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Tricia Sharples

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My training progress

19 km

My target

75 km

My October progress

70 km

My target

75 km

Follow my journey from the Ocean to the Outback

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Why I'm running

Winter is over and it's time to get active. I'm raising funds for the Royal Flying Doctor's again, by running 75 km in the month of October.
This is my 5th year of participation and I've been honoured to be recognised by the Tasmanian Branch for my efforts- which is really all my donors efforts in past years, too.
I try to raise funds for the RFDS, as interstate travel is part of life after work. Whether it's travel on the mainland or just to the East Coast of Tasmania, it may be my bad luck that something will happen and I'll need the services of the Flying Doctor.
This is why RFDS is important to me and many other travellers.

Donate now >>

I'm fundraising for the Royal Flying Doctor Service

Australia is a big country and for those living in remote, rural and regional areas, access to immediate care isn’t guaranteed. For some communities, the nearest hospital is an eight hours drive or a plane flight away.

This October, I’m taking on a month-long fitness challenge to help more people access the care they need. By going further, I hope to raise as much as possible for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).

Every year, the RFDS reach more than 330,000 Australians with 24-hour emergency retrieval and primary healthcare services. That’s one person every two minutes!

Together, we can keep the Flying Doctor flying and continue their life-saving work. 

Please donate to my challenge and know that your donation goes to the Tasmanian division of the RFDS.

Please Help Me
Reach My Goal

Raised

$1,256

My Goal

$1,313

Select amount to donate

$32
$65
$102
$258
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So far this year
I’ve helped provide...

Laryngoscopes image

31

Laryngoscopes – used to assist in intubating and ventilating a patient.

Life-saving medical chests image

20

Life-saving medical chests for a remote, rural or regional community.

Defibrillator Pads

18

Defibrillator Pads – used with a machine to monitor a patient’s cardiac health.

 TOP DONATION 

Avatar
$216.5
David Cross
Shoutout to David
– my biggest supporter so far with a $216.5
donation to help the Royal Flying Doctor Service
bring life-saving support to Australians in need.

Here's how much Tricia has raised
to keep the Flying Doctor flying!

$1,329
2022
$1,536
2023
$1,269
2024
$1,229
2025
$1,256
2026

Tricia has raised a grand total of $6,620 over 5 years!

Thank you to my supporters

100% Total Legends

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David Cross

$216.5

Hang in there, not far to go

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Gae

$108.89

So proud of you Trishie. Your selflessness knows no bounds❤️💜💖

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Facebook Donation

$101.42

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Facebook Donation

$101.42

Top Fans

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Maree and Bill Conrad Wilson

$82.13

Go Tricia, it is so impressive that you have been doing this for five years now.

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Andrea Price

$72.06

Love your work Tricia, and for such a good cause

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Daryl Butler

$55.95

Go girl

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Elizabeth Campbell

$55.95

What s great effort.... and a great cause

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Fil Wise

$55.95

You’re a star in more ways than one!!! 👏🏻

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Malcolm Haas

$55.95

Keep up the good work!

Proud Supporters

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Facebook Donation

$50.86

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Facebook Donation

$50

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Anonymous

$39.93

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Margaret Waddell

$36.62

Go girl!

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Michelle Lockley

$36.62

Go Tricia xx

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Bill Linton

$34.4

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Anne Kiely

$32

allez allez :)

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Facebook Donation

$25

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Mignonne

$23.81

I hope you’ll never need the RFDS, but glad you’re helping to keep them in the sky!

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Facebook Donation

$20.53

My Updates

This weekend's effort

Sunday 25th Oct
At the end of a lovely warm week, the weather's expected to change but not before I got  a Parkrun in at New Norfolk - I know, I was there last Sunday.........the trees are all still in blossom and the ducklings and baby turbo chooks are still around in small numbers.
Today I had the support team of two - these were the very long legged and the very short legged (Jackson, the middle grandchild) supporters.  
Jackson agreed to stick to PR's rule about staying close to your adult, which I thought would be that he'd stay with "Da" and walk and run a bit , but no, he was running way out in front for the 1st two kms, and then he followed a pattern of walking for ages, then I'd head back to meet him - he'd race on ahead stop and dawdle for the next however long.  I had to double back a few times to make sure that he wasn't out of sight!
The photo of young Jackson standing by the finishing flags was sweet because he wanted to see the finishers come in- meaning those fast runners, who'd come in first.  Oh dear, I had to tell him that they'd already gone home.
I'm very happy with my effort today running, although I did accidentally pause my watch at 35mins, so I don't have a true record record of how far I ran, but I'm really happy with that time!

