Meet our walkers: Bernd Ehls from Germany

Photo of man sitting next to sign that says Chengdu 2015.Bernd was the first person to register for our 25th walking event and will be joining us for the fourth time in 2016.

But before he arrives in Canberra, he will walk in his 270th IML event — the 19-20 March IML walk in Rotorua, New Zealand — and receive award number 90. [IML awards are based on a series of three walks. For example, after completing your first three events you would receive award number one; after your second set of three events, award number two, and so on.]

How does he do it? “I am walking nearly 15 IML events each year, all over the world,” Bernd explains. He completed his 269th IML event in Barcelona, Spain, last November.

Bernd participated in his first IML walk 28 years ago in Bern, Switzerland. “In 1992, I became a Master Walker in Japan,” he continues. “My award number was 156.” A Master Walker has completed walks in the eight founding IML member countries: Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Japan and Switzerland.

He travelled to Chengu, China, last September, to participate in the IVV Olympiad. This celebration of Volkssports is held every second year in the country of an IVV member. Olympiad events include walking, swimming, biking, and sometimes other non-competitive sports. Additional social and cultural activities encourage mutual understanding and friendships among those who attend.

“I stayed in the Sichuan Jinjing Hotel, in the center of the city. Wonderful rooms with box spring beds,” he recalls. The breakfast was nearly like at home and so was dinner and lunch.”

This was Bernd’s third trip to China. In 2006 he walked in Dalian and in 2014 he walked in Beijing/Zhaitang. “I think I have to report that at the first time of my stay in China I did not get coffee at all. Only green tea, which was formidable to me. But this time there was everything!”

The Chengu gathering was the 14th IVV Olympiad. Although not an actual IML event, walkers who completed at least 20 kilometres per day were entitled to an IML stamp.

“Chengu is a very big city with many cars and motorcycles, but all the motorcycles had electric motors,” Bernd remembers. “The drive on the event bus through the city to the start area took one hour. On the first day there was an Opening Celebration about two hours long with speeches, dances and songs. Participants from all nations walked behind their flag in the hall to the stage.”

Walkers could choose from 6km, 11km, 22km or a 42km marathon. Biking distances were 6km, 11km, or 22km. Swimming distances were 300 metres or 1000 metres.

“Every day the route was the same through the Egret Bay Wetlands Park on concrete ways. Sometimes we walked on the normal road with many cars but there was a policeman or soldier every 50 to 100 metres to ensure the walkers stayed safe. But not so fine was that walkers and bikers used the same routes. I was told there were 20,000 walkers from all over the world!”

Bernd walked 22km four times, biked 22km twice and swam 300 metres. Amazingly, he has participated in all 14 Olympiads!



ACT Government Health Fund Grant awarded to CWF

The Canberra Walking Festival has been awarded a Health Promotion Innovation Fund Grant of $10,650 from the ACT Government.

The Fund provides money for projects that support ACT Government priorities including to reduce overweight and obesity in our population; to improve children’s health and well-being related to overweight and obesity, including eating habits and increasing physical activity; and to support healthy active ageing through appropriate physical activity opportunities. The official announcement was made by Health Minister Mr. Simon Corbell in mid-August.

The money will be used to help celebrate our 25th event, according to Diana Marshall, president of Canberra Two Day Walk Inc. “In 2016 the Canberra Walking Festival will be offering a wide range of walks over five days, instead of our usual weekend,” she explains, “and we’ll also be offering a point-to-point walk on the Canberra Centenary Trail for the first time. The walks highlight our Bush Capital and have been designed to showcase the best of Canberra.”

Our 25th anniversary celebration will begin Thursday, 31 March, with an 11km Sculpture Walk starting and finishing at the National Museum of Australia.

A Capital Walk of approximately 12km will take place Friday morning, 1 April. This walk will include a short tour of both Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial. Walkers will stop for lunch and return in time for our usual 5km Welcome Walk around the Parliamentary Triangle.  After that walk we will hold our official opening ceremony followed by a short reception for our interstate and international visitors.

The Canberra Centenary Trail Walk will take place on Saturday, 2 April. Buses will transport participants from the Control Centre at the Charles Sturt University campus in Barton to the start of the routes. Much of this walk will be along bush trails but the gradient is generally less than 10 percent. Participants may walk 11, 20, 28 or 42km.

Walkers return to Lake Burley Griffin on Sunday, 3 April, for the familiar Loop the Lake Walk of 10, 15, 21 or 29km.

Guided 5-6km walks are also offered on Saturday and Sunday but these walks are aimed primarily at the under 8s and over 75s. All walkers who complete a walk on Saturday and Sunday will be awarded the Canberra Two Day Walker medal.

