This time on Backroads.
We're hiking Victoria's spectacular
great South West Walk.
A hidden gem
tucked away near the South Australian border.
The 250 kilometer trail
loops its way from the town of Portland
to the fishing village of Nelson and back again.
It is our little secret.
We've been so lucky to have
this little special part of the world to ourselves.
They call it Nature's Symphony in the form of
crashing from dramatic high notes
to a gentle marching rhythm.
This beautiful. And it's wild.
And you're breathing in the earth from the sea.
And you can taste it and feel it.
It's a chance to explore nature,
to find solitude and harmony,
and to steal Old Darrel Kerrigan's quote, you know, has the serenity.
For some,
it's a deeply personal quest.
I've joined up with three mates from Melbourne,
heading into the fishing village of Nelson.
So how did you guys meet?
Well, we're all school teachers and we all worked in the same place
and school in south eastern Melbourne back in 2012.
Friends Luke Mills, Michael Dillon and Stephen Murphy
were captivated by a movie about the Camino de Santiago in Spain
and dreamed of doing the 35 day pilgrimage
that honors the way of St James.
We had kids at school at the time
and we thought, Well, this is never going to happen.
We're never going to get to never get to Spain
to, you know, any time soon. So
we came up with this idea of
honoring our own saints, which because Mary MacKillop.
Mary MacKillop, we've only got one. Yeah.
And we've in the 19th century
Australian nun Mary MacKillop and her religious order
pioneered rural schools for the poor
and looked after the disadvantaged.
Oh, it's so nice to take the pack off.
Mary MacKillop was declared a saint
by the Catholic Church in 2010.
Her early journey as far as her teaching life
and her public life sort of thing was in the western districts
of Victoria, which was in Portland and then her first school
that she ran on her own was in Penola.
So we thought, Well, let's just do something that connects
those two places from Portland in Victoria to a panel
in South Australia about the route Luke came up with follows
the Great South West walk along the coast to Nelson,
then branches out across the border to Penola.
So what was the trigger
in your life that led you to this?
Well, for years earlier my wife had passed away and after a short
battle with
leukemia and I was obviously very, very upset at the time.
And I had three kids that needed looking after.
There were a lot of lonely nights there, and
the kids would just come to me and say, Dad, I miss Mom.
And yeah, and all I could say is, Yeah,
and I do too.
And then we had this church discussion
about the community, and for the first time
I really thought, Oh, this is something I could do.
It gave me a great sense of confidence and purpose.
Luke set up a meeting with people who'd shown interest
in doing the 160 kilometer walk.
Luke had mapped out this itinerary already, so to speak,
and there was a couple of 35
and 40 K days on it and the looks on people's faces.
Anyway, the meeting ended and I went up to Luke and Steve
and I said, Fellas, I'll say there'll be no more than three.
And it was about 20.
There was about 20 at the meeting.
The three friends set out on the inaugural Mary
MacKillop pilgrimage in 2014.
So what happened then after you did the first one?
I got the bug
and then I went and
did the Camino de Santiago
Kokoda with a mate,
went to kill him in Giro find that
I went to Everest base camp, went over the Himalayan mountains.
It all started here.
And you know, at that,
at that stage of my life, I just come off an ugly divorce.
And things were tough.
And I had made a mess of myself.
And I've been drinking too much.
I wasn't the best version of myself.
You know, I think it's I think it's amazing.
So I was good. Ryan, check for me.
It's made me a better person for sure.
Made me rethink
about how I conduct myself, what sort of person I want to be.
You know,
I don't want to be remembered as being the grumpy old man.
Well, they said, this is where we leave you
after having to drag his two friends along in the beginning.
Luke has now led more than 200 pilgrims, one Camino,
along what's become known as the Aussie Camino.