Monday 21 July 2014

Why am I escaping from Colditz and Walking 600Km to Switzerland? Get behind my escape.

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,636 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Ali Borrows for $26. Good luck Mike!!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,636 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Ali Borrows for $26. Good luck Mike!!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,636 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Ali Borrows for $26. Good luck Mike!!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,636 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Ali Borrows for $26. Good luck Mike!!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,636 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Ali Borrows for $26. Good luck Mike!!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,636 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Ali Borrows for $26. Good luck Mike!!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,610 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Hugh Mantle for $52. Gee your brave and what a great idea!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,610 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Hugh Mantle for $52. Gee your brave and what a great idea!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,610 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Hugh Mantle for $52. Gee your brave and what a great idea!

Sponsor me

Escape from Colditz - Fred Hollows Fundraiser for Personal Challenge (Individual or team)

$3,610 raised for The Fred Hollows Foundation

Target of $15,000


Last donation by Hugh Mantle for $52. Gee your brave and what a great idea!

Sponsor me

Like most boys of my generation I was fascinated by the war time stories of the ingenious escapes from the "escape proof" Oflag IV C (Colditz Castle), made famous by the books, films and iconic 70's TV series.

In 2014 Colditz Castle is a spectacular youth hostel in Saxony and easy to escape from. Nowadays traveling by train through  Germany to Switzerland is very easy, even with a fake I.D. I imagine. So, to set myself a tougher challenge, I will be leaving Colditz and walking to the Swiss boarder, carrying my gear, sleeping out, unsupported.

I'll be crossing into Switzerland using the Singen route, used successfully by many WWII escapers including Pat Reid and Airey Neave.

I have set the target of saving the sight of one person for every km I will walk. This means raising $15,000.

My goal is to honour the men and women of my fathers generation, who navigated great hardship and challenging times with a level of courage and ingenuity at which I can only marvel.

I want to test myself to see if I can meet a challenge which is a fraction of what the escapers faced but, at least can put me in the shoes of some of those great men.

Finally I want to help to continue the great work of Fred Hollows to fight preventable blindness.

I need your help to spread the word. tell your friends, tell your enemies to sponsor me to help reach the goal to save the sight of 600 people.

Please Donate and encourage others to help reach my fundraising goal. http://www.everydayhero.com.au/Colditzwalk

Thanks for everyones support and donations so far. 



The Aussie Map Maker of Colditz

I was intrigued to discover that to main maker of escape maps in Colditz was an Aussie prisoner, Jack Milett. Copies of the original Colditz escape maps would be a great addition to my "escape kit" so I set out for the Australian War Memorial where the original Maps are part of the collection. The staff at the AWM were really helpful and in no time I was sitting with the original, extremely detailed maps of the surrounding area of the castle.

The maps were produced with the customary prisoner ingenuity using tracing paper and jelly from the red cross parcels. Dianne Rutherford at the AWM has a great blog post explaining the process. This is a great project for kids and at the end you can eat the printing press.

I was able to make copies of these original Maps and will take them to the castle for my "escape". It was a great thrill to be holding these original artefacts made by the prisoners for use in genuine escapes, where success may well have depended on the quality of the map. No downloadable maps for the GPS for these boys.

Many thanks to the family of Jack Millett for their generosity in donating the maps to the AWM for others to share.