mid week effort

Wednesday 21st Oct
Wednesday - mid way between some extraordinary high 20s- 30 degree days. This morning appeared with the opposite weather- very low cloud all along the Derwent.

I had a strength training session 1st up, so I trotted along the Esplanade afterwards - Lindisfarne Rowing Club to the Tasman Bridge and back makes for a neat 4 kms.
This now brings my exercise total to just over 61kms for the month.

Sunday in the Sun

Sunday 18th Oct
A fabulous spring day in New Norfolk- the Support Team of One was involved with a state-wide Dragon Boating competition on the beautiful Derwent River- so I took the opportunity to stroll/shuffle/run along the riverside tracks and parts of the town's Parkrun.
Highlights were ducklings, blooming irises and boat racing

Back on track after a break

Saturday 17th Oct
After a bit of an enforced break, while we were away from home and out of our usual routine, II have run/shuffled 6.5Km today- a normal parkrun as well as another 1.5km as a cool down. 
This brings me happily to over 50 Km, with 15 days still to go to accrue another 25 kms, by the end of the month. Easy peasy!

Bludging in Bridport

Monday 12th Oct
Day 12 of O2O: The support team of one & I have made it to  Bridport, the gateway to the Bass Strait and Flinders Island. Regular readers will know that Flinders is a favourite holiday destination of this small team, but we won't make the trip across Banks Strait this time around (but you can see it from here, on a clear day).
Although it's still school holidays, it's fairly quiet which is a good thing when you're in a large camping ground. This town would be jumping in summer though.
Facilities are good here, in particular playgrounds for the kiddies, a surf life saving club, sailing club, big public Golf and Croquet Club and a well turned out circular walk along the beach front, up to the hill ridgeline to a Wildflower Reserve and a River-Forest track. This last section follows the Brid River that flows into town from Scottsdale way (I think, if I'm reading the map correctly from out beyond a town called Cuckoo) and is known to have platypuses. I didn't see one there today, but I did see a White Bellied Sea Eagle, which is a bonus.
As I didn't do all of the Foreshore part of this trail, I notched up 10.4 km which is a great way to achieve my 75 km goal.

Bridport camping in the Sheoaks

Sunday 11th Oct
Bridport in North Eastern Tasmania is my next stop in my quest to find interesting places to complete my O2O distances.
Not familiar with this town at all, other than it's proximity to Barnbougle Golf Course and the port being the access point for travel to Flinders Island.
The support team of one and I took a short stroll along the waterfront and it seemed like a typical quiet Sunday in the off season, until we noticed a huge plume of dark dirty smoke rising from a pace behind one of the Hotels.
It seemed like time went into slow motion as the arrival of the volunteer fire fighters and the local brigade was endless, but being on call made their task that little bit harder. Well done the firies for containing what was probably a man's shed fire with the usual paints and thinners, chemicals etc that would have been in there (so support team of one thought).
Fortunately no one was hurt, but the firies had a good practice.

week 2

Saturday 10th Oct
Week 2: O2O challenge and I'm in the north of the state enjoying a short break - looking forward to a bit of sunny weather, but that hasn't happened yet.
This  morning was Parkrun and I did the pick of Launceston's PRs today - a bush reserve called the Kate Reed reserve, that is located right next to the Silverdome and the Bass Highway, but you wouldn't  know it's there (like the best kept secrets about any town)- I lived there for 8 years and never heard about it.  The reserve caters for mountain bike riders as well as walker sand runners and it has a variety of tracks - duck board, fire trails and bike trails- all quiet this morning except for the parkrunners.  If you're going to Launny, forget the Gorge, try the Kate Reed Reserve , unless you don't like unsealed tracks!!!

