Bendigo Rookies battle mountain

IMAGINE hiking up a steep mountain path for an endurance walk. Now imagine tackling it in the dead of night.From dusk until dawn, a Bendigo team of eight took on the Dandenong Ranges yesterday to raise money for India’s Dalit – so called “untouchable” – children.Dalits make up the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system and are deprived of even the most basic liberties, including the freedom to decide where to live, work and worship.Armed with flashlights and head torches, the Bendigo Rookies joined 18 teams on an endurance hike in the dark, guided by glow sticks.It was a challenge, conceded Bendigo mother Ivy Hodson, but the plight of Dalit children convinced her it was one worth taking on. “We were talking about community and what it means to help each other,” she said.“It’s easy to get comfortable and complacent in our comfortable Bendigo lives and forget that people are having a really hard time.”The all-night 45km endurance walk started at 9pm and took the team weeks of training, including a 23.5-kilometre hike at Mount Alexander in the dark in preparation for the event.With two inches of rain the night before and sharp hills, the hike proved too much for some of the team, who didn’t complete the final stage, but all were glad to have taken part.The team raised more than $1400 for non-denominational Christian charity Gospel for Asia and its work with Dalit children.