Steve and Chris Lynch: father and son wearing important hats

STEVE Lynch wears “a character hat” when he walks with the Man Walk. He explained, “It’s something I wore when I was overseas and interstate.

We went to the Kimberley’s one year, and we were walking on Cable Beach and it blew off into the salt water so it’s a bit squished. It’s a bit funny, but it’s got good character.

I decided that I would buy badges for the places where I’ve visited overseas. It just gives it a little bit more character.

He finds the hat to be a “nice ice breaker” on the Man Walk, an initiative which is going from strength to strength.

Steve said, “We’ve created incredible bond between a group of 20-odd men that would climb over hot bricks to get there at 7am on a Friday morning, just to be part of the group… You have your fast walkers and you have your slow walkers and it stretches out…

What happens on the Man Walk stays on the Man Walk, and that’s why people are prepared to open up because they know if they’ve got a problem, they can share it there and it won’t go anywhere else.”

He commented that, “Farmers are special people here because they do spend a lot of time on their own.”

They have people attending from Alexandra, Buxton, Taggerty, Yarck and Thornton, with a lot of single men among them.

“They enjoy the camaraderie and the contact and the walk’s good but the coffee afterwards is even better.

They usually walk between five and eight kilometres at a slow pace, and Steve tries to select different routes around Alexandra. He aims to select routes that suit everybody and…