Day 243 Jamieson

VIC 19 (243) Sunday 23rd January, 2022

Today was a zero day in Jamieson. However Belinda's mother had notified the ABC program Australia All Over with Macca of my journey and told her to get me to ring in. Bit hard as I needed to be in signal range on a Sunday between 5.30 am and 10 am. I'm also a reluctant speaker so I did let it slide a few times. But today I got up and went down the local phone box and rang in.

I thought there would be some rigmarole to go through but a quick chat to the lady producer and I was on. A note for the unwary is to not ring in just before the news breaks. This limits your time. I had a little more I wanted to say with regards to the trail needing support. I think it needs to develop further to a new age. Bring in the mountain bike people. It's the new thing.

When you see how Thredbo has changed in summer for the mountain bike people you can see the potential. Omeo was building trails to bring them in. A mountain bike trail is much friendlier to horses and humans than some of the tracks that are currently used. The extensive volunteers that work on the Bibbulmun in WA and the Friends of the Heysen Trail in SA all have strategies to boost numbers. I like the end to end groups in South Australia where people join a group and over years complete the Heysen Trail by pooling resources and going out In a group with car pooling and shuffling.

I met a group in Quorn that covered about 100 kilometres of trail in the Flinders but returned each night to the motel. They only carry day packs and get dropped off in a 12 seater bus each day to get picked up the other end. On other sections the people with fewer resources are helped through the multi night process by the others. It means more people who might not be confident on their own can gain experience. Anyway, biggest thing for the National Trail is to get new members. I think families were $80 per year. They had trouble filling all board positions last year. Still a lot of horsey skill there but I'm sure things will change. If you walk/ride parts of the trail register the walk. Insurance is one thing but the Bibbulmun Foundation collects data of people on the trail for funding purposes. I assume this trail is the same.