This particular tale should give you the idea that 'anything is possible'. Some of the best challenges undertaken are the completely outlandish, where you have to be a certain type of idiot to A; think of it and then B; follow your dream through to the bitter end.
In 1998, David Parker was young, free and single and able to quite frankly do what he wanted, when he wanted. However, there is a slight twist to the tale. David is a
type one insulin diabetic, which essentially means his blood sugar levels can become dangerously low. This strand of diabetes is predominantly found in younger people and is often as a result of a genetic link. It can be controlled, in David’s case, by two injections per day and keeping track of his diet.
A challenge which is a little out of the ordinary, is made a tad more risky when having to juggle with your own basic energy level. But David's motto is 'Live your dreams, don’t dream your life' - something this tale illustrates
rather well
David walked from Perth to Sydney, which just for the record is 2,612 miles (and don’t you forget the 12), a challenge which took all of 69 days and set a new world record which still stood - or should that be rather delicately leant up against a camper van - when I interviewed him in 2005 for http://www.gapyear.com/Gapyear.com. More on that camper van later by the way.
You’d be forgiven at this point for asking that simple one-word question: why?
The blame can largely be laid at the clay-like feet of one Ffyona Campbell, the first woman to walk round the world and whose book
Feet of Clay told of how she did the Australian leg in 95 days. Inspired by this, and the fact that another bod had done it in 77 days, David and his mate Rod found themselves in Perth with a mission, an awful lot of food and just like
Sooty and Sweep, a camper van to sleep in.
If you're doing a challenge like this with diabetes, a support vehicle and a willing driver or team of drivers is absolutely vital. The way this trip was planned was that Rob would drive on ten miles and wait with the coffee. David would duly turn up two hours later and drink some of it and the cycle would start all over again.
On paper - sorry, screen – it looks relatively simple. That is until you add the snakes that would lazily sun themselves across the road. Australia has the ten most venomous snakes in the world in case you're interested, and then there’s the hazard of the road train that occasionally comes flying past at 60 plus mph. They have a stopping distance of about a mile, so it’s no use waving at them to swerve.
Alright let’s cut to the chase, how does one plan for such an ordeal? The food issue, which is key for someone with diabetes, has already been touched on but the simple answer is to cram as much into your camper van as you can. Imagine you’re walking from London to Moscow only seeing a town once every few days. This is not the time or the place to realize that somebody has forgotten the butter. We’re talking plenty of pasta, rice and the like that will store for days and doesn’t take up much room, alongside the sugar kick foods such as chocolate and cake for the anticipated emergency.
This walk was done during the Australian winter, which is the temperature equivalent of a good day in summer for us Brits, around the mid twenties which gives an idea of the sort of clothing required. David walked his way through three pairs of trainers during the two and a bit months on the road.
Ninety-five per cent of the Australian population lives within three miles of the coast and so walking through the middle is bound to be remote. Given the loneliness of this whole area, the landmarks and highlights are few and far between, however the sunset is something that needs to be seen to be believed and the feeling of freedom is something that you will struggle to find in many other parts of the world. In terms of the limited points of interest, there is one part where the road runs alongside a railway line, straight for 90 miles, something that would have made the Romans proud.
As is often the case with such challenges, this was a charity venture as well and raised ten grand to support
diabetes research, but this was also the sort of life changing experience that most with a disability or illness probably wouldn’t think they’d be able to have. OK so we’re not suggesting you should try it for yourself, but David has certainly proved that anything can be possible if you put your mind to it.
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