Introduction ...

The Reverend Doctor Mel Macarthur is a minister in the Uniting Church and ministers at the Central Blue Mountains Congregation at Hazelbrook.
He is committed to lifelong learning and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Sydney.

From 1998, when he cycled from Dublin (Ireland) to Jerusalem, he developed an ongoing interest in pilgrimage as a form of learning, both psychological and spiritual, from a framework of the Christian tradition.

Pilgrimage is an old practice that has become, with the advent of jet travel, submerged in religious tourism.
The focus of Mel’s pilgrimages has been reviving the ancient practice of travelling to a destination under his own power, either by foot, or bicycle. His experience of pilgrimage is that the journey itself is more significant than the arrival at a particular destination. This, of course, is impossible with jet travel.

Mel was diagnosed with cancer (Large Diffuse B Cell Non Hodgkins Lymphoma) in November of 2004. From February till June of 2005 he underwent CHOP chemotherapy, which prevented a planned April bicycle pilgrimage from Hazelbrook to Uluru.
In July of 2005, Mel undertook an eleven day walk through the Kakadu National Park, and in February of 2006 he spent eleven days walking in Tasmania.
He has also now completed the Uluru bicycle pilgrimage, which commenced at the Nepean Cancer Care Centre of the Nepean Hospital in Western Sydney. This was the location of his chemotherapy treatment, and hence is a symbolic place to commence the pilgrimage to the ‘heart’ of Australia. This pilgrimage began on May 4th 2006 and concluded with his return home on June 17.

Mel’s prognosis is uncertain, and perhaps it is this very uncertainty that he anticipates will make any future pilgrimage an even more deeply spiritual event than previous ones.

USA Trip

This cycling pilgrimage was concluded due to illness and extreme weather conditions.

Mel is now back home planning to cycle across the Nullarbor and walks through the Tasmanian wilderness.

- - - - - -