HE’S been chased by bushfires, fled to higher ground as rising flood waters got too close, and stared down a wild boar he came face to face with all on the eternal trek that Grant John Cadoret, better known as The Highway Man or simply “John”, began 45 years ago.
Now aged 67, he’s an elusive character of no fixed address and no destination in mind on a lone journey walking along Australia’s highways that has taken him out of mainstream society, getting on for half a century.
In fact, John was officially listed as a missing person for 15 years, so being described as such is not a new or surprising concept to him, but we were privileged to catch up with him recently between Wickliffe and Glenthompson after a couple of days searching.
John doesn’t carry a mobile phone and only checks in with his Facebook support group when he occasionally dials in from a payphone.
He hasn’t been seen in the Hamilton area since February 2013, but we knew he was around again from sightings recorded on Facebook, but they’re usually reported 24 hours or more after a sighting by which time John has often moved on, and in what direction, no one can be certain.
He generally walks around five kilometres per day so if he’s not walking along the road, he could be hidden away under some trees and easily missed.
When we did catch up with him, he was delightfully friendly and very obliging considering we were imposing upon his personal space and where he is most comfortable and at peace – walking alone.
When asked if he would mind stopping for a chat for a couple of minutes, John said, “nup”.
John knows he can be tricky to catch up with.
“I give people challenges sometimes,” he said.
“I was just heading for that group of trees over there to settle down.
“I haven’t come this way for nine or 10 years.
“I generally go in the same direction but occasionally change the way I go.
“For the last two years I’ve been trapped in New South.
“Sometimes I take backroads, just depends.”
John looks very lean but that’s not unexpected considering the weight he carries every day.
He said he is in good health and that he hadn’t seen a doctor in all the years he’d been on the road.
“I never get sick,” he said.
“I spose one day they’ll just find my body on the side of the road.”
But surely he must get cold at night?
“The toes cool a little bit at night sometimes,” John said grinning.
“But I have a warm sleeping bag and put a tarp over the top.
“Pine trees are the best to sleep under because of the pine needles under them – but it depends how deep the needles are.”
John has survived all these years by eating what he could find on the side of the road, but mostly he has plenty of food offered to him by kind strangers.
He does purchase supplies, usually canned food when he gets to a town, but rarely ever goes hungry and generally fills up his water bottles on the side of the road or from dams.
“I’ve just had a hot pie and a vanilla slice someone gave me,” he said.
“Sometimes I say to people I’ve already eaten – thank you.”
John said mostly people are extraordinarily friendly to him – he has been hassled from time to time.
“People might yell something like – get a job – or something like that,” he said.
“It doesn’t worry me.”
John has only had two breaks from walking in the last 45 years – once was for three months to care for his elderly father before he passed away and the second occasion was only very recently when he visited family in Ballarat.
“I stayed with my brother, and we went to see my sister and spread my Mum’s ashes – they’ve been waiting for me to come back to do the ashes,” he said.
“That was only for about ten days, but even then, I still had to go for a long walk every day.
“It is usually every couple of years I catch up with family – depends on the circuit I am doing and when I can get back.”
The number of hours John walks every day varies, depending on the weather and other factors, but it all started back in Melbourne when he was 23 years old and his boss put pressure on him to get serious about work.
“I’d been working as a bank teller in the Commonwealth Bank for about four or five years,” he said
“I’d probably been having a bit too much fun and my boss asked me what I was going to do.
“I thought nah, I’m not doing this for another 20 years, and took off.
“I told my family I was going away for three months, and I never went back.
“That was about 1977 or 1978, something like that.
“They didn’t know anything about me for about 15 years and then found out I was alive, but they didn’t find me for several more years after that.
“Then I found a phone book one day and I flicked through the pages and found the name Cadoret and I dropped off a letter to the post office.
“They got in touch with the post office that I had been at, but by then, I was long gone.”
It would be another five years after that when writer Allan Nixon, also known as ‘The Uteman’ for his bestselling ‘Beaut Utes’ series of books, caught up with him and sought to reunite John with his family.
By the time they reunited, it was 25 years since they’d seen John.
“I reckon Mum didn’t forgive me for about ten years after that for not making contact,” he said.
He didn’t say he felt guilty, but he did say he was apprehensive about what kind of reception he might receive after being absent and not making contact for so long.
The emotional reunion was documented on the ABC’s Australian Story back in 2009.
John said he had a very happy childhood.
Originally from Minyip in the Wimmera, he grew up with two sisters, his brother and his parents and had a normal family life other than his parents divorcing later on, but he said that in no way influenced his decision to keep walking.
He loves what he does and although it looks rough, he said he always sleeps well.
That could be attributed to the huge weight he carries every day tiring him out; a huge backpack, two duffle bags and two shopping bags.
He said he didn’t know how much it all weighed.
“I don’t want to know,” he was quick to say.
John has no income, no pension and simply relies on small donations or finds money on the side of the road.
“It’s amazing the money you find on the road,” he said.
He said he loves to get out onto a good long stretch of road at the behest of the weather elements.
“It’s fantastic,” he said,
“It’s where I find real peace.”
John’s boots generally last around three months and he is fortunate to receive sponsorship through boot supply company Denstock, as well as donations of new or second-hand boots from private individuals.
“One thing I’ve noticed over the years is the price of things in op shops,” he said.
“They’ve gone through the roof.”
John said it wasn’t really a conscious decision to opt out of normal life but this way he doesn’t have the burden of any responsibilities.
He said he had no regrets.
“I’ll keep doing it as long as I possibly can – until I drop,” he said.
“Nothing else attracts me more.”
