Back to ‘caveman roots’

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AS the ash cloud from a Chilean volcano closed airports across Australia last month, Len Gervay found another way to travel interstate.

Together with Chris Turnbull, the pair ran from Sydney to Melbourne raise awareness for endangered native plant species.

“It’s been fantastic and we’re feeling quite good,” Gervay, 30, said after he passed Yass in southern NSW.
Running 890 kilometres in 10 days is a challenge for anyone, but the Jewish engineer decided to take on the journey less than three weeks after coming up with the idea.

“We decided to do this as a challenge and to escape the everyday norm,” the Sydneysider said. “Chris and I love our adventures – we crossed Bass Strait in a kayak last year – and we love doing new challenges so we decided to get back to our caveman roots and do something physical.”

Gervay said the run was rewarding, but not easy. “We’ve been eating raw broccoli and avocado sandwiches, which are really filling,” he said laughing.

“We chat but not all the time and there are some long silent patches. Towards the end of the days are very tough when the sun has gone down. We struggle both physically and psychologically.”

The pair is raising money for the NSW Seedbank, which is trying to save native plant species from extinction by collecting, storing and researching native seeds, which are at risk from destruction due to climate change and human activities.

NSW Seedbank natural heritage manager Peter Cuneo said the runners have single-handedly already saved the Wee Jasper grevillea.

“It is a rare shrub that grows around the Burrinjuck area [in central NSW] and it’s down to only 150 plants in the wild,” Cuneo said. “With the money that they have raised we can save the plant by controlling the threats in its natural environment and also collecting seeds to understand how it germinates to see what makes it tick and how we can help it survive.”

JOSHUA LEVI