I've created this page because I want to make a difference.
I am doing a personal challenge of walking 1000kms of the Bibbulman Track to raise funds for vital research into a cure for people with cancer!
My niece, Gill, is having her own journey through chemotherapy and I hope my big walk will help to raise money to help her and others to look forward to a bright future.
The more people that know about Cure Cancer, the greater their impact, so please also spread the word by sharing my page with your friends and family.
Thank you from my family and especially from the bottom of my heart .
My Updates
A rare ground parrot and the final push to Albany
Wednesday 25th Sep The final journey of 80 kms featured a wee wet section out of Denmark then undulating heathlands with cliff views of surfing dolphins and whale 🐳 bliows. Rattle beak orchids poked through hibbertias and an unexpected yellow blur was a huge display of rabbits ears on a granite slab. Legless🦎 and stumpy tails caused initial anxiety but the 🐍 were dozey and generally slithered off the track . Still gentle ☔️ on shelter roofs overnight, then Albany woolly bushes mimicked a pine forest when… a very special rare western ground 🦜 fluttered out with a few tootling chirrups. Cute tame quendas licked and dug all around our picnic table . A sad sight, after watching splashing on the horizon, was a washed up humpback majestic in bulk on the beach … makes you just marvel at these behemoths . Western spine bills and new Holland honeyeaters joined in a magnificent dawn chorus for our last 24 kms leading us through curious coupling of wind farms juxtaposed with native bush and the geographically tumbling town of Albany with the trail southern head. A fellow Bibbulmun fellow walker was surprised by a sign “You did it grandpa” his answer something along the lines of “duck yeh” !! 🤣 Our 1000 km venture 🦶🦶filled us all with emotional moments today ( I felt I was walking with my mum and dad in spirit and felt their pride ). It’s bitter sweet to realise that tomorrow could be a day where walking is discretionary but maybe I won’t be able to stop 🦶🦶! Feel I need a few more days🏕️ in a tent before I can transition to indoor living again but a 🛁 would be welcome! Now is the time to replenish protein and eat as many veges and fruits as possible 🥗 and reflect on an amazing journey taken with my beautiful niece Gillian who is now cancer free .Whats next ? … Well …in a moment of madness I have signed up to be a model in local opshop show👗 !!
Water crossings by canoe and sandbar !
Friday 20th Sep The 7 kms of wonderful bush and orchids passes in a blur as the excitement of the essential crossing of Parry Inlet loomed . Our main focus was on the logistics of having on each side 3 kayaks🛶 paddles and 🛟 with a bit of to-ing and fro- ing! Soon after this a strange landscape of threatened heaths and rounded hills called the show grounds and guarded by big roos 🦘A roller coaster of sandyness led to Quarram Beach, another spectacular 🏖️ with at its far end a tiger 🐍 busy ingesting a king skink 🦎 - we watched it till the last limb disappeared 😬! The final kms through bush fire impacted dunes then the pleasure of the calm waters of Boat Harbour for a real swim in beautiful calm waters 🏊 Share
There’s the North Pole, the South Pole and Walpole !
