SOS Sydney-to-Brisbane Walk in Australia (I)

Day 1 1/9/01

After the press meeting in front of the Sydney Chinese Consulate, six walkers accompanied by many fellow practitioners paraded through the heart of the city heading towards Sydney Bridge. Once on the bridge, it started to rain. After crossing the bridge, we waved goodbye to the fellow practitioners. They waved back with support and encouragement and great expectation in their eyes. A lot of flyers had been handed out during the parade and our walking towards Hornsby.

Day 2 2/9/01

Fellow practitioners staying overnight in front of the Sydney Chinese Consulate had prepared a lot of newsletters for us. We also got some SOS flyers that had been designed for the walk. We put plenty of them into the mail boxes as we were moving along.

Day 3 3/9/01

Kevin joined us today as guest walker. Today, we walked through the hills. The roads were narrow. There were many twists and bends, going uphill and downhill all the time. Most of the roads were covered with twigs and stones with tall wild grass on the side. It was a difficult and quite dangerous journey. Kevin changed shoes a couple of times to adjust to the road surface condition.

We met many motorists in the hills. We talked to them and handed them information about Falun Dafa and the Walk. Kevin did a good job in this respect. The majority of the motorists sincerely showed their support for Dafa. One joked that his wife was Chinese, so he had to support us. When we took a rest in the afternoon, three motorists came and parked their motorcycles in front of us. Kevin handed each of them a drink and a leaflet and told them what we were doing.

At night, we stayed at Wyoming Caravan Park. Xiao Li told us that when he went there to make reservations, he gave some information to the host. When he finished our walk for the day and went there, the host told Xiao Li that he had read all the information and asked Xiao Li to give him more leaflets for him to hand out at the shopping center. Someone had signed the petition and inserted it into the windshield wiper of our van.

Day 4 4/9/01

Early in the morning, we did Hongfa in the town of Gosford. Some did Dafa exercises in the park and some handed out leaflets. When we were doing the meditation exercise, a man came over and Kevin talked to him. We finished Hongfa, said good bye to Kevin, and continued our walk at about 9:30am.

On our way leaving the town of Gosford, a person we had met asked why it was not good for the elderly people in China to improve their health. Obviously he knew what had happened in China. We elaborated a little more to him and answered his questions. He left, satisfied. As we passed through a car sales office, two persons saw us and came out. They asked us to tell them what it was all about. We told them briefly what Falun Dafa was and the lack of freedom to believe in Falun Dafa in China. We handed them some flyers. One of them told us that he had seen us in Hornsby on Sunday.

We were carrying three sign boards as we walked. One of them was "Falun Dafa -- Truth, Compassion, Forbearance" with dark blue as background color and the letters in gold. The design was good but it could not be seen clearly at a distance. We still carried it and held it up high as we were walking because we believed that it would be very clearly seen in other dimensions.

All walkers were walking with high spirits. It is still taking some time for us to learn how to cope with the whole situation, such as the changing road conditions, the weather, the food, the walking speed, the accommodations, and sticking together 24 hours a day with fellow practitioners for 34 days continuously. Our physical bodies are still in the adjustment period and have not yet completely adapted to the walk yet. However, our determination is very strong.

Day 5 5/9/01 Gonokon to Swansea

We walked in the rain for nearly an hour in the morning. Our shoes and socks got wet, but it did not affect our walking and our morale. The weather was fine after the rain stopped.

The walking team had a little bit of discussion about the timing and length of the morning break, lunch break, and afternoon break in order to better control the time so that we could walk better.

When we arrived at Swansea, we visited the office of the MP of Swansea. We met his secretary. She already heard about Falun Dafa and had received some Dafa information. We told her about the walk from Sydney to Brisbane and the purpose of our walk. We showed her pictures of Dafa worldwide activities. When we showed her pictures of torture in China, she could hardly look at them. We gave her some SOS newsletters for her to pass on to the MP.

In the evening, some fellow practitioners came to visit us and thought they might at the same time do some liaison work, such as contacting media and MP's. They brought us some delicious food.

The Walking Team, 11pm 5/9/01.