ON 23 December, Coffs Harbour resident Peter Elzer will begin a 2022km journey on foot from Melbourne to Seventeen Seventy (north of Bundaberg) in an attempt to ‘Stamp Out Racism’.

In preparation for his mammoth task, Peter Elzer took a five-day, 180km trial walk from Coffs over the mountain through Gleniffer, Thora, Dorrigo, Megan, Brooklana, Ulong and Coramba.

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Returning back to Coffs on Monday, 10 October, Peter felt satisfied he’d put his body through a range of challenges and learned a lot about weather, trail and road conditions.

“I walked 43km straight the first day and seeing the effects of that gives me an idea of what I can and can’t do,” Peter told News Of The Area.

“I am also walking with my trailer behind me, so I was working out the safest way to do that.

“Doing these long walks solo you have to think of everything you need and what you can do without to survive.”

With a 26-kilo limit, Peter’s main provision is eight litres of drinking water, his camping gear, clothing, food, first aid supplies, batteries and no cooking equipment.

“The main luxury is a pop-top water bottle filled with cheap port so that after a hard day’s walk and I’m lying in my tent after having a wrap with tuna and beans, feeling pretty sore and tired, I can have a couple of swigs of port and go off to sleep.”

The other luxury which he discovered, now a necessity, is coffee flavoured Up&Go Liquid Breakfast.

“It’s a great way to start the day, especially when it’s a 3am start.

“That, combined with a Berocca and some figs, sets me up for five hours trecking.”

Peter’s walk took him into conservative regions where he said he felt people observed him as a bit of an oddity, arriving in ‘town’ with a raincoat, pulling a trailer and a poncho over the top.

“Especially if I was wearing my ‘Racism NOT Welcome’ t-shirt, I could definitely feel the mood in some of the places and felt shunned.”

Peter’s message is to create awareness around respect to all people, particularly in terms of race, and to respect the Indigenous people’s plans for what lies ahead, particularly referring to the Referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice taking place in 2023/4.

“It’s hard to change attitudes that have been there for 240 years but seeing what the large sports clubs like the NRL have done to promote inclusivity, I have faith that if the big clubs like the RSL, golf clubs and bowling clubs also promote inclusion of all races and provide entertainment and sports for all, that people’s traditional thinking will evolve and attitudes will change.”

With many learnings from the trial walk, there is one thing that made all the pain and discomfort worth it – meeting Ochre the bush dog from Coramba.

“This beautiful big black Labrador met me just as I was setting off into the Coramba trails and started walking with me.

“I noticed a tag and rang the number but no answer, so we carried on walking together.

“For some unknown reason I had put in a long occy strap which I used as a lead, and I had found some gloves on the side of the road that were a perfect fit, together these two windfalls proved so useful in walking with Ochre on the roads into Coffs.

“He really got a feel for what I was doing and pulled me up the muddy hills, a beautiful walking companion.”

Arriving back in Coffs, Peter drove Ochre home to the address on the tag.

“‘Oh he does that all the time’, the owner said, ‘walks with people and then comes back’.”

“He was a blessing,” said Peter.

To support Peter and follow his journey follow Stamp_out_racism_2022 on social media.

By Andrea FERRARI