just not communicating. I had no idea how many zones I was traveling through, what a Miki card was,…you get the picture.  So I decided to just forget the ticket and get on the train and if there was an attendant on the train, explain the situation. 

I got on the train, and sure enough, there was a very nice attendant who was more interested in where I was walking to and why than he was in collecting my money for a ticket. We talked for a few minutes, then he left and came back with a couple of his train security buddies who also wanted to talk walking instead of ticketing. One of them even issued me a free ticket for my return ride back to Longwarry Station tomorrow to pick up my walk where I stopped today. Super nice folks. 

This little town of Yarragon is Australia’s version of Fredericksburg, Texas. I’ll save my discussion about Yarragon until tomorrow since I’ll be here again tomorrow night. 

Overall, a good day. It’s 3:21 PM as I’m typing this and there’s not a thunderstorm in sight. JB. 

Start:  Springvale

Finish:  Parkenham

Distance:  18

Total:  35

My walk today took me through several bedroom communities east of Melbourne. The towns were very much like ours in the U.S., with some businesses still calling themselves “Melbourne this” or “Melbourne that” even though I’m now 35 miles from the city center. 

The weather was sunny and very warm. I once again woke up about 3:00 AM and couldn’t sleep. However, I couldn’t check out of my hotel until 8:00 because the office didn’t open until then and I wanted my $100 cash security deposit back, so to optimize my time, I packed up and walked down the street to eat breakfast at 7:00 and walked back to the motel to check out at 8:00. After that, my walk was very routine.  I had jogging/bike trails along my entire route all day, although the trail kept jumping from one side of the highway to the other all day so that got annoying. That’s about all I have to report about my Day 2 walk, so now I’ll come clean on an embarrassing incident that happened at the end of the day yesterday that I was to tired and limited on space to write about on my Day 1 entry. 

You need to know I have this entire route planned out in detail. I know where I plan to walk to everyday and what motel, if there is one, that I’ll sleep in each night. Before I left Texas, I made reservations for my first 10-12 nights to make sure I had a place to stay because most of these little towns only have one or two motels. In most cases I sent an email to the motel a few weeks ago to reserve the rooms. For last nights motel, however, I used expedia.com to make my reservation at the Sandown Heritage Motel. It’s a small family run place with maybe 20 rooms.  Also, when I arrived in Melbourne on Sunday, I called all the motels using my newly activated cell phone to confirm I had room reservations. 

So as is always the case at the end of my walking day, I was tired and dragging but I finally made it to my motel yesterday. I walked up to the desk to check in and the gentleman, with a very strong Asian accent, said I didn’t have a reservation. I said I was sure I did; in fact I just called two days ago and confirmed that I did. Unfortunately, there was no record of it anywhere, and I couldn’t find my email or Expedia confirmation in my phone either. However, lucky me; they had a room available so I checked in, went to my room, unpacked my backpack, took a shower, and went back to their restaurant for an early dinner. While sitting alone waiting on my dinner, I started looking at Google Maps to see where I could eat breakfast the next morning along my route. And that’s when I saw it; I WAS AT THE WRONG MOTEL!   The guy at the desk was right. This was the Sandown Regency Motel, and my reservation was at the Sandown Heritage Motel, which was another quarter-mile down the road. In all honesty, these two motel signs look somewhat alike on a normal day; but after walking 17 miles all I saw was SANDOWN and staggered in. 

After I realized my mistake, I called the right motel. The manager said unfortunately they could not cancel my reservation because it was through Expedia and my card had already been charged. So I went to the manager of the motel I’d already checked into, admitting my gross ignorance, and he agreed to refund 50 percent of my bill. So off I went back to my room to pack back up and walk a quarter mile down the road to the correct motel. Lesson learned. Read the sign. 

