“It is much better to light a match than to curse the darkness” Eleanor Roosevelt (thanks mum)

“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of imagination.” Keats

Wonderful, wonderful words… and the words of support from all of you have kept us going, kept us smiling and often bought a small tear to our eyes. You have all played a special role in this journey and we thank you for that.

Tonight we are sitting under the stars in a beautiful place called Nepean Dam. It is just us and us alone… except for Woofy but more on him later in tomorrow’s blog. We have to thank the great people at the Sydney Catchment Authority who have allowed us to stay here for two nights, a slice of heaven that is closed to the public after five. We are taking the opportunity to reflect and enjoying this tremendous experience.

We have eaten like kings tonight (Sweet Chilli beef) thanks to Ja’mie and Rob Turner-Jensen from Chiro for Kids at Concord has worked wonders on us. We are having warm showers, as the sweet aroma of freshly brewed coffee from the trusty Krups machine is made by chief barista Ja’mie.

Ah... life is hard for elite athletes :)

Yesterday was a massive high. "We lit a match", we smashed 40ks – almost a marathon. We could not believe what we can achieve – "with heart affections and imagination". But with every high must come a low. While today was an amazing day for the profile of the YC walk and to connect and spend time with the NRL, who have been a truly amazing supporter since day one. But as far as walking goes – it felt at times like we were ice skating up hill.

We started late.

Ja’mie let us sleep in until 7.29.

We rose at 7.30 and were met by bacon and eggs.

Our sign writing guru Paul Calvert from Admark arrived to re-do our new KEA camper. We served him coffee, feed him breaky and let him work his sign magic. Oh the KEA looks so good again!

We then cleaned up and prepared to meet with NRL CEO David Gallop, former test footballer and all round funny guy Jason Stevens and the team from One Community, Caroline, Julia, Erica and Andy.

The NRL and the One Community team have been with us from day one and helped organised so much – the walk into the game, our relationship with Toyota, the Footy show, introducing us to the Eels community relations team and walking with us today.

The SS Stevens aka The Pirate ship (big cannons on either side - and loves them) set sail.

We jumped on the Hume, just after Bargo and punched out quick 4ks. It was great to spend some time with the NRL team and talk about the NRL’s great support of Youngcare. The two David’s (Gallop & Sexton) had a great yarn talking about the NRL, life as a CEO, One Community, families and the personal side of why the walk was born in the first place.  On the road we all talked a lot and Jason left a special message for someone special… unfortunately it wasn't for Shannon.

Of course there was a “that’s gold” moment.

We then came back to camp, gave Jason Steven’s a box of Musashi protein bars to help him with his canons and sent them on there way.

We then went back to yesterday’s marker and continued our march towards Sydney. Mark Tamhane, Executive Producer of ABC Newsradio chased us up and down the highway looking for us and finally caught up with the walking wounded. He brought with him Snakes, which Rod devoured, and many other glucose filled treats. Mark has been a great support of ours and has helped tremendously with media. Thanks mate!

My (Andy here) Uncle and Aunty, Mike and Janice (Kerri’s parents) travelled down today to meet up with us. They too spent half the morning travelling up and down Picton Road looking for us – pity we were on the Hume Highway. Jeff Cameron took great pleasure in explaining where we were. It was great to walk and talk with Uncle Mike and chat about what we have and are trying to achieve. He made it look easy as the rest of us started to struggle. Aunty Janice was our saviour as she stopped her Flower Power shopping and grabbed lunch.

Serendipitous moment no.7…

Jeff, our designated driver, heard an opportunity for us to call in to the James Valentine program in ABC 702. They were asking the question “in a sport or a game what would you make better to make it easier for you to win i.e. the new self swimming swimsuits, a tennis racket with a full sweet spot, a non-slice or hook golf club.” We rang in and were put to air asking for self walking shoes. James was great and we spent 30 secs talking about the shoes and 10 minutes talking about the walk. He gave us full marks for hijacking his show for our own cause. He wished us the best and was impressed with our efforts. Minutes later a lady called into ABC and said she had just passed us and we looked fit (she was driving from a distance) and gave us a toot. James then called for all ABC listeners to toot twice as they see us…

Seconds later…

The whole Hume Highway started to blare with double toots. We were again amazed by the power of radio. The hoots and toots continued all afternoon. We reckon we broke the record tonight and got more than 150 blasts. James will have us on-air now for the next couple of afternoons.

Soon after our lunch stop, Troy’s parents and sister joined us for a couple of km’s of walking. Keith and Justine took on the challenge while Troy’s mum Jan gave a donation and picked up the duo a little while longer up the road, leaving us to finish the day’s trek.

Finally we reached the outskirts Sydney... we were too tired to celebrate but never to tired to pose...

Our media star David “sexman" Sexton nailed another interview with the local Campbelltown radio station and will be on Power FM tomorrow. 

And tomorrow is a big day. Jason Morrison of 2GB fame joins us from the start, Liz Ellis will be with us from around 10.30 (she is flying up from Melbourne just to be with us) and Karl Stefanovic may make an appearance. In the afternoon we catch up with Pat Farmer, the Nova 96.9 Cassanova team and NRL referee Ben Cummins. We may also be making our debut on the Footy Show.

The stars are shining bright tonight… the wind has died down… we are excited about the days ahead and the last kilometers of our journey…

We started with powerful words and thought I would end today’s blog with some more…

The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town

You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere

You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace

It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
Don't need it now
Was a beautiful day

Ps It was a Beautiful day for Troy’s wife Sonya – Happy Birthday from all the YC walk team.

And congrats to the sexman and the sexman’s missus – happy wedding anniversary for tomorrow… oopps I mean today.