A British pensioner has completed a mammoth run across Australia while pushing a wheelbarrow - and collected £9,000 in cash donations along the way. David Baird ran from Perth in Western Australia to Sydney on the east coast while pushing a wheelbarrow for the whole 2,572 miles.The 65-year-old is raising money and awareness for breast and prostate cancer charities and had more than £9,000 thrown into the barrow along the way.
He is as yet unsure how much he has raised through sponsorship and online donations.
Baird, originally from Western-Super-Mare in Somerset, set out from Perth in Western Australia on September 21 and finally reached the Pacific Ocean at Manly Beach on Saturday.
His whole run was the equivalent of one hundred 'full marathons' in just 112 days.
Pushing a bulk standard garden wheelbarrow with no modifications, Mr Baird suffered not even one puncture nor had any mechanical failures.
But his feet have not fared quite so well.
'All my adult life my feet have been a size ten but within three weeks my feet had spread out and I had to change to an eleven,' he said.
'Two weeks later I needed a twelve. My feet feel huge. I'm convinced my arms have got longer too'.
He ran most of the way into a head wind and in temperatures of up to 46 degrees.Eating mostly fruit and vegetables he has lost 7kg in weight.
Yet despite the obvious hazardous conditions, he said the biggest hazard he faced was the huge trucks or 'road trains', which sped past him at speeds of up to 120 km/h.
'The 'truckers' were great,' he said. 'They'd always sound their horns or yell out of their windows at me. The problems came when two passed me at the same time. The roads were just not wide enough.
'Twice I had trucks swipe the side of the barrow and four or five times I'd have to dive into the bushes for safety and the barrow would end up thrown in to the air by the up-draft of the trucks. There were several times I had to sit down and compose myself.
'Far worse than the trucks though were the relentless flies which covered me from head to toe.
'These, and the stench of kangaroo 'road kill' which was really bad on The Nullarbor Plain. There was a carcass about every 30 metres so at times I would try to run holding my breath.'
Mr Baird said the thought of finishing and dipping his feet into the Pacific Ocean kept him going.
'I've never been much of a drinker but I have to admit that I've acquired a taste for beer on this run.
'After a long hard day on the road a freezing cold beer is just heaven,' he said.
Mr Baird is no stranger to competitive sport. He represented England as a schoolboy sprinter and also in rugby union; and the South of England in gymnastics and judo.
After emigrating to Australia, he spent 21 years working in a coal mine in Queensland.
It was after he was made redundant and hung up his rugby boots after 43 years that he took up running.
The idea for his wheelbarrow challenge came from The Anakie to Sapphite wheelbarrow race in Queensland.
Organised by locals, the 18km race is organised as a reminder of the gem prospectors who flocked to the area in Australia's early years.
'Legend has it that one prospector arrived in town with nothing other than the pick and the wheelbarrow he was pushing,' Mr Baird said.
'Over the course of several years he made his fortune and then drank and gambled it all away until eventually he was seen leaving town carrying exactly all he arrived with.'
