total received funds
Sponsor our team and help us raise money for Oxfam Australia.
Our target is $1,500
Sponsor our team and help to overcome poverty and injustice.
We've raised $820.
$765 can pay for a well and hand pump to give access clean water to people in Laos.
help us reach our target of
$1,500
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our top online donors
- Stephen Garrett $120
Just remember Kate when you cross the finish you've got to walk back to the car :-)
$106 can help a disabled widow in Sri Lanka to feed a family of five for a month.
- Sasha Strampic $100
- David Wright $100
where does the money go?
Thank You / Merry Christmas 09 December
On behalf of the Can Do’s, we would like to thank everyone who has already made a donation towards our pledged target. The enthusiasm and response has been overwhelming. Have a Merry Christmas and don’t forget to tune in to the Can Do’s team page in 2009 to watch our progress.
Sunday 30 November 08 09 December
Today’s walk as a group would be the last for 2008 given we are now approaching the silly season known as Christmas. This time we decided to start at the bottom of the hill and work our way up. The route would be : Churchill National Park (CP1), through Lysterfield Lake (CP2) up to Grants Picnic Ground (CP3) - 22.8km in total. In order to give the support crews the day off (as we knew they would earn their keep next year) Kate, Di and Peter met at Grant’s Picnic Ground, left one car there, drove down to Churchill National Park where we met up with Zeljka in readiness for the challenges that lay ahead. The weather was perfect for up hill walking! It was cool with clear skies. It was great to see a lot of “fellow” trailers out and about ….. you can’t miss them, they walk in groups of four! As soon as you depart Churchill National Park you start the gradual ascent, which keeps going for approximately 3km before you reach the top of the hill, and it is worth reaching the top as the views are great. The walk down into Lysterfield Lake is gradual and not too hard on the knees! A photo opportunity presented itself, whilst crossing over the lake. After lining up the camera to take a “timed” shot we realised that a cyclist was coming towards us, and if timed correctly would make centre of the photo! Full points to the cyclist – she stopped millimetres outside of the photo, and managed to not go over handlebars in the process, just to avoid being in our photo! (see above)
Sunday 30 November 08.... cont 09 December
We stopped at Lysterfield Lake for a bite to eat before heading up to Grants Picnic Ground – which we were all dreading as the hill profile looked steep! We broke this trip up and took another snack stop at Bird Lands Reserve before we ventured into Belgrave territory! On the ascent into Belgrave there are a few “steep” sections which looked daunting, but after doing Hackett’s Road two weeks earlier this section seemed, dare I say it, easier! It may be that the road is sealed and Hackett’s is a dirt track with huge indents in it that will swallow you up if you fall… or, could we be getting fitter! Only time will tell. After farewelling Puffing Billy and heading out of Belgrave to the Dandenong National Park, you come across yet more hills (will they ever stop) …. where you eventually join up with Coles Ridge Track. You follow this track to get to Grants Picnic Ground. You can imagine our relief to see the sign which stated “easy walking” for 2.2km. Within 30 minutes we were at Grants Picnic Ground enjoying Devonshire Tea (you have to have some reward for a hard day’s work). After our refreshments, we drove back to Churchill National Park to pick up the other cars. From all reports, everyone recovered from this walk with no aches or pains the next day. Roll on 2009…..
Sunday 16 November 25 November
The aim for our third walk was to go from Checkpoint 3 (CP3) to CP4 - 19.7km. This walk was going to be more challenging than the first two as it required us to climb the infamous Hackett’s Road! More on that later. The group met at CP3 which is Grant’s Picnic Ground. Grant’s is well known to tourists who wish to feed the cockatoos and rosellas. We were met by two busloads of Japanese tourists having a wonderful time taking photos of the very hungry (and overfeed) birds. The morning started out quite cool, although within the first 1-2 kms we were all quite warm. The day overall was very pleasant, although we did notice a cold wind when walking through the rain forest. Some of the track was quite muddy and slippery from the welcome rain the previous week. The walk from CP3 is very scenic through Sherbrook Forest. We can recommend a visit to the Alfred Nicholas Garden, which is a “small” botanical garden opposite Sherbrook Forest. If we weren’t out training, it would have been a great place for a picnic lunch and a bottle of wine! Little did we know that the serenity of the parkland and forest would soon lead us to Hackett’s Road. For those of you who have never traversed this road – let me tell you it is steep! From the bottom there is no way you would even contemplate driving a vehicle up it unless you had a four wheel drive and knew how to handle it, or you were insane. The rivets in the road could swallow you up if you fell in. The road is so bad that the locals have put up a sign warning unsuspecting drivers wanting to go down that they do so at their own risk. If they get into trouble they are not to contact the neighbours for help – they are on their own! So after standing at the bottom for some time contemplating the hill, knowing that the only way was up, we started the slow slog up the hill. It hurt, but boy did it feel good when we got to the top.
Sunday 16 November 08 ... cont. 25 November
We had a short break at Olinda to eat our lunch before heading off to CP4 where Silvan Reservoir awaited us. This section takes you through the Dandenong Ranges National Park. There is one fairly steep hill which you walk down, which made everyone alert, trying to avoid any spills down the hill (thankfully there were none). Overall this section was comfortable to walk and we made it to Silvan Reservoir unscathed and reasonably happy with our day’s effort. We were met at CP4 by Boris (one part of our support crew) who drove us back to our cars at Grant’s Picnic Ground. (Support Crew: Boris and Michael pictured above)
Our First Walk 15 October
We all met at Lysterfield Lake for our first training/get to know you walk. The team has been finalised and the lucky participants are Kate, Zeljka,Di and Peter. Dale and Joel have decided that the excitement of last year was too much and have given up their positions to Kate and Zeljika. We set out from the main Car Park along Logan Park Road for the first sus out and interigation of one another. This did not take long and we were soon into idle chatter and solving the world's economic problems. It was a delightful day and the walk around Birds Land Reserve and return via some less used tracks was enjoyed by all. In all we walked 16kms and all pulled up well.
