The Walk!!!

Heading Down

Wednesday night I headed down to Melbourne and met up with the rest of my team. Fortunately, their flight from Perth arrived just before mine, and our support guy, Kevin, was there to pick us up. He had even practised driving to the airport, having arrived exactly 12 hours before after confusing a "p" with an "a". Oh well.

After settling in for the night in a miscellaneous hotel, in a miscellaneous suburb of outer Melbourne (only after the Perthites failed to fully ajust to Eastern Standard Time), we got some sleep. Being without transport, we could only wait for Kevin to arrive the next morning for a course reccy (not that we had anywhere in particular to go).

We were able to see the start, as well as the first couple of checkpoints. All good and well, particularily as Kevin already planned a few of our breaks slightly away from the checkpoints, where he knew there would plenty of space for him to set up our resucitation table. Now we knew where to meet him.

That night, we ate heartily and packed like a pack mule, whatever that is like. I was taking 2 pairs of shoes - a pair of trail runners and a pair of sturdy joggers. I was also taking 3 lots of 2 pairs of socks - 6 in total. Two t-shirts, plus a long sleeved one. A vest for warmth, as well as some wet weather gear, not that any rain was predicted (warm and dry was the forecast). A spare pair of shorts, and some spare reggies to boot. More than I'd need, but because I had the opportunity to take them, I would.

The Start

As predicted, the day dawned dry and sunny. Our lift arrived on time, and soon we had signed in, and were ready for the walk. We were starting at 8am, but only after we changed our predicted time to under 30 hours. About half of the 400 teams of 4 were starting at 8, the rest at 10. Teams who planned to start out running (such as the Gurkahs) were underneath the startline. We were about halfway down the snake, wearing our GRD Minproc t-shirts.

Eight am and we were off. The girls (Tanya and Kimbra) started at a brisk pace, a bit too brisk for Ian and myself. Still, we never got too far apart, although it may have reached a few hundred metres at times. There were no support teams allowed at the first checkpoint, but there was plenty of food and drink made available. We stopped for about 15 minutes before heading off.

The day was as predicted - warm and dry. Although the official temperature reached 30 in Melbourne, I never felt too hot at any stage. Thirsty, yes, but never too hot.
The walked continued towards Sassafrass, a genteel suburb in the Dandenongs. We had been walking at slighlty over 5km/hr - much faster than I expected - and I (well, Ian and I) were the slow ones! We negotiated our first big obstacle easily enough - the Kokoda Track Memorial (unfortunately, the evil influences are still present on the older signs, incorrectly labelled the Kokoda Trail. MESSAGE TO ALL: it is a track - a TRACK! It was even known by the diggers as "the track". It was only later evil (re American) influences that crept in which led to it be known incorrectly as a trail. When I go bushwalking, I walk on tracks - TRACKS! Or I bush-bash. Sometimes I walk on fire trails, but these are wide, designed for firetrucks to gain access to remote areas to fight bushfires - not what was in Kokoda).

So, after wandering up the Memorial Track - which was a fairly steep hill over a couple of kilometres, we had a break we guru support crew Kevin.

Checkpoints and Ressucitation

Overall, there were 8 stages with 7 checkpoints. Apart from the first CP (when there was no supporter access allowed), Kevin did a fantastic job, using his abundant experience of 5 trailwalkers (and 2 previous support crew badges) to make our walk as easy as possible. Each checkpoint, after carefully selecting an ideal spot (not always at the CP, but usually not far from one), we found a table filled with a smorgasbord of sports nutrition. Gels, bars, gatorade, protein shakes, plus boiled potatos (with extra salt), fried rice (with no peas), chicken, sandwiches and more! We would find 4 chairs around the table, enabling us to pig out without standing up. I believe this refuelling process allowed us to continue at a reasonable pace throughout the event. Well, it sure worked for me.

Darkness

I was surprised to reach CP 4 (or just after, where Kevin stopped) before dark. We had covered almost half the distance in under 12 hours - a very brisk pace. After another pig out, a change of clothes (although, by now I had already changed shoes and socks) we were ready to hit the dark tracks. Walking in night was much easier than I expected. For one, we were walking on well maintained firetrails. They had also placed glow sticks every hundred metres or so, meaning it was easy to work out if we were on the correct path (not that we ever got off track).
For me, the real part of the walk had just begun, I was looking forward to the darkness; I was curious to see how I would perform without much sleep; I wanted to feel what it was like to go non stop throughout the night. It was time.

No long into the night, I needed to change the batteries on my Pretzyl (the name I give to head torches). Being slightly rushed (we were still moving at a swift pace), I didn't quite read how one should put the batteries in. I thought I had lost a part of my torch, and it was never going to walk again. Luckily, we had a spare torch - a mini mag light, so I was not to be without photons.

By now, I had hit the Nurofen. My knees had started to ache a bit, along with my feet. I had already popped 2 blisters, and there were a few hot spots elsewhere on my feet. I was paranoid about getting massive blisters, so had changed either my shoes or socks at each checkpoint. I had also taped up a known hot spot (still got a blister there, though), and always double socked. Unfortunately, my orthotics (the old ones, not the new ones) managed to place extra pressure on one of the hot spots (the taped blistered one). Fortunately, by using normal soles, the pressure point went away.

