668 Kilometres equals 1 Million steps
An epic adventure ended last Thursday, as White Cliffs residents Gunnel and Jurgen Hecht, Doug Brook (photo below) and Rod Cook, and poet David ‘The Shovel’ Schoeffel of Gulpa, walked into Lightening Ridge. Gunnel and Jurgen will have walked 686 kilometres – a million steps – since leaving White Cliffs on 23 June, and The Shovel only a few steps less. This incredible personal challenge is also a fundraising campaign to build a vibrant national icon in western NSW.
The Walk was inspired by an even more arduous journey 110 years ago. In 1902, horrific drought gripped the country and the opal industry was at a low in White Cliffs. Hearing rumors of a new opal find, many opal miners left White Cliffs for Lightning Ridge – on foot, bicycle, horseback or horse and cart.