Berowra Daywalk

This day's training was planned to mimic the Trailwalker, in terms of pace (actually, I expect our Trailwalker pace to be a bit slower), clothing (or at least foorwear) and backpack (spot on with this one), so what better place to do it than the Sydney trailwalker course.

I set off from Cherrybrook, and headed for Berowra waters, which is also the Benowie section of the Great North Walk, a walk from Sydney to Newcastle. I got dropped off at about 8:40, and settled into a brisk but manageable pace. I was planning to do the 25km walk in about 5 hours, so there were to be no bludge stops.

The day was already quite warm, and I was very surprised by the pleasant scenery, which followed the creek (the one that goes through Galstone Gorge) all the way, with only a few ups and downs, to get around the incumbant sydney sandstone cliffs that frequetly line creeks like this.

Most of the route follows a well worn track, but there were a few sections of fire trail. Harry the happy hiker always cropped up at major intersections to point me in the right direction, so there were no navigation dilemas (I didn't have a map - just a nose for the right direction).

A burnoff had taken place the day before, so I got to walk through a smokey section, for about 2km. There were still a few burning bushes about, and the haze seemed to trap in more heat. This section was closed by the Bush fire brigade, but I saw no sight of them that day, and ignored there warnings. But I could easily see it could have been unsafe - a few trees had collapsed across the track, and a few more were propped up by nothing more than a few twigs.

I crossed a creek, whcih was signposted as "The Fishponds", which ended up being some large, naturally occurring wells or holes (moulins?) gouged into the rocks by the water. Easy to see where its name came from.
I ran into a bunch of girl guides, out for some adventure. I hope they had a nice day.

Towards the end of the walk, a ran for a few minutes, to try and make up time so I wouldn't be late for my ride home. Unfortunately, he too was late, but fortuantely, a bunch of scouts were selling drinks at the Bewrora Punt (the walk ends on the west side, away from the shops), so I could refresh myself before we had a lazy afternoon.

Overall
* fantastic views along the creek, which is surprising for somewhere so close to sydney
* not much evidence of development, which is surprising for somewhere so close to sydney (a few roads to cross, but not much more)
* I should really treat the Trailwalker a bit like an Ironman in terms of nutrition, instead of waiting to get hungry before eating (I was starting to get a bit weaker towards the end of the walk)
* drinking from my Camelbak was just fine
* I won't wear my new orthotics, as they gave me a slight blister
* if I get sore spots in the trailwalker, they must be tended to immediately
* I need to do another long walk, using my old orthotics (the new shoes were OK)