Day 786 – Australia – VIC [Caroline Springs to Melbourne]

04/08/22

30km

  From Caroline Springs (Victoria) to Melbourne (Victoria)

Australia

Accompanied on the road all the way to the Town Hall where I was received with honours

Running to Melbourne with Pat Farmer

What a day on the road! At 8am sharp I was met by Pat Farmer and John Wylie. Pat has quite a running resume, having run not only a full lap of Australia, but also a pole to pole route. Used to running in the region of 50 miles a day, today must have been a piece of cake for him! John is Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie’s husband, the French Consule Generale in Melbourne who organised my arrival in the city. In a support car was Matthieu, their son. What a support team!

Left to right: John Wylie, Pat Farmer, me, Anne-Sophie, Prune

We started with a half-marathon run towards the Spotswood jetty, where a boat was waiting for us at 11am to take us across the Yarra River (as it was impossible to cross the bridge on foot). Pat and John are good friends and it was very entertaining to have their company and constant banter along the way. Today was also excellent weather conditions, bright blue skies, no wind and above 15 Celsius would you believe!

Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Cap (left) and Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie, French Consule Generale in Melbourne

We crossed the river, driven by Fletcher and on the other side, we were greeted by 2 policemen on motorbike to escort us to the Town Hall! In addition were also Anne-Sophie from the Alliance Francaise and Prune, two keen runners. We ran along the river, right through to the city centre (what a magnificent city) and all the way to the Town Hall.

All posing with the children from the French School

There I got greeted by Myriam the Consule Generale, Mrs Sally Cap the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Serge Thomann the French representant of French abroad, Sabrina Tellier President of the Melbourne Welcome Committee, Caroline Pommier head of the French School and Gilbert Charbonnier President of the French Veterans Association in Melbourne (and I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone). There were also a dozen children from the French School (I’ll go meet them tomorrow at the school for a talk), a journalist from the Herald Sun and another one from the SBS Radio Australia. What a committee!!

I will get to meet most of these people tomorrow as Myriam is also organising a cocktail reception. I am totally overwhelmed by such a welcome, what a true honour.

Tomorrow my agenda is quite packed with commitments, and a 2nd of rest will be in order on Saturday to get to properly visit Melbourne – what I have seen of it today is quite impressive and calls for at least a day of visit.

Note: today’s run was recorded in 2 parts. First part from Caroline Springs to the Spotswood Jetty. Second part from across the Yarra River to the Town Hall. There are 2 Garmin and 2 Strava files.

Enjoy the videos of today’s run: Part 1 – https://www.relive.cc/view/vmqXNrzZyLO / Part 2 – https://www.relive.cc/view/vAOZD4mZgoq

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: