Most cross-country treks – running, jogging, walking – in bomb jalopies for fun and festive rallies, on horseback, pushbike, or motorcycle, are ultimately about fundraising or publicity for a worthy charity, cause, or social issue.

It’s rather refreshing then to come across one self-effacing former public servant from Canberra completing just such a trek without support vehicles, video recordings, publicity, or media releases, simply in memory of a good friend.

With only a walking stick, sleeping bag, tent, and backpack, former IT capacity planner Andrew Bowe recently made the 400km-plus three-week odyssey from the ACT to Orana with little pre-training and only a good pair of walking shoes.

“We got in last night, yesterday afternoon. We thought it would take about three weeks, and I headed off on Thursday, October 1. It was about 420km in all. I worked at the Department of Home Affairs in Belconnen and headed off from there,” Mr Bowe tells Dubbo Photo News after completing the journey on Thursday, October 22.

“It was physically tough, especially the bit around the Abercrombie River and Tuena [100km south of Orange] – it was nine kilometres uphill. I took the route through Crookwell, Trunkey Creek, and Blayney, then Orange to Molong, and then the Amaroo Road to Cumnock, Yeoval, and Dubbo,” he adds.

The choice of the route – his first to Dubbo – came about simply from a long-standing work joke and as a tribute to his old friend, Michael Zacks.

“I had a colleague at the department, he was a little bit on the [autism] spectrum, and when I started to put on a few pounds, I would say, ‘I should walk to Dubbo’ and we would laugh. He died within a year of retiring, so it was in his honour.

“I also grew up in Bathurst, and I recalled Bishop Leslie in the mid-1970s walking from Dubbo as a pilgrimage to meet his flock,” Mr Bowe recalls.

Strolling the whole route also gave Mr Bowe a new look at his own country and those who help make Australia the place it is.

“Kindness of strangers was one of the things that really struck me. One guy stopped and said I could stay at his place at Hobbys Yards. The Meek family were very kind also.

“I did it all on my own with just a tent and sleeping bag, no car or support, though I met up with my son Richard in Orange, who did the last 150km with me,” Mr Bowe reveals.

This type of journey is exactly the sort of activity his old man would undertake, Richard says.

“My father is always there ready to help everyone, a very generous man and doting grandfather that enjoys planning his next adventure, though he’s never attempted anything quite on this scale!” Richard says.

“He’s really been pushing himself; at 69 years of age, he’s determined to improve his health, as he wants to enjoy a long retirement,” he explains.

The trip was also unusual, he observes, in that it had no fundraising or social campaign motive.

“Usually, people do these sorts of unusual things to raise money or awareness for something important, but for my dad that’s not the point; it’s something much more earnest and personal.

“Perhaps that, in itself, is something worth celebrating: the hidden humanity behind the public service of Canberra; a modern Odysseus on his way to Dubbo. I wonder how many years it’s been since someone has walked along those beautiful country roads alone?” Richard asks.

Tough though the trip was, Mr Bowe is elated at having finished it successfully, and at having lost a few kilos along the way – just as he had promised his old pal Mr Zacks all those times they had joked about the journey at work.

“I had blisters the first day and from then onwards, but they didn’t get any worse. If it was for anything else, it was for obesity awareness. I started at over 100kg, and now I’m down to about 93,” Mr Bowe says.

“It was like that thing with your mobile when you have issues,” he says.

“The walk was a ‘factory reset’ of myself.”