IT was different and it was the same as a group of walkers picked a path across the Bathurst district last week.
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Sydney teacher Patrick O'Shea was back in the Central Tablelands to remember his late wife Michelle Hanrahan and to raise money for the Love Your Sister charity, which encourages Australian women to have their breasts checked and raises funds for scientific research.
Mr O'Shea has staged an annual walk in the Central Tablelands, in various forms, for the past four years as a way of tracing his late wife's life steps.
"We originally thought it would not happen, then it would happen, then I thought I'd be doing it solo," he said of this year's walk, which was planned in the shadow of the pandemic.
In the end, however, he was joined by some of the original walkers.
They stayed at the Royal Hotel in Oberon last Tuesday night, the O'Connell Hotel last Wednesday night and Jack Duggans last Thursday night.
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Drivers travelling between O'Connell and Bathurst last Thursday would have seen the walkers, in two groups, making their way along the side of the road.
"My brother-in-law [Damien Hanrahan] said in a year of absolute uncertainty, it's really nice that the one constant thing is this walk to remember Michelle and to try to raise some money for Love Your Sister," Mr O'Shea said.
"And the world opened up just enough to allow that to happen."
Mr O'Shea said donations had not been the most important aspect of the walk this year, considering the difficult circumstances of 2020, but more than $1000 had still been raised for Love Your Sister.
"It's about remembrance and gratitude," he said of the walk. "We're metaphorically walking a Central West girl home."
Mr O'Shea's late wife was a Bathurst girl who made a career in the health sector in Sydney.
Go to the Shella for Sisters (Paddys Pub to Pub) 2020 Facebook page to see photos or to donate.