Why

Why I am doing it? Because I have always dreamt of doing it!!!

Well that is not strictly correct. I have dreamt of walking from Kosciusko to Canberra (home) since I was a teenager. Don't really know why. I just always wonder what it would be like and it seemed like a reasonable challenge that I could complete. I have now in fact already achieved this goal (but in the opposite direction) over the last decade.

However, when I first heard about the Australian Alps Walking Track back in the early/mid 1990s (when there was talk of formally creating it), I thought that it sounded just the thing for me - the next major step.

I quickly came in to contact with the John Siseman book Alpine Walking Track (as it was called then) and read it many times over the years, dreaming of doing it. I have on many occassions thought that "this year" will be the year that I do it. However, other things have always got in the way and every year I have let it go to the next year.

However, the time has now come that I have made the commitment to do it. The main factors for deciding now to do it are:

• Age - I am getting old - 40 years old and having a "mid life crisis" - and I know that every year I leave it it just gets that bit harder. I know many older people have completed it - some in their sixties - but I don't want to wait that long and I don't want my body falling apart while I am doing it.
• Work - oh have I mentioned the fact that I hate work. I have grown so completely sick of my job that I desperately need not to be there for my own sanity. Don't get me wrong - I don't need a holiday - I just need to not be at work. But if I am not going to be at work, I might as well be doing something else and the timing seemed right.
• Company - I have always assumed I would do the walk by myself (as a lot seem to because they can't find anybody else to go with them because of time, money, inclination etc). However, my brother Duncan is availble then - because he will be finishing university in mid November and will not start his new job until February and he needs something "to do". The fact that he is available will make it both easier and more enjoyable for me.

So that's why....