From the land down under, Happy New Year to you all!  JB

Start:  Downtown Melbourne

Finish:  Springdale

Distance:  17

Total:  17

What a picture-perfect day for walking. Not a cloud in the sky and the temperature started in the high 50s and stayed in the 60s all day. My day started at 3:00 AM because of jet lag I guess, so I gave up trying to sleep at 6:00 when the sun came up. The hotel had no restaurant so the Mickey D’s next door had to do for breakfast.  I got out the door at 8:00 to start walking. 

I’m using Google Maps for navigation but I disregarded it for the first few miles and walked along a bike and jogging path that runs along the Yarra River through Melbourne. There were quite a few people out on a crisp Sunday getting their exercise. After a few miles on the pathway I began to follow my phone which took me through some very nice neighborhoods. As you can see in the photo below, this looks a lot like an embassy, but I guess it was a residence because there were no guards around. 

After making my way out of their version of Beverley Hills, I was walking through more middle class neighborhoods. Everyone seemed very nice when I would pass them on the sidewalk; most would greet me with a good morning or good day. 

By about 11:00 I happened upon a small business district in the suburb of Malvern. There was a coffee shop called the Coffee Ministry that seemed pretty popular so I went inside to take a break and have a milk shake. That’s where I met Leigh and Anna. This super nice couple let me join them at their table and we chatted for most of an hour. They’ve traveled all over the world and had some interesting stories to tell. 

After my milk shake break I finally made my way to the road I will be walking along for most of my way to Brisbane. Hwy A-1 (Prince’s Highway) goes 9000 miles around the entire perimeter of the continent of Australia. I’ll only see about 1300 miles of it. 

I finally reached my hotel at 3:00. That milk shake spoiled my appetite so I never ate lunch. The motel had an Indian restaurant so I had an early dinner there. 

It’s amazing how I forget how the first few days feels on these long walks. Even though today was a relatively easy 17 mile day, which is two miles less than I’ll average overall on this trip, by the end of the day I was really tired. It probably would have helped if I’d eaten lunch, but still I was whipped by 3:00. Looking back it’s always like this for the first few days with sore feet and muscles. But it’s amazing how your body recharges overnight and I’ll be ready to go tomorrow. 

Speaking of tomorrow, it’s an 18 mile day with a good weather forecast. I’d better enjoy it; the forecast is for three straight days of rain starting Tuesday. 

That’s all for today. No celebrating for me tonight on New Year’s Eve. I’m too pooped. JB. 

Start:  San Antonio

Finish:  Melbourne

Distance:  A long way

Total:  A bunch

Thursday began with a normal 8:00 Central Time wake-up in San Antonio. Kyle, Jessie, Bailey and Ava came by the house to visit for a bit and I spent the rest of the morning running around worrying about what I had forgotten to pack. I also spent a few minutes saying goodbye to Hannah and Karla on FaceTime. 

Finally it was 11:45 and time to leave for the airport. Jessie and her girls along with Wyn dropped me off at SA International for a one hour flight to Houston. There I had a four hour layover before my 15.5 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand. We left Houston at 8:00 PM Thursday and chased the sun all night, arriving at about 5:30 AM Saturday New Zealand time after crossing the international date line and losing a day. 

The layover in Auckland was 3.5 hours, followed by a four hour flight to Melbourne. I arrived in Melbourne at 11:00 AM local time Saturday after 21.5 hours of air time and 9 hours of ground time. The Melbourne airport only has express bus service to the downtown area where my walk begins on New Year’s Eve so that took another hour. 

After getting downtown Melbourne I had some errands to run. Priority one was to get a SIM card for my phone. I went straight to the nearest Vodafone store and took care of that, but while I was there, a few thousand people shut down the mall to “Free Palestine.”  Nothing got out of control; I think they were mostly looking for attention and they were getting it.  Next stop, an ATM to pick up some funny money. Then on to a pharmacy to get some sunscreen. 

Finally, all the errands are done and I checked into my hotel which is the starting line for my walk. It’s 3:45 PM Saturday here; 10:45 PM Friday at home. I’m ready to get this posted and get some rest. 

Tomorrow is walking Day 1. The weather forecast is good and I only need to walk 17 miles. 