As the night continued, the walking only got easier. We were now on the Warbuton Track, which used to be a railway line. Hence, it was wide, flat, and, well, easy. And it was long - about 30km long. There was a checkpoint about half way along, where we had a 45 minute break (which seemed much shorter to me). Here, we had to decide if we were to rest (ie sleep), or continue on. The consensus to to keep going - who wants to try to get going after some sleep? It was even hard to get going after 45 minutes...

By now our pace had slowed. I tried to keep up my spirits but relating random incidents from my primary school days to Kimbra, like when I got put in the black book in kindy for throwing a stick at David Stone (hit 'im just above the eye, too), or when Mrs Jenkins brought in her husband's skeleton (he was a doctor), and I wore the cranium like a skull cap...

I even started bursting out into song just before CP7. It was around 5am, and I was surprised at my enthusiasm. I had been taking a lot of Nurofen and caffeine, though...

Mt Donna Buang

We made sure to stay rugged up at our final checkpoint. It wasn't even in single figures, but fatigue always make you feel a bit colder. I felt a bit stiff as we started wandering towards our goal - the 1231m Mt Donna Buang. We were gradually climbing towards the base of the mountain, and the fact that we were almost home, and that it was at last starting to get light, made things a bit more bearable. I was carrying a bottle of coke and some glucose lollies, after hitting the sugar at the last checkpoint. Normally, you don't want to consume too many simple sugars in a long distance event, as you can experience energy lows following those sugars highs. Generally, once you start on the sugars, you should stay on them - hence the bottle of coke. And I was definitely on a sugar high. By the time we hit the start of the final climb, I was ready to start motoring along. First, after completing the lyrics to my new song "Donna Buang Rhapsody"*, I decided to really put the foot down. I started to catch a few of the teams ahead of us, and one guy told us there were some SES guys ahead, who had just walked down a little bit (maybe 4km) to drop off some water. I decided I wanted to catch them, and I was off.

There must have been a heap of teams just ahead of us, as I caught a lot of people. I caught the SES guy easily, and started making boisterous "Good Mornings" to everyone I passed. Not everyone appreciated it. Soon, I had reached the end of he climb, which was not the summit (which was the finish). I was still 3.6km from the finish, and I was also without my team mates.
Fortunately, this was the perfect (and pre-arranged) place to wait. There were a whole lot of SES personel, a few chairs, blankets, and warm drinks. I immediately sat down, grabbed a blanket, and ordered a warm milo. And another. The people I overtook started to appear, and Kimbra soon popped up. W started to doze a bit, until Ian and Tanya materialised, adn we set off for the summit finish line. By now, 24 hours had just ticked over. We marched the last section together, and crossed the line side by side at 9:03, 25 hours and 3 minutes after starting. And about 10 hours ahead of our original schedule. Woo Hoo.

Finished

After posing for a few photos, we grabbed a small bite to eat. I think I had some soup, but by now i was sick of eating - I had been eating regularily for the past 24 hours. i should have eaten a bit more, to aid my recover, but we had finished, and I couldn't be bothered. The whole finish line was a bit anti-climatic, but most competitiors would have exited no long after they arrived, and with people finishing over a 36 hour period, you're never going to have too many supporters there.
The drive back took a lot longer than expected - I guess we had walked 100km. Eventually we were back - after Kevin stopped for a break (he too, had spent the whole night awake). I got first dibs on the shower, which meant I could hit the sack first. I rested well.

Final Daywalk

I finished my training with a walk from Cherrybrook to North Ryde. This
was approximately 20km, (OK, maybe a little less). I ran a bit of the
way (maybe 5km) as I was a bit late. Overall, it took 3.5 hours.

Everything was OK gear wise - shoes with old orthotics, shorts and
t-shirt. Now for the real thing. I'll have to watch the following during
the walk:

* any hot spots on my feet should be tended to immediately
* likewise for any chaffing hot spots
* make sure I consume enough salt to avoid cramping
* enough carbs and protein to get me through the day, night, and day
again
* sore knees may require Ibuprofen, or knee braces
* wet and/or cold weather may present other challenges
* we should swap the lead, so no one is leading the whole time
* we need to stick together, which I may find hard to do

Fingers crossed!

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)

Berowra creek widens near the Punt.

Berowra Creek - close to the city, and pretty!

Freycinet

So instead of three days high in the South West wilderness of Tasmania, we ended up in the picturesque, but populated Freycinet Peninsula. This area has experience tremendous gowth in the past few years, and sees a lot of tourist traffic. Fortunately, the National Parks seem to be regulated the flow reasonably well, and the local community has adopted a environmental mindset, eg by banning plastic bags from all their shops.

