On a warm day in May 2004 Liz Byron set off from Cooktown with her two companions, donkeys Grace and Charley, on a self-imposed challenge to walk 2500 kilometres of the Bicentennial National Trail over 9 months. This epic journey was a rite of passage to mark leaving 40 years of marriage and embarking on life as a single woman at the age of 61. She foresaw that self-reliance, physical stamina and route-finding would be challenges but couldn’t have known how the environment in Queensland was to test her to the limit. Years of drought had left much of her route a dusty wasteland, without food or water for her animals. Years of suffering from childhood abuse and a family tragedy had left her unwilling to ask for help. Walking became a meditation, an exercise in being in the moment even when that moment was 43 degrees or she hadn’t eaten for 7 hours. In her moving memoir, Liz reveals how she healed herself step by step on the way to her new home in northern NSW – by learning to trust her intuition, the wisdom of her animals and the kindness of strangers.
CONTENTS
Chapter One DONKEYS Bungendore
Chapter Two SETTING OUT Bungendore to Cooktown
Chapter Three SETTLING IN Cooktown to Wujal Wujal
Chapter Four POWERING ON Wujal Wujal to Julatten
Chapter Five NO MORE FAIRY TALES Julatten to Mount Molloy
Chapter Six NEW HORIZONS Mount Molloy to Mutchilba
Chapter Seven THE WAY THROUGH Mutchilba to Innot Hot Springs
Chapter Eight ARE WE THERE YET? Innot Hot Springs to Uramo Station
Chapter Nine DETOUR Road to Uramo Station
Chapter Ten EXPOSED Uramo to Yammanie Station
Chapter Eleven UNRAVELLING Yammanie Station to Mingela
Chapter Twelve GRACE Mingela to New Hidden Valley Station
Chapter Thirteen MOVING ON New Hidden Valley to Tierawoomba Station
Chapter Fourteen RECONNECTING Tierawoomba Station
Chapter Fifteen THE WANDERER Tierawoomba Station to Gracemere
Chapter Sixteen STRAYS AND ANGELS At Gracemere
Chapter Seventeen HERE I AM Gracemere to Wallaby Station
Chapter Eighteen TIME TO GO HOME Wallaby Station to Mount Perry and Beyond
EPILOGUE
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