That’s it from Melbourne.  Thanks for following along. JB

Hello everyone. It’s been over four years since I’ve posted an update on thewalkingaggie.com website.  That’s because I haven’t gone on a long hike since I finished my trip across Europe in the Fall of 2019.  All of that is about to change. 

On 28 December I will be flying to Australia to begin a hike along that countries east coast. This walk will last 76 days and cover just under 1300 miles.  I’ll begin in Melbourne on 31 December, follow their Prince’s Highway through Sydney, and end on 16 March in Brisbane. All the details of the route and other pertinent information can be found here on  thewalkingaggie.com. 

As was the case on my walks across America in 2015 and Europe in 2019, this hike will be unassisted.  I’m planning to post a journal entry every night as well as pictures and YouTube videos along the way. My posts will also be coupled to Facebook and Twitter. Finally, I will be wearing a GPS tracker so you can check my position, updated every 5 minutes, by clicking on the link “Where is John” also here on thewalkingaggie.com. 

So please start watching for posts on 31 December from Melbourne, Australia.  Until then, I hope you all have a Happy Holiday season!!!

On Wednesday, 4 Sept 2019, I walked into the Central Train Station in downtown Oslo, Norway, bringing to a conclusion my walk across Europe.  The trek transited seven countries in 151 days, beginning in Athens, Greece on 7 January 2019.  The walk was all I had hoped it would be, and so much more.  In this Epilogue, I will provide some data about the trip and also a few thoughts on some of the observations I made while backpacking thorough the amazingly beautiful, but diverse, European countries of Greece, Italy, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.  

First, a few statistics.  The 2314 mile (3724 kilometer) walk took 151 days, divided into two parts.  Part 1 began on Monday, 7 January, in Athens, Greece, and ended on 12 March in Verona, Italy.  During this 65 day period, Dave Alcorn and I walked 18 days across the Peloponnesian Peninsula and the mainland of Greece, ferried across the Adriatic Sea to the southern coast of Italy, and then walked 47 days through the heart of Italy.  We saw the beautiful shorelines of the Greek Isles, the Adriatic Coast of Italy, as well as Rome and Florence.  At the end of Part 1, we flew back to the U.S. for a 90 day break while observing the European Union’s restrictions on extended travel in Europe.  

On 11 June, I flew back to Verona and continued the walk, spending the next 10 days completing the Italian portion of the walk, including transiting Brenner Pass in the Italian Alps.  After Italy, it took only 5 days to walk across a very narrow stretch of Austria, including the beautiful city of Innsbruck. After Austria, I began a 46 day stretch through the heart of Germany, transiting the cities of Munich, Nuremberg, Hanover, Hamburg, and my favorite, Lubeck, located on the Baltic Sea.  But the highlight of Germany was definitely the many small Bavarian towns and villages I stayed in or walked through.  

After Germany, I took a short ferry boat ride to Denmark where I began my trek through the first of three Scandinavian countries.  Denmark’s capital city, Copenhagen, was one of the highlights of the entire trip with its Baltic coastline and beautiful canals.  After a week in Denmark, it was on to Sweden, where I spent a little over two weeks walking along its North Sea coast and through the city of Gothenburg.  The walk ended in Oslo after walking five days in Norway.  

In all, the walk took me to seven countries, totaling 151 days, with 13 of those being days off to rest.  I stayed in 143 different hotels and ate out 453 times.  I averaged 16.9 miles per day on the days I walked, with the longest day being a 27 mile day in Germany.  I went through four pairs of shoes, and went to the doctor one time with an infected blister on my foot.  There were two places where I did not actually walk; both in Greece.  First, Dave and I took a ride in the back of a pickup truck for about a quarter of a mile to get past some aggressive dogs blocking our route on a remote road.  Second, we were unable to get past a girl collecting tolls at a tunnel that prohibited pedestrians.  We stood at the toll booth until two nice men gave us a ride in their car for three miles through the tunnel.  Other than that, plus the three ferry rides that transited waterways with no bridges, I walked all 2314 miles.  

