Walk of Wonders

menu_book picture_as_pdf book Sophie Aubry Bushwalk Australia Western Australia Gloucester NP Jane NP Boorara-Gardner NP D'Entrecasteaux NP Walpole-Nornalup NP William Bay NP West Cape Howe NP Kalamunda NP Torndirrup NP Helena NP Greater Preston NP Greater Beedelup NP

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It is 4.30am and my alarm rings. I am in my tent, like I have been for the past three weeks, but I just need a few seconds to recall where exactly, the name of the campsite, the people I chatted with last night, the huge trees I discovered yesterday, and the plans I have for today. I know it will be a long day, which I am excited about. I stretch, still wrapped into my cosy sleeping bag. No pain in my body today, how wonderful is that … Apart from a bit of wind around the tent, there is no sound. I am first again today, waking up in the dark. By the time I have had my yummy breakfast and a few cups of tea and have packed up, the day light will arrive between the trees and the birds will start to sing joyfully. It is another day on the Walk Of Wonders, and I am in Western Australia, hiking the Bibbulmun Track. I passed the first 300 kilometres of the 1000 kilometres I committed to hike, raising funds and awareness for mental health.

Sophie at an information shelter leaving Denmark, Western AustraliaAll pictures by the author

Walk of Wonders

Sophie Aubry

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Every day on this hike I take some time to reset my intentions, to think about my own journey and my goals on this adventure. And to think about the WOW, as some started to call it even before I had done it. I think about the people I met since I started this project, I think about the energies and kindness that have been shared and offered, about the touching words I received, about the trust other people gave me. I think about what it shows, what it means, what it proves to me. We need to talk about mental health, we all need and want it, and when it finally happens, before we can actually solve or deeply ease anything, we first feel a huge relief. We are not alone, we are rather together on mental health and it is the first discovery to make so we can open the next doors ...

I wake up. I am not on the Bibbulmun Track at all nor am I in my tent. I am in Fremantle, and once again I just had a dream about this upcoming adventure. By the time you read this article, I will hopefully be hiking, and hopefully be near where I was in that dream. Welcome to the Walk Of Wonders, and thank you for reading this article. I am Sophie,

and I am preparing for one of the biggest adventure, in many ways, of my life. It is a funny thing how this project is a solo hike but how I have never been less alone than since I started to talk about it. I will explain why.

I am from France, the kind of traveller in her late twenties that you can meet quite regularly in Australia. I have been on your side of the world for the last three years, mainly between New Zealand and Australia. Since I started travelling three years ago, one of the things that changed for me is that I took up hiking. For real, with a backpack, sleeping in huts and tents, waking up in nature, talking silently to the birds and the trees. Guess what: I had never done it before, or never more than for a few hours, and I would always be quite upset when my parents wanted to take us for a walk in the mountains when I was a kid, when I could instead lie down by the swimming pool with a book or with some new holiday friends.

Bibbulmun map Dorater

Bibbulmun track marker, West Cape Howe National Park

Sophie on Mutton Bird Beach near Torbay Inlet

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Anyway. We all change, and I changed. I can positively say that hiking changed my life, my state of mind, my connection to the planet, to others and to myself. I started to discover things from inside, to breathe into the wind, to wake up with the sunrise, to take care of each day differently. I started to value my life as I had never done before. Everything feels different and if you are a hiker, I am sure that you know what I mean, even if we all have our own way to feel it and to express it. Overnight hike after overnight hike, the last hour of hiking always gets more painful to me. I just never want it to be the end already. I always feel like, yes, okay, I would like a shower and some laundry done, but then please, don’t brutally make me go back to other kind of tasks … I want to hike longer. This is simply how the Bibbulmun Track started to settle inside my mind, quietly, secretly, beautifully. It has been there for a year or so.

Okay, okay, but … What is the Bibbulmun Track? It is simply a wonderful long hike of 1000 kilometres joining Albany in the south of Western Australia, to Kalamunda in the Perth hills. It is divided into nine sections of various lengths and types of environment, and it passes through eight towns where it is possible to have a rest and refill food and energy between each section.

The other thing I should probably tell you about, is that for personal reasons I have a high sensitivity on mental health. (If you

would like to know more about my personal story, feel free to read the introduction of my fundraising page, and to have a look at the Facebook page). I guess it was pretty obvious already, but yes, this is how I decided to raise funds for the wonderful association Headspace while I am hiking the Bibb, starting on 15 March 2019. Raising funds is an important thing, as it helps not-for-profit organisations to keep doing such a wonderful work for thousands of people year after year. Opening conversations about mental health, windows of possibilities to help build a better well being for each of us and a safer and more peaceful life environment is another very important thing I decided to dedicate myself to. At least, I am fully committed to contribute to reduce and erase any shame, guilt and fear through these necessary conversations.

Of course, one person like me cannot change the world and suddenly make the suicide rate drop … But the idea is to be one of those little grains of sand that are a part of a huge mountain and help it stand tall. The idea is to help others to become a grain of sand of the same mountain. So then people in need can find the strength to climb that mountain with all the support that

Near Sandpatch campsite

“Everything feels different and if you are a hiker, I am sure that you know what I mean ...

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Sophie is from Nancy, in the north-east of France, and has been travelling around New Zealand and Australia for three years. A few months ago she settled in Fremantle, a beautiful suburb of Perth, where she initiated her project the Walk Of Wonders, and found local support. She has been working for years in many different tourism industry companies, in several countries. Until now her lifestyle made it possible to mix working experiences and long periods of wanders and discoveries, with hiking being an important part of it. She also loves writing and sharing experiences with people she meets on the way.

they require. I suppose that each little action, each little intention, can change someone’s life and mindset, as I have seen for myself through the beautiful people I have been fortunate to meet in my life.

So here I go. I started this challenge to hike 1000 kilometres, which is something I have never felt like I would be able to do. I dropped every other occupation to focus on my preparation and communicate about it. I have already received a support that blows my mind every single day. Lately, I heard someone saying this quote, “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.” Yes, I will be by myself on the track, yes, I will be self-sufficient, carry my own gear, food and water, be responsible of my own safety and organisation. But I will not be alone, because I feel, more than ever, that we are all together on this same path, finding our way, finding our well being, our peace, and finally reconnecting with our environment, with our roots as well as our surroundings, and with ourselves as well as any other being on earth. What best than hiking to find this wonderful connection and feel alive? It is the path I chose to take for myself and to inspire others. We all have different paths in life, and we can find ours

if we open our hearts and decide to start digging in what make us feel alive.

Thank you for reading and for coming along. If you want to follow the journey, please have a look at the fundraising page. You can donate for Headspace there, an Australian association focusing on providing help to young people from 12 to 25 years old, and to fight the stigma that makes it so hard to seek for support when dealing with mental health challenges. This page also works like a blog, so I post updates regularly about this great adventure. And if you are more of a Facebook person, feel free to follow the page. Everything is in there too.

Happy hikes!

Sophie at Mazzoletti Beach

“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.

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