After walking 3950 kilometres, being stalked by a dingo on the Nullabor Plain and wearing out three pairs of shoes, the finish line for Veronica Hegarty is near.
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Mrs Hegarty, a retired trapeze artist, is walking to Bondi Beach from the North Beach in Perth to support Cambodia’s Free the Bears campaign.
She said bears are kept in captivity to harvest stomach bile for traditional medicine and their paws cut off to make a local delicacy, bear paw soup.
Each day she covers up to 30 to 35 kilometres a day, or roughly, five km an hour.
“The traffic is slowing down our progress the closer I get to Sydney,” Mrs Hegarty said.
“I could have canoed through Dubbo with the amount of water there.
“We’ve had rain and green (country) since Perth in April, we’ve been lucky to see it,” Mrs Hegarty said.
With each kilometre she covers, Mrs Hegarty is followed by her husband John Hegarty who’s been driving the caravan.
“I asked if she could train beforehand but she said she’s been in training for 72 years,” Mr Hegarty said.
With no deadline to make, just a walk to finish, Mrs Hegarty said they had met some wonderful people along the way.
“The history we’ve heard from people along the way is incredible,” she said.
With less than 300 kilometres to go from Orange, Mrs Hegarty said her thoughts often turned to the pioneers and people who explored Australia such as Hume and Hovell and Burke and Wills.
“I’m doing it in luxury,” she said.
You can donate to Mrs Hegarty’s Walk Across Oz by visiting www.facebook.com/Walk-Across-Oz-1790138717881795