We made it!

Oxfam Trailwalker 2011 completed.

8 Big Toes finished the walk in the stellar time of 31 hours and 20 minutes. Disincluding stops at checkpoints, the team walked for 25.5 hours in total. 

The team at the start

 Overall it was an excellent adventure, with many beautiful sights and sounds along the way.

Rocking checkpoint 1

Finishing the 100km wasn't an easy feat, and all of us suffered our various ailments along the way. Rosie had terribly sore feet after about 40km, Dave had agonising pain in his knee for about 40km, Pete got exhausted and sick before checkpoint 6, and Mick was exhausted and sore. But we pushed through it all, working as a team and buoying each other when it was tough. Only 55% of teams made it with all 4 team members, so we feel pretty good about our efforts.

Eerie Checkpoint 5 at St Ives in the fog at 2:30am

 The event was magnificently organised by Oxfam, and coming into checkpoints was a good feeling, knowing that there would be new water and food, first aid and a clinic for feet strapping and massage. Oh yeah, and the port-a-loos. All of the volunteers were friendly and cheered us on at every step.

Tents at checkpoint 6 - Davidson Park

 We decided not to sleep at St Ives, in the fear that stopping would mean that Dave could not continue with his knee. It turned out not to be the best decision, as exhaustion quickly followed during the next leg. However, a 20 minute nap at the next checkpoint first thing in the morning seemed to reinvigorate us and allow us to continue Toewards to Glory. 

Crash!

 Some memorable incidents included: Pete giving in to frustration and trying to overtake about a line of 20 walkers at a creek crossing by choosing an alternate route across the rocks. Knee stack on a tall mossy rock ensued. At one point at night a possum walked right across the track in front of Rosie and she didn't even seem to notice (do you remember that Rose?). Rob coming out of the bush near checkpoint 8 filming us! A teenager on a bicycle zooming past us on a bush track near to the end and absolutely nailing himself in an epic stack. Walking through the bush at night with head torches coming out of the fog - surreal.

 We were super happy and proud to cross the finish line at the end of the event - 4:30pm on Saturday - 31 hours after we had begun.

Just metres from the finish.

We would like to say a very special thank you to all of our team supporters over the weekend who did an absolutely amazing job looking after us, feeding us and caring for us at checkpoints. In no special order: Elaine and John, Adam and Tori, Jess and Chris, Mel. Thanks guys!

Hardcore training ain't hardcore enough

8 Big Toes have recently partaken in two epic adventures: a 50km walk from Berowra to the Rocks and a 25km night walk from Bobbin Head to St Ives.

Last week, we teamed up with the girls from team Silver Spoons to complete a distance half the length of the Trailwalker itself: 50kms. We went from Berowra to Hornsby to Thornleigh to South Turramurra to Lane Cove to Chatswood to Artarmon to North Sydney to the Bridge to the Rocks. Phew! We started with 7 and ended with just Rosie and Pete having a kick-arse meal at Pancakes on The Rocks, with Dave and Sal from the Silver Spoons making it across the bridge. Mick was keen to finish but it was 9pm and time for bed (soft!), so he bowed out at about 44kms.

The most notable achievement was the sun going down while we were still in the bush. Only a few of us had lighting and it was a bit of a dodgy scramble out of the Lane Cove National Park. No one fell in any rivers though.

8 Big Toes and the Silver Spoons

Given that this is the greatest distance any of us had walked in one go, we were all quite happy to say we came out of it feeling pretty much fine. A couple of days of soreness but nothing a few bath bombs and stretches couldn't fix. The thought of doing it again was a little daunting but we're ready to smash it up.

Last night, or this morning, we went on a nightwalk. We looped the Bobbin Head/Sphinx Track, then headed through St Ives to the St Ives Showground.

Being our first team night walk, we didn't quite know how fast we would go and how we would shape up, but it was all a breeze of fresh air. The walking itself was easy and one amazing thing we saw was the tide recede by literally 2m along the river! We were scrambling up on the rocks on the way there and wondering where the water had gone on the way back.

Pete and Rosie made a quick toilet stop at Bobbin Head National Park, passing through the Marina and going to the park's loos. On their way back, they had to jump a fence and were suddenly confronted by a security guard. "Excuse me, you can't be here," he said. Pete and Rosie didn't miss a beat, "No, it's okay, we came from here." "Uh, excuse me. Sorry, you can't go this way." "Nah it's all good. We're just heading through to the trail." "Um, how did you get in here? Did you jump the fence?" "Yep!" "... okay." "Have a nice night mate." "... You too!"

Poor guy. He was way out of his depth.

We continued onwards and climbed a mother of an uphill, then set a dog barking and heard it echo through the valley for the next hour. We saw possums, wallabies and the glinting eyes of mini spiders, and also ran into another couple of Oxfam walkers. The Fernwood Foxes were doing 50kms wearing funny hats, one of which we found many hours later and are keen to return.

Next week we will rejoin the Silver Spoons for one last large walk of 40kms, then it's just 3 weeks until the walk itself.

Bring it on, I say!

8 Big Toes

The countdown get serious!

Only 6 weeks to go until 8 Big Toes hit the Oxfam trails for the real thing.

Friday 26th and Saturday 27th of August are the days marked in bold, black marker on the calendar.

Training walks now rarely dip below 30km and we're all putting in extra hours during the week to keep our legs supple, toned and tanned. Hopefully the increase in leg sexiness also aids our stamina during the Trailwalker!

Don't forget to click on the buttons at the top left of this blog... donations are welcome, nay encouraged, and we'd love to see you all at our Team Fundraiser night on the 23rd July.