PETER Tripovich will soon turn 90 – and he’ll celebrate the milestone birthday while walking across the Nullarbor.
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In January, the retired farmer from Echuca will set out on foot from Pemberton in Western Australia to Melbourne – a distance of more than 3,300 kilometres.
It’s the final leg of a charity walk he was forced to abandon 10 years ago because his wife was ill.
That time, as a 79-year-old, he made it from Melbourne, all the way up to northern Queensland, across to the west coast and down to Pemberton, 320 kilometres south of Perth.
His final leg won’t be as gruelling – he plans to walk up to 35 kilometres per day instead of up to 76 – but he still faces scorching temperatures at the height of summer.
“I’ll just have to handle the heat,” he said.
It’s just as well he’s doing it for a good cause.
“This is what it’s all about – raising money for the kids in developing countries.”
Donations to Mr Tripovich will go to International Children’s Care Australia, an NGO that provides support to children in developing countries such as Cambodia and the Philippines.
The first time around, Mr Tripovich just set out walking to see how far he could go in a day.
“I wanted to walk for ICC for the children,” he said. “I didn’t do any training. I’ve been on a farm all my life. I just headed off.”
What followed makes for inspiring but exhausting reading.
Mr Tripovich spent 13 months walking an average of 50 to 60 kilometres each day, six days a week.
To beat the heat, he would start at 3am – but his walking day would still be 13 to 14 hours long.
“I was pretty sore. But I thought, ‘It’s all for the kids.’”
In the decade since, Mr Tripovich has spent a lot of time thinking about completing his charity walk and adding to the $25,000 he has raised.
“It kept niggling at me, telling me to go back and try to finish. It’s exactly 10 years since I finished.”
Mr Tripovich expects his charity walk to take six months.
You can follow his journey on ICC Australia’s Facebook page and donate online at www.iccau.org/donate