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.

The hardest legs

Last weekend, 8 Big Toes completed the hardest two legs of the Trail. We started at Brooklyn and walked through to Berowra, the majority of which is on beautiful, hilly bushtrack.

The view near the trail head

Being in relatively close proximity to the event itself, we passed more than a dozen other Trailwalker teams, including the notable Team 550, the last team to be accepted. Meeting other Trailwalkers helped spur us on, as the competitive side kicked in and made us put in some extra steam to make it up the hills. We even befriended Silver Spoons, who will now be joining us for some training.

The trail we walked was familiar ground; approx 29.5kms from Hawkesbury River Station, past Jerusalem Bay, through the vibrant hub of Cowan, and all the way through Berowra Waters to Berowra Station. We chugged along quite nicely and ended up feeling pretty good, with some high heart rates and tender knees but no noteworthy injuries.


The event is less than two months away now and we're feeling pretty pumped!

Don't forget our Fundraising Dinner to anyone who is interested in attending. Details on the left hand box there. We still have a lot of money to raise to help support this brilliant cause.

8 Big Toes

PS Here's a map of what we did: http://www.mapmyhike.com/routes/view/38864210/

Welcome to our new team member

Rosie Bourke has joined the team, replacing Brendo who had homemaker / new home duties to attend to.

Welcome Rosie!

Pete, Mick, Dave and Rosie on the track

Pete, Rosie and Dave took a stroll today through some northern suburbs - from Artarmon to Hunters Hill via the Lane Cove National Park. A pleasant 15km stroll. Check it out:

http://www.mapmyhike.com/routes/view/37933880/

Notable moments included hopping a fence to try to cross a bridge that Sydney Water was upgrading (failure - detour ensued), seeing some rainbow lorikeets acting like lovebirds in a tree, and seeing 'lizard pole', a random telegraph pole in Hunters Hills upon which a dozen lizards sunned themselves.

The fundraising is going well - on the 23rd July we're having a "Pot Luck" party at Kissing Point Sports Club, Auluba Road, Turramurra from 5:30pm. There will be silent auctions, raffles and trivia. Bring a plate of food to share if you can and let's make it a great night.

Please RSVP to Pete Malicki at petemalicki@gmail.com by the 13 July if you'd like to come.

10 weeks until the event!

Night Rangers

Last weekend, Mick and Pete completed the team's first Night Walk, exciting enough to use capital letters. We started on Sun at 11pm, the evening of Pete's 29th. A great way to celebrate.

We drove out to the Mt Ku-Ring-Gai end of Bobbin Head National Park and got our gear on, Pete looking resplendent in his brand new Skins (and henceforth retracting all negative comments he's ever made about Spandex). We wandered up towards Mt K' Station to find the entrance to the Crosslands track.

After going all the way down a side street and all of the side street's side streets, we found the walk on the first corner. Okay, so we did a hill warm up. Fun. We strapped on the headlights and were dismayed at how much the beam of light was blinding us. It was foggy and concretey and very hard to see, and we hoped it wouldn't remain like that for long. Fortunately, it didn't. We entered the bush and it became a lot easier on the eyes (like Pete in his new Spandex!).

Crosslands is a fairly bumpy, rocky, rivery track and a tough way to break in our first Night Walk. It requires a lot of concentration, as you have to light the way a little ahead and not directly at your feet and hence remember what you're about to step on; you can only see three metres ahead. Pete stomped out ahead and Mick enjoyed the view from behind.

We stopped at a cave on the path while it rained and we snacked, and I have to say it was very beautiful. The light from our headlamps and the quiet, the rain and the bush. All very serene at nighttime and worth it for this alone. But we had a long way to go so we couldn't enjoy it for long, and when you stop it gets cold fast.

Pete fell into a river pretty soon after that. He has come up with this whole thing about lack of visibility and proprioception and the like, but the end result was that he was submerged from the waist down. The Skins, I have to say, kept me warm even despite a freezing 2am river, so points to them.

We made a quick detour to Crosslands camping ground, not realising it wasn't actually on the way to Berowra, then went back to the main path and headed up an incredibly steep hill. Mick reckons being unable to see where we were going made it easier to trudge onwards.

When we reached the top and took a wrong turn to Berowra Heights (seeing a pattern?), Pete found an awesome Tefal saucepan on a pile of crap and joyously carried it for the remaining 20kms home. Non-stick, great condition - score!

We made our way into the Berowra end of Bobbo and walked the eight riparian kilometres to the picnic area. Our headlamps were beginning to fade at this point (10h of light my arse, lying bastards!), but the sun was coming up so it was all good. On our way back up to the car, we were passed by a couple of 6am joggers, who we have to admit, were pretty damned soft for going to bed before their little exercise. The REAL men don't need sleep beforehand.

