Preparation

Once again, John was keen to join us so we booked our trip for April, 2012. We would have prefered to go later in the year, in spring, to see the wildflowers, but unfortunately due to other committments, we could not delay that long. Deb and I started training late 2011, but we struggled to make the time to really get into it. Then we had a number of interruptions in 2012. The weather was not too good initially, then I caught a bad flu which kept me recuperating for 3 weeks. I followed this by badly rolling my ankle on a training walk just 5 weeks from our departure! There were some very anxious moments as I carefully planned my recovery with my physio. With plenty of complete rest and sturdy strapping, I was ready for the walk, keen, but absolutely not walk fit. Luckily Deb was able to keep training and she started the walk with good walk fitness. She had done a lot of great work on stabilising her knees, which had caused her some difficulties on the GOW, and was raring to go. Sadly, John,  fell ill 4 weeks from our departure, suffering a heart attack. He recovered well, but his walk was over. He was devastated, as were Deb and I. Walking without him would just not be the same. However, John convinced us that we had to still complete the walk, so on the 21st April, Deb and I headed off to Perth.