Merlin Gammon ran 17,011 kilometers around Australia in 365 days, and when you ask him why, he says he's not entirely sure. In this Trail Stories episode, the Wizard of Run tells the story of how he found out: a truck that clips his chariot in the middle of the Nullarbor, a hill so steep he has to lean back and hope, a secret he keeps on day 35, a year of strangers handing him steaks and orange juice, and a hammock beside the road that makes him think about what it means to have somewhere to go. By the time he gets back to the tip of Cape York, the answer is clear, and it has nothing to do with running away.

Show Notes

About the Guest


Merlin Gammon, who goes by the Wizard of Run, grew up in Victoria at the bottom of Australia and spent his early twenties drifting between jobs: landscaping, a mountain bike park, fruit picking, and a cattle station. On September 12, 2026, he finished a solo lap of Australia on foot, starting and ending at the tip of Cape York in Far North Queensland: 17,011 kilometers (more than 10,500 miles) in 365 days, pulling everything he owned in a harness trailer he calls his chariot. His longest run before the lap was a 201-kilometer backyard ultra, and early in the lap he folded in Nedd Brockmann's Uncomfortable Challenge, running 71 kilometers a day for 10 days to raise money for Australians experiencing homelessness.


What Happens in This Episode


The Truck on the Nullarbor


The Man Who Never Stayed


The First Thousand Kilometers


Strangers and Silence


Road Trains, Roadside Beds, and Day 365


The Answer


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