It’s day eight of the Shoulder to Shoulder journey and we have experienced our first wet, rainy day of walking. Over the past few days we have passed through and camped at Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve, ‘Hilview’ Bylong, Kerrabee Homestead and we have now arrived in Denman.

Yesterday was a significant day as it was the change over in our relay, with the young people from the Walanmarra program in Dubbo finishing their leg of the journey and the young people from the Burbangana program in Sydney joining the team to continue the relay. It was a really nice moment in the journey when each of the young people from Dubbo took turns sharing their highlights, achievements and what they will take from this trip with the young people just starting their journey. We had so much pride and admiration for them.

A real highlight has been Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve. It is just stunning and going up to castle rock which is a rock formation - the views were amazing. The pinnacle rock formation allows you to see over three different indigenous language areas and is a really important meeting and gathering place. We could see where we had come from and where we were going. Stories were passed on to the group about how the formation is representative of knowledge and how people grow from a child to an adult increasing their responsibility, knowledge and outlook as they grow up, just like the rock formation. 

We have also been joined over the past few days by some Taronga staff, so there have been plenty of stories shared about the journey so far.

Another highlight for everyone was seeing our first two Wombats in the wild which was just amazing!

Tomorrow we continue our way into the hills which is sure to test the muscles.

By Lucinda Cveticanin, Shoulder to Shoulder walker.