Mike Cosgrove is training up for a fund-raising walk across the Nullarbor Plain in May
WHEN he walks the Nullarbor in May, Te Kūiti resident Mike Cosgrove will have gumboots on his mind – but he won’t be wearing them.
Instead, he will be wearing his re-soled trainers, and raising funds for Gumboot Friday, the charity established by mental health advocate Mike King to provide free counselling to young people.
Mike’s goal is to walk 1200km from Ceduna in South Australia to Norseman in Western Australia on the other side of the Great Australian Bight.
But the gumboots or gumboot challenge, is why he is going to walk 1200km across the Nullarbor Plain, at 50km a day for 25 days.
He’s been training for the event by walking to Ōtorohanga and back. He’s done about 1000km since Christmas.
“Hundreds of locals have seen me out there, they are all waving and tooting. Now I can just see them saying ‘what’s this guy on?’
“And this is a way of explaining and possibly grabbing some dollars for Gumboot Friday.”
He’s been walking to Ōtorohanga and back, usually every week for about five years, but at the moment he’s been taking the back road to Ōtorohanga every second day on average.
A daughter lives on the corner of Otewa Rd where he has a drink, does a few stretches and heads back home.
All with one leg 50mm shorter than the other, a result of an accident nine years ago.
Mike was on a four-day North Island West Coast enduro motorcycle tour when he was struck by a car.
The crash broke all the bones; hip, femur, kneecap, tibia, fibia. It put him on crutches for two years and ended a 30-year climbing career that included climbing mountains on all seven continents, including three mountains in Antarctica on the same rope as sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s grandson, Tashi Tenzing.
Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary were the first men to successfully summit Mount Everest and return alive.
Mike climbed Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro on the last day of the twentieth century. He also climbed the four highest North Island mountains in one day starting with Taranaki and Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro.
Now in his 60s, Mike was an impatient patient. He climbed 449m Mount Kakepuku twice while on crutches, and was told off by his physio when she found out, he said.
“I’ve had a lot of metal in and a lot of metal out. I was a bit too early trying to do stuff and broke poles and brackets and stuff. Each time I did that, they had to go in again and it took two years for the femur to actually take, because it snapped in half.
“Two years, and all sorts of carry on; in the end they just glued it up. That’s why it’s short. Every time you go in, you are cutting a bit off either end. So, they did that numerous times, and each time they did it, the leg got shorter and shorter.”
That’s why he’s doing the training now, getting his feet and knees adjusted to doing it, and then getting up and doing it again and again, making sure he doesn’t get blisters and looking after his feet.
“I don’t go through the shoes, I’m a bit sneaky because this pair are now on their fourth sole,” he said. “Quality Shoes in Hamilton put a new sole on every time I wear them out. So instead of buying a new pair of shoes for $250, it’s $75 for a new sole.”
He’s got another pair waiting to get their fourth re-soling and the pair he was wearing will be re-soled before Mike and his wife, Jackie, depart for Adelaide to pick up the camper van/support vehicle.
Instead of the 40 to 45-degree daytime temperatures of summer, May is expected to be about the same low to mid 20s that Te Kūiti experienced this week.
“There’s a chance of perhaps two days’ rain, possibly. It’s dry so we don’t wake up to wet ground, the winds are not that strong. That’s why we have picked May,” Mike said.
Jackie will be there to support with food and fluids and they will be staying in the camper each night.
“When I would go away climbing, Jackie would come for half an hour, then go horse riding. She’s ridden horses on six continents, but not Antarctica because there’s no horses there – otherwise she would have been there,” he said.
Mike and Jackie have started a Givealittle page for Gumboot Friday and encourage people to help support those in need of help when it comes to mental health.
The Cosgroves are self-funding the challenge and 100% of the money raised will be donated to Gumboot Friday.
