Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Lea
ving
wash
ingto
n—o
n the
road
agai
n.
We often met up in the Parliament House gym. As well as his enor-
mous workload, Kim's advisers were always at him to change his image
by losing weight. Kim was a fine minister for Defence when Labor was
in power, and a good opposition leader when it wasn't. I respected
him, and so did our leader, Prime Minister John Howard.
In Washington DC, Kim was genuinely glad to see me, and he
promised to discuss with the Australian ambassador to Mexico, Katrina
Cooper, ways to iron out any problems I may encounter there. Mexico is
a place where, I've been warned, there may be red tape and confusion.
I've been heartened by some excellent coverage of my run in
local newspapers. Typical was an article, headlined, 'Australian man
aims to run from North Pole to South Pole', which portrayed me as a
lonely figure running alongside the traffic on US Highway 1 just north
of Richmond, Virginia. The reporter, who interviewed me while run-
ning alongside me, was astonished by my quest, and after writing of
my adventures in the Arctic, Canada, and my qualms over the Darién
Gap and the South Pole, he heartily called on readers to donate to my
website to help the Red Cross.