Now for some thoughts and observations I made during my five months in Europe.  Please understand these comments are not based on any scientific data; they’re just my interpretation of what I observed and experiences as I crept my way through the seven countries I visited.  

First, Europeans are not addicted to their cell phones.  They don’t use them in public places like Americans do, and I can count on my fingers the number of times I saw someone looking at or talking on their cell phone while driving.  And that is based on me making eye contact with literally tens of thousands of cars and their drivers as I walked along Europe’s highways. 

Second, as I mentioned earlier in one of my journal postings, it was my general observation that most people in Europe do not attend church.  Most small towns have one church, usually in the middle of town.  Larger cities have several churches.  However, I walked through many towns during times when you would expect to see people at these churches and rarely did I see anyone there.  And I can’t remember seeing any churches in the suburbs; something you would call your local church.  

People in Europe, especially Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, are very disciplined about following rules and regulations.  Rarely did I see anyone jaywalking, running red lights, cutting ahead of people in line, drivers cutting off other drivers in traffic, not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks, etc..  

Most people in Europe do not initiate conversation with strangers.  Rarely would someone greet me on the street by saying “Good Morning”, “Hello,” etc..  Only if I spoke first would they return a greeting.  However, if I initiated the greeting or conversation, people were very warm and cordial.  

People in Europe, especially the Scandinavian countries, almost exclusively use plastic (credit card/debit card) vs. cash.  In Denmark, I could not find a single place to exchange currency.  Not even their banks have actual currency on hand.  The same held true for Sweden.  The only sources for actual money were a few money exchanges like Western Union or an ATM machine.  By the time I got to Norway, I didn’t even bother getting any of their currency.  I just used my plastic like everyone else.  

Southern Europe is very affordable; northern Europe is very expensive.  Beginning in Greece, hotels, restaurants, and anything else a tourist would want was inexpensive.  As I worked my way north, things got more expensive.  A $120 hotel room in the U.S. would cost $50 in Greece and $200+ in Norway.  

Food was plentiful and very good everywhere I went.  There were regional specialties in every country, but the one consistency in all seven countries I visited was Italian food.  There is an Italian restaurant or pizzeria in every town, big and small, in Europe.  And generally speaking, every country’s  local beer is cheaper to drink than soda, and in many cases, cheaper than water.  

There is absolutely no fear of random violence in the European countries I visited.  I discussed this issue with several people I met, including police officers, and they attribute this to the fact that there is no public gun ownership in most European countries.  It’s a cultural thing, and they just shake their heads in disbelief at the number of random shootings we have in America.  Their greatest fear is of being attacked by terrorist; not an attack from their own fellow citizens. 

People in Europe, especially northern Europe, ride their bicycles, walk, or use public transportation to get from point A to B.  For example, there are more bicycles in Denmark than automobiles.  And the public transportation systems, both busses and trains, are cheap, reliable, and on time.  I rode a bus 15 miles from one town to another in Sweden and we passed 17 bus stops, scattered all along the rural highway we were on, between the two cities.  This makes it possible for even those living in rural areas to use public transportation, and they do. 

Language is not a barrier in Europe.  Most people in the countries I visited spoke some English.  In northern Europe, almost everyone, regardless of age, spoke English as a second language.  For example, in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, students take four years of English beginning in first grade.  

Finally, I was surprised to find that all the countries I walked through, with the exception of Greece, are extremely agricultural.  Cash crops like wheat and corn are everywhere in Europe.  

In closing, I want to emphasize how cordial the people were in all seven countries I visited.  I never had an experience where I felt being an American in a foreign country was creating a barrier.  To the contrary, when I told someone I was from Texas, I always was greeted with the stereotypical conversation about cowboys, horses, and hot weather.  

So that puts a wrap on this 5 month long adventure in Europe.  I can honestly say it was every bit as rewarding as my walk across America in 2015.  I would highly recommend that any of you who have never been to any of the seven countries I visited to please go and visit.  You will be as highly enriched by the cultural experience as I was.  JB