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Jesse Riley writes from the road in Australia

9 September 1998 - Tarcoola

"Don is going to stay with us until he reaches the main (paved) road in a couple more days -- at Glendambo," Riley said in a phone call from this tiny settlement (population 8) where he and his brother, John, the official driver, and Winkley spent a night of comparative luxury in a hotel after covering 1300 kilometres on gravel roads. "Don will probably stay in Australia for a while before he heads back home, but he will stop at that point. . . . He has been way behind the cut-offs (5km an hour) for days now because of nagging injuries to his hips and the primitive conditions."

When he called, Riley had just completed Day 33 (1882.6 kilometres) and was feeling road weary himself. But he had no plans to quit the run himself. "It's nice to have people around again," he said of the group's stay at the hotel, where he ate a huge meal of breaded schnitzel (steak), cauliflower, green beans, peas, mashed potatoes, french fries and bread and butter. "We had a real dinner." The visitors also caught a glimpse on a hotel TV of Mark McGwire hitting his 62nd home run to break one of major league baseball's most revered records -- set in 1961 by the late Roger Maris. "That was neat," Riley said.

Conditions during the first month of the run were tougher than anyone expected. "It's hard to run all day when you constantly have to look down at the road because of footing," Riley said. "It's also hard with no showers or facilities, just rolling out a swag to sleep. The red dust gets into everything too. I pulled out a white t-shirt today and I was shocked. It was actually clean. . . . But once we hit the main road, we'll have no problems."

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