Our final Festival walk will be Monday, 4 April, from the Arboretum to the Australian National Botanic Gardens, a distance of about 13km. This walk will cover another section of the Centenary Trail.

For more information about the 25th Canberra Walking Festival please
visit www.aussiewalk.com.au
and register at
https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=18298


2015 walk by the numbers

For the curious, a few numerical facts about our 2015 CWF event …

Number of registered walkers: 461 (male 182; female 279)
Number of walkers completing both days: 332
Number of walkers completing one day: 105 including 44 marathoners

Number of walkers who have participated in all 24 walks: 9

Oldest general walker: male 90 years; female 86 years
Youngest general walker: male 3 years; female 4 years
Oldest marathoner: male 74 years; female 71 years
Youngest marathoner: male 20 years; female 20 years

Number of overseas walkers: 45
Countries represented: Netherlands (15); China (7); Czech Republic (6); UK (4); Japan and USA (3 each); Belgium and Norway (2 each); Canada, France, and Switzerland (1 each).



A.C.T. Minister opens Walking Festival

ACT Minister Shane Rattenbury standing at a podium.

Mr Shane Rattenbury, A.C.T. Minister of Sport and Recreation Services, welcomes walkers to Canberra.

Mr. Shane Rattenbury, Minister of Sport and Recreation Services for the Australian Capital Territory, officially opened this year’s Canberra Walking Festival at 5PM on Friday, 27 March.

Australians from five states and the national capital welcomed the festival’s first participants from China as well as overseas walkers from Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.


Czech walkers to visit Canberra

Six overseas walkers from the Czech Republic will be joining our walk this March. Most of the group are members of IVV and/or IML.

Their visit to Canberra will come towards the end of their 19-day tour of Australia, after seeing the sights in and around Cairns, Alice Springs, and Sydney.

Two members of the group will receive IML awards at Sunday afternoon’s ceremony. Walk group leader Jiri Nasinec will be awarded the Pan Pacific walker clip for walking in eight different Pan Pacific countries. Maria Blahova has earned the Pan Pacific clip and also the Global Walker clip for walking 10 different walks in the European region as well as participating in eight different Pan Pacific events.

Jiri is a member of the Novy Bor walking club. “Every week, from spring to autumn, there are walks for people in many places in the Czech Republic,” he says, adding, “We regularly walk in our country and also in different countries. We have done almost all IML walks.”

Tourists travel to Novy Bor to visit the many small glass factories where they can watch artisans blow, paint, cut and engrave glass. The Luzice Mountain region is also popular with hikers and skiers.


Meet our walkers: Gary and Marietta Pritchard from Alabama

Man and woman standing in front of sign for Port of Mount Dora.

Marietta and Gary Pritchard in Mount Dora, Florida.

Although this will be their second visit to Canberra, Americans Gary and Marietta Pritchard will be participating in our walk for the first time. “Canberra was the first national capital city in the world where we walked,” said Marietta.

While planning their 2013 trip, the pair reviewed the IVV website for information about IVV events in Australia. They contacted Walking Festival organisers Harry and Kathleen Berg for more specifics. “Kathleen was VERY helpful with information that first-timer walkers in Australia need,” Gary noted.

The couple enjoyed a cruise from Auckland to Sydney and then around Australia. During their first visit to Sydney they completed the two year-round IVV walks: the 12 km historical Sydney city walk around Darling Harbour, the Rocks, and the Botanic Gardens, and the 14 km Manly Scenic Walkway. Both these walks were established by the Canberra Two Day Walk Association and are sanctioned by the IVV as being eligible for credit towards IVV Achievement Awards.

When the ship returned to Sydney at the end of the voyage, Gary and Marietta travelled to Canberra to meet the Bergs. “Kathleen and Harry picked us up from our Canberra hotel to walk around Lake Tuggeranong and Lake Ginninderra,” Gary related. They completed the 30 km around Lake Burley Griffin in one day and also joined one of our marshalls’ walks around the eastern basin and the Jerrabomberra Wetlands.

The couple also journeyed to Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the Red Centre. On the return domestic flight, Gary tasted his first ever Australian meat pie. “I liked it SO MUCH that from then on all I wanted was meat pies.”

After that, they returned to New Zealand to walk their first IML event in Rotorua. “Our original plan was to walk both New Zealand and Australia to get only IVV credit,” recalled Gary. “We didn’t plan on doing the Two Day Walk because we could get our Australian IVV credit by doing the year-round events. But after meeting Kathleen, Harry, Diana Marshall and a lot of other walkers we promised we would return.”