1st week and 1st big adventure

Thursday 8th Oct
It's nearing the end of the first week of my O2O challenge and I did a lovely 4 Km walk (with the great support team of 1) to the "Grove of Giants" which is located in the Snowy Range, nearish to Judbury/Lonnavale. The walk is actually closer to Maydena as the crow flies than to Huonville.
The walk is located in a regenerated Forestry Coupe and some of my photos will show the pillage and debris left from those times, but the essence of the forest is still very visible- magnificent Manferns, humungous Eucalyptus trees and plenty of Fun Guys.
The Eucalyptus trees measure around their widest point at least 13 m and the heights vary from a tiddly 63 m to over 80m up. Some of those photos can't even show how very tall these trees are!
This walk took us nearly two hours as there's no duckboards or easy trails; a lot of the forest floor was well covered with tree roots, some mud puddles and slippery rocks (it rained heavily the day before)...but I'm not complaining!  I saw no leeches and surprisingly, no spider webs either!

Sunday stroll/shuffle

Monday 5th Oct
My intended shortish run with friends was quickly diverted when we came across a vintage/specialist car show at Nutgrove Beach in Sandy Bay. While it wasn't really lovely weather with grey skies, it was nice to view the variety of cars- including some very stylish european cars - old Porsches and, etc plus a very stylish VW kombi.
We did move our legs faster a bit later for about 3.5 KM.
This post is a day late, we were actually there on 4th October.

1st official parkrun effort in O2O

Saturday 3rd Oct
Day 3 of the O2O challenge- a nice Saturday at Orford for Our Park Parkrun's 300th event, which also coincided with the 22 years since Parkrun was first run in England. So it was a tutu (2 -2) event, which made the pathway quite colourful (no blokes were brave enough to don a tutu, sadly). I managed to slip in an extra leg of the PR by doing the pre-event course check, which increased today's total by 1.25 km.

Day One

Thursday 1st Oct
Day One of the O2O challenge and as a mildly pleasant breeze whipped around Lindisfarne and Geilston Bay, I took an 8 Km run/shuffle around Natone Hill and across to Geilston Bay. That was a big enough challenge for Day 1. I'll try to do the Bedlam Walls route incorporating the takara limuna (Sheoak) interpretation walk another time.
I saw a healthy looking goanna on Natone Hill and the Turbo Chooks & four chicks on the Geilston Bay side.
Nice views all round.

Tv coverage

Tuesday 29th Sep
I have been interviewed for Win TV, who are doing Australia wide promotion of the Oceans to Outback Challenge for 2026.
It's a bit of a surprise that of all the photogenic entrants, I've been chosen. But it is no surprise that they're happy to acknowledge my continued involvement in fundraising for RFDS over the last seventeen years.
Along the way, I have entered the O2O challenge five years running (including 2026) and raised a couple of thou. for the cause, as well as getting some worthwhile exercise in.
The segment is due to run on Wednesday night, 30th September in the evening news bulletin.


Eight days to go!

Tuesday 22nd Sep
with only eight days left in September, it's definitely time to increase training, so I headed out with the support walker for a practice trip up the hill behind home, to the Risdon Reserve.
We've had a lot of wind statewide and the evidence of blown out trees and dropped limbs was every where (plus it's very dry up there) - a bushfire waiting to happen, unfortunately.
However the views are fantastic and we were beautifully sheltered from a strong breeze - we got that when we were back at sea level.
Some lovely little orchids and other flowers are starting to bloom, making it a lovely peaceful view.
Only 4km for the whole circuit, but still worth heading out.

Training days

Wednesday 16th Sep
This training follows a strength training class - it's a cool and, as it turns out, a snowy day in mid September! Kunanyi has a dusting of snow and Collins Cap, behind this view has even more snow - lasting well into mid afternoon.
The nippy weather is a good incentive to move a big faster.

1st training run at Our Park Orford

Sunday 13th Sep
on a lovely Saturday morning at Orford the effort begins - this is the start of my RFDS Oceans to Outback run challenge