Friday 20th Sep Leaving Walpole with its amazing community garden, mainly looked after by guys from the prison farm, the beautiful tannin inlet started the trail to the aroma of fresh 🐟 at Peaceful Bay . A remnant of the breakup of Gondwana, amazing to think these giant tingle trees grow nowhere else in the world and saw dinosaurs 🦕 pass through ! The journey through this amazing forest was made even more spectacular by a rustic lunch with friends, Patrick and Janet from Angair Anglesea at the giant tingle 🌳 (named from the indigenous name for the tree) ! There was also the tall timbers ☕️ van temptation! The unspoilt tannin rich Frankland River had fatty acid foam blobs, looking like small icebergs exotic mesmerising flows . The coast became ever more traversing Nut Block, the home of red flowering gum( ficifolia), then the blustery 🐳 watching confused with too many white horses 🐎 before the calf busting climb up Conspicuous Cliff🦶🧦 !! The bluster continued at very windy Rame Head with an initial starry spectacular and full moon 🌙 but no chance for an Aurora as the leaden clouds sailed in . Mosquito madness in the night sent quite a few scrambling to erect 🏕️ and heard tales of the PCT from a couple from Alaska . Heading towards Cape Howe, the wonderful sunshine ⛱️tempted most of us into the waters of Peaceful Bay and there was night spotting at the rock pools where our young companions found a blue ringed octopus🐙 and nudibranch! Amazing 🤩 Share
Welly boots needed for Walpole
Thursday 12th Sep The Pingerup Plains delivered the seasonal inundation promised … and revealed to be recurrent long cold puddles of 150 metres up above knee level but fallen from previous waist level … yuk but surprisingly liberating once the water outed over the tops of your boots!!😬A rather wobbly wooden bridge, smashed by a fallen tree, added a frisson of excitement to crossing the Gardner River . There was pleasure of gentle sunshine releasing the scent of masses of pea flowers , stands of spooky Warren River Cedar 🌴 and just stopping for a moment to hear the 🐸 and water soak into this soil of a biosphere internationally recognised for its diversity .Ancient granite tors 🪨, high points to see 360 degrees of this wild remote landscape, were great spots for 🧘♀️ in the misty sunrise with the boom of the surf in the distance. Before the sand dunes 🏖️ were blue beard orchids, a scented brown boronia and a single tall leek orchid then the Southern Ocean promised sucking sand , humpbacks 🐳 splashing around Chatham Island and some hungry 🦟 ! Hooded plovers and splendid fairy wrens rushed around at ground level and kestrels and peregrines ruled the open sky . Then the twisting entwined branches of jarrah, marri and tingle trees intermingled at the sunny summit ⛰️ of Mt Clare before a charge downhill next day to Walpole for a rest day in this happy, tidy little town . Share
South to Northcliffe !
Thursday 12th Sep Lucky Fathers Day blues with Lightning Jack of the natty akubra 👒 and red tailed cocky feather 🪶 hat : a cool dude on guitar, then dinner at the Pemberton Pub set us up well after the rollercoaster ride on the way there. 61 metre fire lookout Gloucester tree closed for repairs luckily … looks spooky ! Our lolly man Dave sadly had severe pack failure so last day of just being together on a bridge over the Warren River - poignant but pretty good ! Schafer Hut a delight of swimmable 🏊 dam, a chocolate feast round the fire then walked out to Northcliffe through chorizema pea flowers to find that the cafe was closed and pub only opening at 3.30 pm on a 🥶 day! However the former forestry town was alive with wildflower painted bins , community ☕️ machine and a wonderful co- op with blood 🍊 and mandarins for sale …. heaven ! So many of the track towns are especially friendly and look after the needs of trackers so well. Weather forecast ⛈️ and then the hailstones started so had another community ☕️ and listened to the racket on the roof before gingerly venturing out into the potentially flooded area recently closed and now reopened . Wellies on 👢!! 😬 Share
Past the birthplace of Bunnings halfway there deep in the Karri forest
Sunday 1st Sep The medieval 🏰 fest of Balingup was difficult to leave but the Donnelly River rollercoaster 🎢 and the halfway post beckoned! Walking for hours trying to ignore that little nerve in my 🦶 … beckobs thoughts of the people who followed the Dreamtime serpent and their management of this land through the seasons . This track started as a 1970s vision of an epic 🚶♀️ based on the Appalachian Trail. Bubbulman corporate sponsors, along with. a mutually helpful prison farm program has taught skills and instilled pride in this track , and volunteers come from from cricket clubs to schools … then there are the dunny 🚽 donors …. ! Recent flooding, logging and projected fire management all mean diversions, and parks and wildlife are essential - an engaging young ranger enthused us with her love of the Karri trees 🌳 and her plans to become an international firey 🚒 The next section leaves the laterite soils and sweeps us into the swamps ( mud) then sticky sand🏖️ dunes beckon ! Days become sleep dusk till dawn - may be 10 hours in a sleeping bag listening to ☔️ , owls🦉 , babbling brooks, crashing branches and the 💨, eat Deb potato🥔 and cupasoup, trudge up to 9 hours while the dehydrated food fosters wild dreams and trippy thought processes! Limericks are flowing free and fast and there is definitely essential help for each other in small ways … a coffee sweetie or a shared sheepskin pad for a shoe, a ☕️ ready for the last walker to trail in and a lovely Italian who was magic in teasing a soggy campfire into life . Helmet orchid and intestinal jelly fungus finds shared, helping each other over the huge fallen trees ( very shallow rooted yikes! ) and even offering to lighten my pack when my foot🦶 felt like a brick rather than a functional part of my anatomy …special . We are intimate in our living together but so natural, and 🫂 become spontaneous just because… ❤️ and Gill is there too! 😊 Share
Up and up and that’s just the name of the towns !