At home in Alabama, the couple are members of the Capital City Wanderers, a walking club affiliated with the American Volkssport Association (AVA). During the year, the club hosts year-round events in the cities of Athens, Birmingham, Huntsville, and Montebello, as well as two year-round events in Montgomery, the state capital.

Each autumn the club organises a multi-walk event with walks in four to six of the state’s counties [a political administrative division]. “The goal for walkers is to eventually complete a walk in all of Alabama’s 64 counties,” Gary explained.

Over a six-week period this year, the two have completed 68 of the 70 year-round IVV events in Florida, and will finish this series of walks by mid-February. “We are currently walking two 10 km walks a day which is 140 km a week,” Gary stated, adding, “When we’re home we probably walk 30 km a week.”

The Pritchards are now on their way back to Alabama for yet more walking. Each February the Wanderers join the Georgia Walkers to co-host a multi-event weekend of walking, swimming and bicycle-riding events. On the same President’s Day weekend [13-16 February], the Pensacola Volksmarch Club offers seven additional walks. That’s a total of 21 separate events, according to Gary, which makes for “a REAL walkapalooza weekend!!!”

Marietta and Gary are also members of the IML and have completed events in Italy, New Zealand the the USA.

The retired couple enjoy walking and planning trips to do more walking. Gary also has the unusual hobby of collecting US National Park cancellation stamps.

“I’m going to enjoy the 20% discount on everything in Australia this year. At least I hope the exchange rate is still as good as it is right now. The last time we visited it took more than a US dollar to get an Australian dollar,” Gary recollected. “I just keep thinking about those cheaper PIES.”


Meet our walkers: Yvonne Morris and Jamie Stewart

Man and woman standing near a blue banner in the Czech Republic.

Yvonne and Jamie at the Czech Republic IML walk held in Brno last September.

At this year’s Canberra Walking Festival awards ceremony Yvonne Morris and Jamie Stewart will receive the gold IML medal for completing 21 IML walk events, including seven Two Day Walks in the national capital.

In addition to Australia, the couple has walked in China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, and the United States.

They learned about the IML Walking Association during their first Canberra Two Day Walk in 2009. “When we saw the list of countries holding IML events we realized we could combine our love of walking and our desire for travelling,” Jamie explained. “Wonderful!”

About this time, Yvonne reconnected with a school friend who now lived in Arlington, Virginia, USA. The following year they visited the friend and participated in the US Freedom Walk Festival. “After each day’s walking we showed her the photos and maps of where we had walked,” remembers Yvonne. “It was a magical holiday.”

Their next walk was in Rotorua, New Zealand, where they met a new friend from the Arlington walk. The first page of their IML passports was complete.

After deciding to walk for the IML Pan Pacific Award, the couple made many new friends in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. “Walking overseas is more than being ‘just another tourist.’ It is about making new friends, catching up with old friends, being outside in the countryside and sometimes rain,” explains Jamie. “Everyone is friendly and helpful, even if we don’t speak each other’s language.”

Their walking adventures began 10 years ago when the pair trained for three 100-kilometre Oxfam events. “During the training we discovered the joy of walking,” Yvonne remembers. “We found that walking was bringing us closer together as we left the mundane chores of day-to-day life at home.”

They decided to search the web for other long-distance walking events and found our Aussiewalk website.

The Melbourne residents enjoy visiting Canberra in the autumn. “It’s good to leave everything behind for a couple of days,” says Yvonne. “We love walking around the lake.” They walk the 30 km Loop the Lake route on Saturday and the 20 km route on Sunday.

Because Yvonne is a medical scientist shift worker with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, the pair rarely walk together during the week. “We know that we can walk the distances,” notes Jamie, an account supervisor with RGIS, an inventory service provider.

The Canberra Two Day walk is an accredited event of the IML Walking Association, an international organisation that promotes walking as a worthwhile and healthy recreation by accrediting specific walking events in its member countries. The IML motto is “May walking bring us together.”


Survey results summarised

An overwhelming majority of the 200+ registered walkers who completed our survey after this year’s March event have indicated that they plan to participate in a future Canberra Walking Festival.

Virtually everyone agreed that the entry information was “easy to understand” and that the registration procedure was “excellent”. A majority of this group used our online registration facility.

Most walkers also confirmed that our walk remains “good value for money”.

Over 66% of the respondents rated the company of other walkers as a key factor in the success that the walk enjoys.

The CTDW committee would like to thank everyone who took part in our survey. All comments about the routes, walk surfaces, and signage are being considered as we prepare for the 2015 event.