Long time Shake It Up supporter and Parkinson’s advocate Will Boag, along with his wife Corrie, have undertaken a huge project, Will to Walk. Together, they travel the world and take on famous walks in some of the most beautiful and inspiring areas across the globe. They’ve trekked in Portugal, France, Holland, Switzerland, Italy and Spain to name a few, while raising over $35,000 for Shake It Up Australia!
Most recently, the pair ventured to Norway, walking 700kms in total (averaging 22km a day!) and we spoke to Will to hear all about the trip. In Part 1 of our conversation with Will, he shared an evocative and inspiring summary of his experience throughout Norway, including the biggest highlights and hurdles he encountered along the way.
Here’s what Will had to say…
We started to explore in Oslo. The sounds of the people seemed to be a Nordic language from the distant past, however the traffic was silent as drivers gave way well before they had to. The people we met seemed to be in no hurry, gentle in their responses and generous with their time. Then there were the two kilometres of stunning waterfalls, the splashes, the blasts and the thousand pathways echoed the paths we followed as the mountain came to its peak. What a delight! What magnificence!
Norway’s magnificence lies in the beauty of its natural landscape and the unheralded warmth of its open and unassuming people. Mountains in Norway are ubiquitous, and if you like hiking them, they are like roadways along the peaks borrowed for walking. Water is everywhere. The reflection from the mountains show a beauty unsurpassed. A lake sits on a corner of a mountain mirroring the sky; the snow melts, ensuring the streams continue to snake down the mountainside; all kinds of pools come from nowhere while thirsty rivers grow to mark the acceptance of water from above. It’s difficult to be anywhere in Norway and not see water. Unless it’s an extreme winter, water is everywhere. The star of this wet feast is the ‘fjord’ with its high cliff walls, its deep underbelly, and its grand entrance into the sea. Sit with your Peer Gynt and your piano concertos and delight with one of nature’s greatest lovers of nature, Edward Grieg, as you look upon the many marvels of nature, and, be entertained.
Lillehammar could have been the whole trip, our complete exploration and began like this.
“How are your Nordic Poles working for you”? I said to a woman about my age. “I’m not sure, I’m just hoping” she quietly replied as her stoop finally gave her away. “I’ve got Parkinson’s, and it doesn’t help”.
“I know” nearly crept out of my sometimes-wayward mouth. “Oh, that’s a bugger, I have PD also” I said, “and a bit bent over, as you can see”.
“And my head’s nearly touching the ground” she quietly replied, in an attempt to make light of a serious situation. “What do you do for it”? I said, working with our new relationship. “I exercise a lot, which I’m used to, and in the ‘80s I was the Norwegian Marathon champion for four years running”. It was an excellent segue so I joined in. “I began the first (that I’m aware of), Parkinson’s Walking Marathon, now in its third year”.
Then it was Dombas. A few kilometres out of town and we were deep in snow, only because I walked where I shouldn’t have, and it was scary trying to extricate myself. These were wide open fields of low-lying snow for as far as the eye could see, used mainly for ‘cross-country skiing practice’, and it seemed some dogs were practicing as well. It is late spring, and the snow is one – two metres deep and it appeared we didn’t climb a mountain.
At Oopdal we stumbled across a burial field for the Vikings. The place for the dead (those of the Christian religion) is a grave site with concrete blocks. The now ‘burial field’ is unrecognisable because you can walk over it, you can grow old in a beautiful environment in there. There are interesting head stones with strong Viking words. Their bodies are laid on the top of a huge mound of earth and rocks and then covered with earth and turf.
We’re in Trondheim now. This is where our journey would have ended if we’d taken the pilgrim path from Oslo. And what an ending! Your accommodation if you choose to stay in the pilgrim’s lodge is on a short river, the river Nidelva, its source, a lake, just a three day walk away. Your room is on that river; you eat on that river; as is the adjoining park for sun hungry Norwegians; an exercise park with nosey seals (or is it us noseying them); if you want a walk before breakfast you cross the river then back over on one of four bridges for up to 6km in a stretch; and if you were on a pilgrimage this is where you get the rewards and time off to explore this delightful town.
