17,065.4 km to belfast
Anzac Day. I went to the dawn service at Bondi with Vic and his wife Lorraine, in the dark with a few thousand others and the waves going behind the bugle. Then I walked round the cliffs to Bronte and did my forty.
Des's father was at Tobruk. Des never went to a service in his life but he kept the medals in the drawer with the good tea towels.
Des also had a rule. Swimming season finishes on Anzac Day. After that, the ocean's for surfers and lunatics. For twenty years I got out of the water every 25th of April and didn't get back in till October, and he'd say "told you" every year, as if I'd argued.
This year I'm not stopping. Lachie says the pin is somewhere past Dural, in an orchard. Des would have said an orchard's a very good place to stop.
45.6 km. Water 21, according to the man with the string.