Friday 23rd Aug From Yabberiuo to Nannwrup and now Balungup, endless jarrah 🌴 with more orchids now blooming and snottygobbles leafy but no snot ! Ant attack everywhere felling big trees . Mumby pub failed to deliver 🍺 as closed but we all decided a big climb after a burger and beer would have been hard! An enthusiastic young group of SES cadets kept us entertained round soggy 🔥 and all feet seem to toughening up. Balingup is in the eye of a storm ☔️ tonight and the medieval feast ⚔️ is on … 12000 folks are coming but the walkers are leaving the feasting and fighting behind, and through tomorrow uphill to Donnelly River Village. Awaiting news of floods south of Pemberton which may mean a detour to Walpole by 🚍 ! Have to wait and see how nature treats us End to Enders on the track . Feeling fitter 🦶every day and lovin the outdoor life in resonance with the stars and wind . Ever onward for Gill! Share
Balingup or bust after 320 kms …😬
Monday 19th Aug Can’t believe 1/3 of the kms are done! Last few days through blackened forest with regrowth, along sandy swamps with ever changing floral blooms and more jug orchids. A wee echidna scratched around then showed his quilt structure when going to ground. Flocks of red tailed cockies still follow us south and there have been rainy days where senses become cocooned and scents of boronia and grass tree resin become more vivid . Flooding at Pemberton could signal some bog 🤿 …but first the medieval ⚔️ festival at Balingup to negotiate in 4 days ! Dark chocolate 🍫 maltesers are the secret sauce to make the dehydrated food slip down . Today a rest day in the murally festooned coal town of Collie is a chance for an SSB Semillon Sauvignon !! The family of trekkers 🏃♀️swelled with some lovely young cyclists 🚴♀️ on the Munda Biddi trail crossing and even an alumina 🚂 and conveyor to walk under . My body is groaning less but sprouted my first 🦶 blister to my horror - quickly squashed and back on track! See you at Donnelly River Village at the half way mark and thanks again for everyone’s kindness ! Share
200 kms done only 800 to go !
Tuesday 13th Aug After 8 days I have feral hip flexors, grumbling gluts, a trembling trapezius and a tiny wee troublesome nerve in my foot 😬squished while photographing orchids! But the vanilla scent of hakeas 🌼as the wildflower bloom pushes south mingles with my own newly discovered personal scent as the End to Enders trundle southwards .200 kms from Kalamunda to Dwellingup . Sprinkling daytime rain after torrential showers overnight have me rethink my rain coat! Across granite tors⛰️through butter gums 🌳to watch purple splendid wrens flit through the wattle, before a rest day came with a halloumi 🍔 as big as my head! Pobblebonk frogs and boobooks serenade the moon on a night with a forest Aurora, as I struggle to sleep indoors..🦶 clinics have been very popular at every shelter as I seem to have struck it lucky with Scottish 🐑 wool and 👶 powder ! So many people have been kind to donate to Cure Cancer ( keeps predicting to cute cancer!😬)
Dawn of the big day !
Sunday 4th Aug Today with a wee weight on my shoulders but a song in my heart and the scent of wildflowers enticing … think I am dreaming …! Maybe more sore tootsies , shoulder pads not working and a desire to eat all my food today but I will still be singing for Gill! Only another 980 ks after today !! 😊😊😬🏃♀️💪😊 Share
Tomorrow is the big day !
Saturday 3rd Aug Somehow the backpack had expanded to embrace my needs for the next 8 days , my sheepskin shoulder pads are ready and my tootsies will be wrapped in Scottish sheep’s wool to scare away blisters ! Can’t wait to start my 1000 kms of the Bibbulmun track and see the wildflowers of the Grsnite Belt . Wish me luck 😊😬😊 Share
Walk 1000 kms with me !
Sunday 28th Jul In one week I will be setting off on a huge adventure and at the same time hope to raise funds for everyone with cancer, but especially to help my beautiful neice who is on her own difficult journey through treatment . If you can help my family and others , I send you my heart felt thanks . 🙏 ❤️🏃♀️😊 ShareThank you to my Sponsors
$520
Howard Whelan
$520
Sally Miller
What an effort ! You are amazing. Only 2 days to go . Well done Leslie
$520
Jelena Popovic
You are both inspirational. We are thinking of you both walking through inclement weather while we explore your beautiful country of birth. Much love, Jelena and Tony
$369.25
Keith Mclean
$263.75
Jelena Popovic
An inspirational effort! Courageous, resilient, fit, AMAZING. Our warmest congratulations Jelena and Tony
$263.75
David Smith
Great news for your Niece being cured. Power of the mind is wonderful.
$200
Sincro Pty Ltd
It's been a pleasure walking with you both.
$200
Alan Mclean
Great cause guys and an awesome walk! Go well!
$108
Ferg
Good luck! Ferg x
$105.50
Helen Robertson
Good luck Lesley you can do it.
$105.50
Anne & Emilio
Well done Lesley & Keith! What an adventure!! Anne & Emilio xx
$105.50
Danielle Mcnicol
What a sterling job you are doing - the walk looks magnificent, enjoy every moment. Danielle xx
$105.50
Rob Howden
Go Girl
$105.50
Barb And Roger
Great cause Can’t wait to hear all about it
$105.50
Helen And Sue
That is one big walk - massive respect for the walk and the fund raising - now to find my T-Shirt
$105.50
Graeme Miller
$105.50
Desiree
Well done for finishing the 1000km walk. Eric and I would like to support your niece Gill (now cancer free, fantastic) and everyone else who is fighting cancer. Once again, a great achievement!
$105.50
Margaret & Alan
Hi Lesley & Keith Love following your journey it sounds like a wonderful experience for you both. Looking forward to more updates. Stay safe 🥾🥾
$105.50
Jo Murray & Sue Guinness
Great effort Lesley & Keith Best regards Jo & Sue xx
$105.50
Willie Munro
Enjoy the challenge!
$105.50
Paul Wright
$105.50
Lesley Cadzow
$105.50
Keir Bovis
$105.50
Margaret Macdonald
Hope you have a wonderful walk Lesley. Enjoy every minute. Looking forward to some Facebook entries on the way. Best wishes to you and Keith. Love Marg
$105.50
Kate Long
Good onya Lesley
$105.50
Rob & Ursula Shepherd
Great walking Lesley & Keith! We are looking forward to hearing all your adventures.
$105.50
Christine Cadzow
You are amazing. Thank you for doing so much to help our beautiful niece. Love Christine and David xxx
$105.50
Alison Sutherland
Those legs were made for walking....Have a great, safe trip! Love A&Ax
$105.50
Sue Leavesley
Go for it Lesley, enjoy the serenity!!
$100
Martha & Lorna Macintyre
Well done lassie !! HUGE achievement.. you're both amazing. Love The Macintyre Family ❤️
$100
Alex Guthrie
Good luck to both of you. Great achievement so far. Keep up the fantastic effort. Alex x
$100
Peter
Well done Lesley! Good luck!
$100
The Friends Of Eastern Otways
Great work Lesley and Keith. We can't wait to see all the flower photos.