It was here we met our first obvious fjord. Simply it seems to be a sheet of water that flows inland and rises and falls with the tides. It is ideally narrower on its way to the sea and has cliffs that line its sides. I think it draws your attention because they are everywhere, the usual comparison being a lake which is closed. They are ubiquitous and add yet another stunning dimension to this water land.
We flew into Bodo and saw the fjords in a different way. There were those with clear sunlight, others in mist and cloud, the fast-moving clouds giving their fjords an unusual look which made them appear to also be moving. There was a national park here with an array of lower mountains but lots of walks, one special one that had lines of mountains so you could walk up and down for a long period of time, coming down only when suiting you.
Since my back problems we (I walk with my ‘never say no wife’, Corrie) have had to change our walking pattern. Instead of walking continuously from say, village to village because my pack refuses to come with me, we choose our own track and return to our home.
When we run out of mountains we move on by train or bus until the next town or village or mountain. Another hurdle was that some impassable sections were buried in snow and water. That was mainly because we began too soon (early June is the best time if you want continuity.)
We flew into Bergen which is surrounded by seven mountains. I would have loved to climb them as a project, but one was enough because we’d be neglecting other mountains that may be of a different hue. This climb would be about confirmation of previous self-exploration. The one we chose was as steep and gravelly as any we had climbed and I made sure my A/F didn’t erupt.
It’s not about what I can and can’t do, and more about “how” I’m doing it.
There’s the zig zagging up to conserve my energy, the zig zagging down to protect my knees; the z-z both ways to limit my slipping on the gravel.
Just when we reached for our poles, I recalled that we lost them earlier, so we had to slow it all down; and we needed more time to complete the walk so we could explore the mountain lakes and pools which had us running out of superlatives. I was very conscious of the way I carefully worked out solutions to my struggles because I was also having issues with lack of medication performance. This led to me being more thorough with my exercise regime, carrying out my PD exercises daily.
Stavanger and Sandnes was the final region we would pass through on our last leg to Oslo. A lot of this area was flat and thus a little outside our plan of operation – mountains. We travelled to Sandnes with Grieg who I explored mainly through google. I was interested in the fact that he was born in Bergen and was very close to nature which he introduced into the Norwegian culture. He greatly influenced its culture through his music which is uppermost in the Norwegian mind and they love Grieg for that. Our further exploration of him was an auditory one and it became part of our daily experience to play his music whenever we could because we also knew that is where we would find the real Norwegian.
We detoured back to Lillehammer, which was exciting, as we had a few more days to really explore. After a couple of phone calls, there in a flash was the past Norwegian marathon champion. She was standing in the centre of our hotel lounge, with two poles planted, unmoving like me with her Parkinson’s, as if appearing ready to race. Instead she enthusiastically took us on a tour of the island where she had lived most of her life. We were thrilled. I was invited to join the PD class where we did a variety of moves similar to what I do in Sydney (all the time my input was requested). The physio was involved in all exercises. He also suggested I become involved in some way with them but I need to pursue what that would look like.
I look for poetry wherever I go because that is my cognitive exercise as well as my passion. Well, for a change, it came looking for me in the form of ‘The Norse Litteratur Festival’. The manager asked if I wanted to come to their poetry readings, and read a poem. I explored the potential of this and read one of my poems to provide an example of a cognitive exercise. By the way some were very impressed with my poem.
We began the day with a promise we made a month earlier and that was to dine by the most glorious waterfall with one above and below. We had to move to three tables to get the seat with the view and sounds we love so much. This was about our final exploration of this most beautifully designed series of waterfalls. Once again, we have no date of nature’s design, but it was a long time ago.
Because we were going so well we decided to round it off at 700kms because we now had the freedom to go anywhere. The journey started off at a target of 500 kms. Normally it has ranged from 600 – 900 but we didn’t want to do any long-term damage because we want to keep on walking into the future. We ended up in very good shape after 700kms averaging 22kms daily.
In Part 2 of our chat with Will, we’ll hear about his inspiration for his Will to Walk project, his experiences with long-distance walking, and his advice for others looking for a fundraising challenge.
You can hear more from Will in this article in News.com.au, which also shares news of a global coalition, including Shake It Up, aiming to accelerate treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
