Alicia Driscoll’s grandmother in Mildura has two wishes – to see a hospice established in the Sunraysia city and to arrive at a ball in a horse-drawn wagon.
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Ms Driscoll is determined to help make both these a reality and has set off on an epic 570km horse-drawn trek from her Ross Creek home to Mildura.
She is passing through Maldon late today and is expected to come through parts of Bendigo at about lunchtime tomorrow.
With a team of up to six horses and two carriages, Ms Driscoll and Brian Harrison aim to travel at least 70km a day in their convoy, travelling for two days and resting for one, during the two-week journey.
The culmination of the trek will come on October 6 when they roll in to town in time to carry Ms Driscoll’s grandmother Cas to the Hospice Hope Ball.
“Gran has been the driving force behind trying to establish a hospice in Mildura,” Ms Driscoll said.
“She’s had the land donated, she’s rallied the builders and has had everything donated but just needs the government to come to the party and provide the recurrent funding costs for its operation,” she said.
“So I’m doing this trek to raise awareness … and take gran to the ball in a horse-drawn carriage.”
For the past few months Ms Driscoll has been building the endurance of her horse team, driving them on the roads around Sebastopol, Delacombe and Ballarat’s south getting them used to the traffic and other things they may encounter, including trips through fast-food drive-through lanes.
Training began in earnest soon after Easter when The Long Haul became more than an idea.
“Most motorists are courteous. You do get some idiots who toot but the horses aren’t fazed,” she said.
At a walk the horses will be able to cover 50km a day, with Ms Driscoll hoping that most days the journey will advance at least 70km so allow them to meet their deadline.
The convoy will travel during daylight hours only, then make camp on the side of the road or at properties belonging to friends and supporters.
After several driving trips to survey potential routes, they’ve settled on making their way from Ballarat to Mildura via Newstead, Bendigo, Serpentine, Kerang, Swan Hill, Sea Lake, and Ouyen.
“I’ve done a few endurance rides so I’ve based our training pretty much off that. We’re working up to the long distance, building up by 5km or more each week,” she said.
While a horse convoy on the road is hard to miss, The Long Haul crew will be towing their distinctive western-style pioneer wagon with all their supplies on board, and a smaller cart. Ms Driscoll said they were still working out whether their large 4m x 2m wagon would need two or four horses to share the load.
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