Bailey Meyers, who’s walking across Australia to raise funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, passed through Cobar on Wednesday.
Bailey set off from Perth on March 3 with a goal of walking across Australia to raise $20,000 for the Foundation.
To date he’s raised $10,000.
“The Foundation is a not-for-profit charity that goes to about 427 indigenous communities across Australia providing pathways programs for the youth to not only focus on literacy, but to also provide leadership opportunities,” Bailey told The Cobar Weekly.
He said the values of the Foundation aligned with his own values of inspiring confidence through education.
“Literacy’s the basis of education and education’s the basis for opportunity and success in life,” he said.
While Bailey’s done a few 50km and 100km walks in the past, he’s never attempted a walk of this magnitude (almost 4,000km) before.
Initially he didn’t set a time frame as to how long the trip would take, and estimated that it would take him about six months.
“I was just trying to keep up a somewhat steady pace.”
He recently set himself a finish date for August 23 in Newcastle, which means he’ll now need to walk a bit over 22km per day to make the target.
Bailey’s been pushing a cart on the journey which weighs close to 100kg when fully loaded.
It contains pretty much everything required to be self-sufficient including his drinking water, some food, cooking utensils, a tent, sleeping bag, some basic tools, a camp chair, a light and solar panels.
Apart from a couple of scary incidents of motorists swerving at him for a bit of fun, Bailey said the majority of people on his experience have been very generous.
“People are incredibly generous out there, especially if you are going out there benevolent, people want to help you and that’s just such a remarkable thing,” Bailey said.
“I’ve been out here giving it a good go and we’ll see what happens.
“At the end of the day, if I don’t make it, it’s okay,” Bailey said.
Donations can by made to Bailey’s walk via fundraising.ilf.org.au/intrepidaustralia