At about 9am we made it to the top, feeling a little worse for wear but proud to have completed our first ever Night Walk. It was 32.5kms all up, which is a good walk by any standards.

We feel prepared now. Bring on the Trailwalker!!

Here's a map of the route we walked, wrong ways and all:
http://www.mapmyhike.com/routes/view/37348368/

An accidental 43.5kms

8 Big Toes got together yesterday for our lengthiest adventure yet, in both distance and duration. Arriving at the Sphinx Track at the top of Bobbin Head National Park at the civilised time of 10am, the team welcomed our new mascot, Diana "Pasta Sauce" Raigoso. Diana took some photos of Pete and the team planking, then joined us for the stroll.

We wanted our journey to round out to a respectable 30kms. Team organiser Dave had mapped out a beautiful route through the National Park for us to follow. It included an extra loop at the beginning to make up the distance; after we went down the Sphinx Track, we went up and straight back down the neighbouring Bobbin Head Track.

After filling up on hot chips (the nutrition of kings) and feeding a school of fish at the bottom of the park, we headed along the river and all the way up to Berowra Station. This was meant to be 3kms. It was 8. I don't know how both Dave and Pete got this confused, but Pete naturally blames Dave. Anyway, by the time we reached Berowra Station, we'd already gone over 20kms. That meant 10kms from Berowra to the park entrance at Mount Colah to the other side of the park. Anyone vaguely familiar with the area and the concept of geography will realise it's a wee bit farther than 10kms. It was 20.

After losing Brendon to Berowra Station and Mick to Mount Colah Station, it was just Pete and Dave and our mascot left alive. Interestingly, Diana was the one with the most energy. In fact, we're still scratching our heads on this. Diana is a fit girl and does the odd 10-15km wander, but she hasn't been training for months like we have. Yet she was quite literally bouncing along, jumping from rock to rock like a spritely elf.

Darkness fell as we walked back down into the park and we even jogged for 10 mins! We moved onto the road and did our best to avoid being cleaned up by stoned rednecks, then went up the road on the other side to the finish line.

Towards the end of our 40+ kms, Diana was still trotting along with a bounce in her step. Dave and Pete were not faring quite so well.

So it might have been a little more than we'd signed up for, but the blisters and leg pain have taught us a good lesson about what we need to do to be prepared for the Real Thing in August. We'll be limping for another few days yet, but it's Toewards to Glory!!

Follow this link to see what we did: http://www.mapmyhike.com/routes/view/34464220

Rain in the mountains

Pete and Dave headed up to the Blue Mountains over the easter break, with the aim of challenging Mt Solitary. With our mate Sam we headed out early in the morning from the Golden Stairs (misnomer - they were the brown from the mud) at Katoomba.

It was our luck to pick a morning where Wild Walks were holding an ultra marathon - 60 competitors running 45 kms in the bush. As runners passed us we encouraged them with comments like "you're still in it with a chance" and "go for it mate". One of them exclaimed that we were "crazy guys walking in the rain on a day like today." Yeah, and you're not crazy running 45kms in the rain on a day like this!

We booted it to the top of Mt Solitary, totally soaked by then, but happy to have made it to the top. No view to speak of, everything covered in fog and the rain still coming down. We were only able to stop for 5 minutes or so due to the cold/ wet, so decided to climb the Ruined Castle on the way back; a small side trip. We had fun clambering on the rock and watching a curious (hungry) magpie, before slogging back through the mud to the car. Overall 15km and a very enjoyable trip, despite the weather.

In other news we now have out teamspace page on the Oxfam website - donate now, our target is $1,500!!!

http://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/Sydney/teams/team/?team_id=9946

Dave, on behalf of the Toes.

We're in!

The Toes got the offical word on Thursday that we've succeeded in the dreaded lottery and are in the Oxfam Trailwalker 2011!!!

Now we have the true motivation to continue with our training walks, start fundraising and cajole friends and family into volunteering to bring us food (and massages) at checkpoints.

We'll post our Teamspace page for donations shortly - the aim is to raise $1500 for the good work that Oxfam do around the world.

A Malicki-adventure walk

So the Big Toes find out in 3 days if they are in the Oxfam Trailwalker 2011 or not. The last 200 spots of the 500 are up for selection on Wednesday night, so we're in a lottery to start. It's a bit nerve-wracking to say the least.