Dave piked, due to a dodgie knee, but Dan and I headed off, initially powering past the lumberers, despite our overnight packs. The view was pretty speccie, even though the weather was overcast. After some posing for the obligatory photos, we headed off along the beach. Sand obviously makes beach walking hard, but at least you don't have any hills to climb.

Away from the happy snappers, we enjoyed the trek up to Mt Freycinet, the highest point on the peninsula. The wind and slight elevation made it a bit cooler, but once we were out of the wind, headed towards our campsite, things became quite pleasant.

Our destination for the night, a very pleasant site by the beach, was much more populated than I expected. There were about 5 parties slung out by the beach, most of them probably on a 3 or 4 day walk.

That night, we made our aquaintance with some yanks from the site next to ours, who were all studying at Hobart Uni. And whilst on the beach, we copied the yoga moves of some girls from Melbourne. The late sunset meant we could enjoy some seaweed skipping
(!), rock throwing (I knackered Harry the Happy Hiker) and some Algae Glowing.

Algae Glowing

After dark, jump up and down right at the high point of an incoming wave (wait til the water subsides before you jump). Just after you jump, luminescant algae glow a bluey green colour, concentrated at the high water point on the sand. If you jump along the beach, you can see where the last wave rolled up to. Entertainment value 6.3/10.

Once we had enough of the beach, we returned to camp (all of 10m from the beach) for some dessert (dessert is spelt with 2 s's, as you always have a double helping of dessert), just in the knick of time. Possums had started to come out, and these ones were well and truly used to humans. The first one scared my by sneaking up between Dan and myself, despite being only 1m apart. She had her baby on her back, and Dan decided to pluck it of her back. The mother scampered away, whilst the baby dangled, limbs flagging wildy, until Dan dropped it.

We spent the next little while shoring up our food supplies, making them possum proof. Later, I heard about possums in this area unzipping tents and packs so they could gorge on some chocolate. Crafty little bastards.

The next morning, food intact, we set off along the coast. The seaside track was enjoyable walking, probably due to the fantastic weather. A pod of dolphins swam past, and we entered for a dip too.

The day was not very strenuous, which suited our tiring bodies perfectly. We made it back around lunch time, met up with Dave, and headed back to Hobart for our flight back home.

A perfect day on one of the world's prettiest beaches.

Why do backpacker ads have pictures of people with their arms in the air? Dunno.

This is as far as most tourists get - thankfully.

Day Walks - Tasman Peninsula, Mt Anne, Mt Field

After my trip to Frenchmans Cap, and a night in Hobart, I headed out to pick up Dan and Dave from the airport. (You can get cheap parking by parking in the rental car area - helps if you actually have a rental car, though.) We kept on heading to the

Tasman Peninsula, stopping at some of the many points of interest, including:

• tesselated pavement (very square, looks unnatural)
• the beach (cold, but much warmer than Ottawa)
• Eaglehawk neck, where dogs stopped escaping convicts at the isthmus (and I broke some ancient driftwood in front of the cafe)
• various blow holes and their relatives
• Port Arthur (walk in the exit, and you don't have to pay)

We took 4 hours to visit the Totem Pole, a feature on my hit list (ever since I saw a picture of it in Climb Magazine - and there were climbers there too). 'Twas a nice walk out and back, with big cliffs, a bit of wind, and a seal (as discovered by Dave).

That night, we headed out to Lake Pedder (or Gordon) (seeing a numbat on the way), to get ready for our 3 day walk up Mt Anne. We camped at the track head, and the following morning I drove the car 7km to the end of the circuit (and walked back) to avoid a long road bash at the end of the walk. The morning was very overcast, but we were optimistic none-the-less. The walk starts across a swampy area, but before long, you are climbing up the ridge towards Mt Anne. Unfortunately, the cloud wasn't lifting, and we were steadily nearing its ceiling.

Eventually, at the a nice little hut, we reached that day's roof. There were a few others around, waiting for the weather to improve. One guy even ventured up for a bit, only to return speaking of crazy white stuff falling from the sky. Hmm.

After not much debate, we decided to pike, and returned to our starting point (now sans car). Fortunately, there were people (the climbers from the Totem Pole, actually) willing to give Dan a ride to the rental car.

Now with some unplanned days up our sleeve, we ended up at Mt Field National Park, an oft overlooked area, despite its spectacular alpine scenery. I was very impressed by it - much open heath, tarns, cliffs and scree slopes. The circuit we chose for the day went past an aptly named Lake Webster (Woo Hoo), as well as a couple of huts, one of which had been restored into a fantastic museum. The area is (during cold winters) a ski area, and we walked past a couple of the ski lifts, as well as some ski lodges.

Next, we headed for the coast, but only after we stopped at the Styx Valley, an area of environmental combat. The Tasmanian Logging Company has put up a nice walk going past the Big Tree, and the Bigger Tree, and explaining the environmental way in which they harvest timber. One kilometre around the corner, is Greenpeace's version of events, next to some clear cut land, with their walk visiting the big stump and Reg, the tree which protesters lived in until it got too cold (about April). It was great to see the contrasting messages and styles of propaganda. Should be more of it.