$63.30
Liz And Helen
Wow, congratulations Leslie (& Keith). Great effort for a great cause. Good luck and congrats.
$55.92
Sheridan Mayo
Good luck with the hike.
$52.75
George Demmler
$52.75
Johnston
Gaun' yersel Lesley!
$52.75
Dani Hogan
It was lovely to meet you and Keith on the track! Thank you for daily debriefs and assiatance to gave me! Good luck for the rest of the track! You got this!
$52.75
Alison Watson
Fantastic effort Lesley and Keith. Such an inspiration. Keep walking and enjoying!
$52.75
Lizzie , Dawn & Jim
Keep going Lesley!!!
$52.75
Helen Gibbins
May your feral hip flexors, grumbling gluts and trembling trapezius take you both proudly through the next 800kms! Looking forward to more poetics of walking updates :^)
$52.75
Sue Finucane
Go Lesley!!
$52.75
Lynn Wallace Clancy
$52.75
Kim Bazell
Good luck Lesley, hope you keep enjoying your epic journey.
$52.75
Nick Roe
Great meeting you Lesley and sharing a few days walking the track together, best of luck for your last week and raising money for a very worthwhile cause.
$52.75
Wendy & Chris Driver
Have a wonderful walk. Hope the blisters are few and the scenery magnificent. Xx
$52.75
Val Henderson
Good luck
$52.75
Kate Lyons-dawson
Go grl!! You are so awesome!!
$52.75
Mandy
Had no idea you were raising money. So a small contribution.
$52.75
Neil Duncan
$52.75
Patrick Flanagan
$52.75
Gail Slykhuis
Love to Gill and far too many others out there. Great job Lesley and Keith , keep those legs moving.
$52.75
Deb Churchward
Great work, Lesley and Keith!
$52.75
Gavin Downie
On the home stretch. Keep going keith and Lesley
$52.75
The Russ Family
Well done both!
$52.75
Anonymous
$52.75
Davy
There yi go.
$52.75
Anonymous
$52.75
Marg From Angair Weeding Thank You So Much 😊
$52.75
Bernie
A bracelet repaired in exchange for a donation thank you Bernie
$52.75
Angie Borthwick
I have great admiration for you and Keith, walking a 1000km is no mean feat. Wishing you both well 🏴
$52.75
Emma Mitchell
keep walking might see you there
$52.75
Tony Revell
Go Lesley. Be sure to sing some our Choir songs along the way!
$52.75
Kayelene Traynor
Good luck on your long walk. Fantastic effort
$50
Janice
Amazing effort Les. So pleased there is good news for Gill
$50
Lorna Macintyre
GO Girl ..Blisters & All xx
$50
Ros And Trevor Shipp
Amazing effort Lesley and Keith. A cause close to my heart.
$46.42
Anonymous
$26.38
Mary Morag Donnan
Go on there hen !
$26.38
Oliver Blatchford
$26.38
Rio
HI, Lesley and Kim. It was very nice to meet you at Ball creek. Enjoy and safe trip to Albany!
$26.38
Inara Taube
$26.38
Margaret Smith
Good luck on the walk and thanks for being wonderful .
$26.38
Serena Howard
$26.38
Kate Bulling
$26.38
Harry Unger
Great effort...continue safely
$26.38
Heather Giles
$26.38
Elizabeth Mcgowan
Hope you’ve enjoyed the adventure! Fabulous cause, well done
$26.38
Graeme
I know you’ll finish this challenge and your strength will help Gilly. Go for it Lesley. X
$26.38
Colleen Miller
Have loved watching your trip. An inspiring effort.
$26.38
Nick Lauer
Thank you for saving my feet
$26.38
Kate Umberd
Legend Lesley…all the best for the trek
$26.38
Deborah Elliott
Goody Lesley and Keith. Such a great cause
$15.82
Robert Cadzow
$10.55
Margaret Travis & Carl Travis
All the best for the big walk and fundraising,
Im so proud of you.😘