Not dissuaded, the Malicki component of the Toes went 'Toewards and Upwards' and rocked another training walk last weekend. Starting at Turramurra station, we walked to Bobbin Head via the Sphinx Track, then up to Mt Colah on the other side of the Ku-ring-Gai Chase NP. Not stopping there, we pushed on through Asquith and on to Waitara station. 4.5 hours,a total of 21.4kms! Check it:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Turramurra,+New+South+Wales+%28Turramurra+Station%29&daddr=Turramurra+Avenue,+Turramurra,+New+South+Wales+to:Boomerang+Street,+Turramurra,+New+South+Wales+to:Fairlawn+Avenue,+Turramurra,+New+South+Wales+to:-33.7197941,151.141199+to:Ku-Ring-Gai+Chase+Rd+to:Park+Ln&geocode=FSNJ_f0d_QkCCSHSb4bMUiBWhg%3BFShS_f0d1xQCCSmRtjqL3KcSazEkX55XRTHQkA%3BFelX_f0deyYCCSnZmP1t3qcSazEmmAA-mKXS-w%3BFVpp_f0doDACCSkvB5Wx4acSazH0lwJluiHACQ%3BFQ56_f0dTzsCCSmpTgM9CKgSazGQQ3HlZ30BEw%3BFdMZ_v0d--0BCQ%3BFaej_f0dFLEBCQ&hl=en&mra=dme&mrsp=6&sz=15&via=4&sll=-33.70442,151.119132&sspn=0.0216,0.052314&ie=UTF8&ll=-33.695066,151.16415&spn=0.086408,0.209255&z=13


Interesting things we saw were a ton of kangaroos in the Kalkari visitor centre native animal compound, as well as half a a dozen unperturbed and peripatetic bush turkeys. We also ate hot chips down at the Marina - yum!

Toes crossed for our registration everybody......

Walk 3: Back in Training

The Big Toes were at it again a few weeks back, without Mick this time.

 

 

We headed urban and city-side this time around, walking from Artarmon to the city via North Sydney, and then back to Artarmon along the Pacific Highway.
This is the scene from the Rotunda at Observatory Hill, essentially our half way point. Resting, stretching, and according to Pete looking a bit dopey and knackered.

It was a solid (and quick) 15kms; we're getting into a rymthm here and starting to feel good. 

The GPS run-down of the walk is through the link below. 

Dave (on behalf of 8 Big Toes)

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/tUqQme5qCE8

Walk Two: Judgement Day

8 Big Toes completed our second team walk yesterday, starting at Hawkesbury River Station in Brooklyn and heading along the mountainous path to Cowan.

To give you a feel for these localities, when we arrived at Hawkesbury River Station, a young dude was leaping down the stairs towards the platform yelling out "Wait up, wait up!" to the train guard. Sure, that's perfectly normal, no one wants to miss their train. But then he stopped at a Mount Franklin vending machine and tried (unsuccessfully, I'll note) to buy some water for his trip. Meanwhile four hundred people on the train are waiting for this genius to realise the station staff was telling him, "It doesn't work, mate."

At the other end is Cowan, a suburb of literally six streets and a boatyard. If you went into the middle of all these streets you could certainly scream something that the entire village could hear. Though their congenital defects almost certainly affect their hearing, so you'd have to scream it from a dirt bike. There was a group of four walkers hanging out at the station there. They stared at us a lot and never walked anywhere.

And you thought Berowra was bad! Just go a few minutes north!

Anyway, we started our walk up a fairly decent hill to what Dave assured us was the perfect photo spot. We never found this spot, hence you will have to imagine the trees, ocean and boats (which were possibly from the Cowan boatyard) all by yourselves. We set off with another group of three walkers, who seemed suspiciously nice and were almost certainly religious missionaries of some variety.

When we reached Brooklyn Dam, Dave took us on a shortcut. We crossed out the other end, turned left, and there were the religious missionaries heading towards us. Weird, because we were going towards the same destination. One party was headed in the wrong direction. We had a brief ponderance as to where we should really be going, then Dave took us up a rocky little creekbed which looked suspiciously like the unpath. The missionaries stood on the fire trail at the bottom of this path, looking dubiously up at us as we ascended. Dave had managed to very quickly kill our credibility and they didn't follow us up this shortcut, hence were left in our wakes and never caught us up mu ha ha!

The walk itself was fairly hilly but 8 Big Toes managed to knock it off in record time, completing approx 12kms in less than 3h, which is a solid pace for a tough track. There were none of the rivers from our first walk and the only real obstacle was a tree which had recently fallen across the path, which we had to clamber over.

Onwards to glory, and may the next walk be longer and tougher.

