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.