Alex Glover as he arrived at the lighthouse before the Kiama Pipe Band. Photo: Kellie O’Brien.
“There’s a lot more kindness in the world than we think – when we’re not rushing around all the time”.
That’s the quiet lesson Kiama’s Alex Glover carried home after a 480-day, 17,000km solo walk around Australia – a journey not just of endurance, but of compassion, connection, and a message that could save lives: “Wait one more minute, take one more step”.
Alex’s epic Strides Against Suicide walk set out from the Kiama Blowhole on 21 January, 2024 with a sendoff by his beloved Kiama Pipe Band members, and returned there last Thursday (15 May) in the same fashion.
Unsupported and with just a tent, he averaged 50 km a day in a grassroots campaign to raise awareness for men’s mental health and suicide prevention in regional and remote communities – and to remind Australians they’re never truly alone.
Speaking a day after arriving home, he said the finishing date was no more poignant than any other day on the trip, but it still felt strange.
“Today I did feel a bit like. ‘Oh, I’m not walking today’,” he said.
However, getting to see family and friends at the finish line, including his sister’s new baby, was “very special”.
“It was nice to go up there and see the pipe band, because they piped me out, so it was a very nice round off,” he said.
“I’ll start to go back to Wednesday night practices with them and thank them all, because it’s very nice hanging out with a bunch of 70 to 80 year olds that just care about the people in the community.
“Because after this walk, that’s really the only thing that matters.”
Alex said the reason for doing the walk was to help others who may have lived his story and struggled with their mental health, while also encouraging slowness and simplicity in people’s lives.
He said it was aimed to encourage men in particular to just “wait one more minute, take one more step”, and to begin the steps of communication and reaching out if they were struggling.
“The reason why I began the journey is I went through my own journey growing up,” he said.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned, which has come from doing it the way that I chose to do it, being solo and very self-sufficient, has been that slowness and simplicity in life is something we need to harness more.
“Also the idea of love and kindness is all that we can really ever give.
“We are just a reflection of the community around us, so if we want to be in a loving, kind, compassionate, caring community that helps one another, then every time we talk to someone in our community, we’re more or less just talking to ourselves, because we are a reflection of them.”
Alex said the journey had only reinforced all that for him, as he was thrust into remote locations without need for the commercial things we often place importance on.
“I think before leaving I had all these principles already, but it was really nice to almost confirm them,” he said.
“I left with my very simple message and I’ve arrived home with my very simple message.
“Mental health doesn’t really discriminate from where you come from, your status, whatever. It doesn’t waver in its ability to get you.
“I think the most important thing we can do is realise we are not alone, and that communication is the most important thing.”
Alex said with one in four men lonely and six men a day taking their lives in Australia, there shouldn’t be shame in admitting you were at a low point and asking for help.
He said a mental health issue was a “corrupt pattern of thinking” and finding practices to help manage it allowed men to take their health into their own hands.
“If people just even get a glimpse of that for one day and realise that they are not their mind, that can sometimes give people the hope they need to try and help themselves,” he said.
He said the journey wasn’t without its challenges, such as close calls with back-burning from fire bombs dropped from planes near his tent, rat plagues, relentless days of rain, nose bleeds due to exhaustion and even being threatened twice.
North of Brisbane, he lost 20 days after injuring his right foot, resulting in swapping his backpack for a makeshift cart he built to take the weight off his back, which he pulled up to the Kiama lighthouse on his last day.
He’d love to now see the cart go to someone willing to continue on the message – though not necessarily requiring them to walk around the country.
In Western Australia, he spent six to eight weeks in 40 degree-plus heat walking 14 to 16-hour stretches, uncertain of where his next meal or water supply would come from.
“I didn’t have a choice to see them as challenges through those sections, so that was almost the best way to deal with that,” he said.
“You rely on people to pull over and they say, ‘What do you need?’ I’d say, ‘Water’ and they’d fill me up.”
Witnessing those moments of kindness made up for the challenges.
“The highlight would be the kindness from strangers that I got to receive,” he said.
“That would sum up a lot of the beauty that I got to experience.
“There’s a lot more kindness in the world than we think – when we’re not rushing around all the time.”
If you or someone you know needs help, contact:
Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis support line – 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service – 1300 659 467
Kids Helpline – 1800 551 800 or kidshelpline.com.au
MensLine Australia – 1300 789 978