Pete, on behalf of
Team 8 Big Toes

Here is the GPS tracking of our adventure:
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/qznkaJv8y1A

Our walk schedule

For those interested in our whereabouts during weekends over the next few months, or walk schedule is below:

27th March - Brooklyn to Cowan 16.5km
10th April Mt Colah to Turramurra through Bobbin Head 17km
24th April Cowan to Berowra with Packs
Easter Monday Mt Solitary return 15km
8th May Sphinx Track Bobbin Head x3 30km
21st or 22nd May Royal NP Coastal Track 26km
5th June Part of the Oxfam trailwalker 15km
26th June Thornleigh to Berowra with Packs27km
10th July  Part of the Oxfam trailwalker 30km
24th July Part of the Oxfam trailwalker 30km
7th August Thornleigh to city (pancakes on the Rocks) return 50km
 14th August Turramurra Stn to Asquith via Bobbin Head with Packs 18km
27-29th August OXFAM TRALWALKER


Anyone interested in joining us is welcome - drop us a line!

A short stroll becomes an epic walk to remember

Team 8 Big Toes has kicked off their 2011 Oxfam Trailwalker campaign with a a series of river crossings rather than the planned training walk. 24hrs of rain turned the route, Artarmon to Thornleigh via the Rail to River Walk and the Great North Walk, into a sodden and flooded challenge. A cruisy 16km trail burn turned into a 2 1/2 hour epic struggle.


Dave, Pete and I met at Artarmon and legged it to Chatswood station where Brendon was waiting. A solid drizzle had already begun and by the time we made our first footprints on the sandy track we'd become resigned to a damp walk. Not that it was unpleasant. The temperature was in the mid 20's and the rain kept the number of other walkers to a minimum. Single track alternated with firetrail and the landscape was peaceful as water dripped from 4 metre Banksias and Blue Gums. The occasional road crossing and planes low overhead were all that reminded us we were still well and truly within Sydney.


At around the 10km mark we said a cheery "hello" to the second set of walkers we had met on the track, only to be greeted by a grumpy "You can't get through" and a couple of Gore-Tex clad backs disappearing back up the firetrail. With our team spirit high we all cried an internal "Bullshit!" and headed off to the sound of roaring water. 


The creek, normally a trickle between boulders, was a froth of white. It had rained most of the previous night and all morning. The resulting runoff from surrounding residential areas had pushed the river level up about a metre.


Shoes off and grab a stick, was the decision. Dave tested the depth and took the first hesitant steps, stretching his legs forward, feeling for a rock while balancing on the stick. slowly he edged forward, one rock being discovered by his probing Big Toes at a time.  Meanwhile, Pete disappeared back up the track. 


Dave made it and Brendon and I followed in quick succession. Meanwhile, Pete has backtracked, bushbashed, balanced on logs and was already standing triumphantly high on the other bank. It was only as we reshod our feet that he revealed, despite his smug grin, he was now lopsided and suffering from a waterlogged left foot. The tactic to head upstream hadn't been entirely successful in keeping his feet out of the river.


From this point on we followed a similar pattern. Trudge the trail for 10 to 15 minutes and cross the creek by either jumping between rocks or taking off our shoes and wading. At each crossing the water got a bit deeper. The first one had been just below knee level and by the third one it was mid thigh with a strong current. We upgraded our safety measures and got monkey grips on each others arms as we shuffled across, feeling and nudging with our feet for each foothold. 


By this stage the track has descended to run beside the river and at times was only a few centimetres about the bank. things deteriorated even further with 3km to go. River was high enough that it had diverted to be over the track and a strong current was flowing over the 4WD ruts.


Conquering this obstacle by shimmying along the line of vegetation we turned a corner and were confronted by a raging torrent where a series of stepping stones normally were to be found. Poking with a stick revealed that it was deep and Dave's attempt at finding the bottom with his left leg from his perch on a slippery rock almost resulted in an unplanned river rapids ride. Luckily, as Dave regained his balance and Brendon and I looked upstream, Pete, always the first to take the first step into the crossings, had managed to get himself halfway across and was in the process of clambering onto a large dry rock. Step, by tentative step, we other three followed him across. 


On the other bank the land sloped up to the ridgetop and, with Brendon leading a fast-paced final sprint to the end, we covered the last couple of kilometres from the crossing to Thornleigh oval in a short space of time.


Some chocolate, sandwiches and hot showers later Team 8 Big Toes had dried out and could begin to appreciate the onset of tomorrow's sore legs. 


The first walk is done. The way we worked together as a team and the relative ease with which we overcame the unexpected challenges this first training session laid down says to me that 8 Big Toes are going to have a ball preparing for and taking part in the 2011 Sydney Oxfam Trailwalker.


See where we walked... 
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/nfhhOnclGgs