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01 September
Trailwalker wrap up
In summary it's been an amazing 6 month journey with lots of big goals achieved - we're fitter than we've been in years, was great to involve our young families in the adventure, we went beyond our personal comfort zones in training and preparing for the event and smashed our fundraising target for Oxfam.
Thank you to our families, support crew and babysitters for enabling us to take on this challenge. Thank you to all our families, friends and colleagues who supported our team by donating to Oxfam. Thank you to everyone who sent emails, Facebook posts and texts to us along the trail - your support really did help keep us going, and thank you to the Oxfam Trailwalker team and volunteers for organising and running a truly extraordinary event.
Cheers Alex, Craig, Julie & Sue.
01 September
Game Day - Part 2
Craig, Jules & Alex powered on to Sphinx, had a quick stop and then came the challenging section to St Ives - lots of issues including the obvious fatigue, but also blisters and lung problems all set in and the stop at CP5 was much longer than we had planned as we really needed the rest. The night shift support crew - Mandy, Peter & Tenille - were wonderful and we couldn't have kept going without their great support and encouragement.
St Ives to Kambora was also challenging although the rising sun of a new day made a huge difference to our state of mind and ability to keep going. Thanks to the other teams who were especially encouraging all through these sections. We were joined by a few other walkers needing a team and it was great to talk to Stuart and his sister along the trail.
Hard going now and much slower but we managed to keep going through to Davidson Park and then on to Ararat where Paddy, Libby & Allan met up with us again. The final few km were really tough, the wind as we crossed Spit Bridge went right through and we couldn't get warm again and we were walking zombies. 
Sue was able to join us for the final few km from Balmoral onwards which was great as we didn't feel complete without our full team.
As we rounded the final corner at Georges Heights Oval we were greeted with a deafenng roar of cheers from our partners, kids, friends and extended families. 2 y.o Matthew summed it up as we crossed the finish line with "Yay Mummy you're back".
01 September
Game Day - Part 1
Great weather, great atmosphere, lots of happy friendly people on the trail and volunteering to help with the journey. First section was pretty steady going as the trail was very busy. Overall pace was ok though but just had a few more slow sections and bottlenecks on the trail than usual. Brief stop at CP1 for refuelling and off to Bewrowra.
Section 2 was challenging - seemed to be more difficult than we remembered from training even though we'd done it a heap of times. All really pleased to see our wonderful crew Paddy, Libby & Allan at CP2 for much needed food, coffee, running repairs and a chance to sit down.
Left our crew at about 5pm and headed off towards the marshes, walking by head torch light once we got down into the valley. The climb back up Lyrebird Gully was steady with lots of people on the trail and plenty of silly jokes, good music and lovely glow sticks to assist us on our way across the creek crossings.
Apple Tree Bay CP3 (43km) was a welcome sight for all with Jules & Craig getting some running repairs on their feet as well as everyone having dinner supplied by our marvellous crew. Unfortunately we lost Sue here after the marathon on mountains - a couple of 'grey outs' on the trail in the past hour took their toll and she retired from the event. This had a big impact on our team and it took a while to get a good flow going again.
29 August
Support crew & babysitters we love you
What an adventure... more to come on the event itself but firstly a MASSIVE thankyou to our wonderful support crew - Paddy, Libby, Allan, Mandy, Peter, Tenille & Chris - we couldn't have done it without you. Thank you also to those beautiful people who looked after all our kids over the past 48 hours - we send big hugs and thanks to Gabby, Sandra, Chris, Anna & Barry :)
25 August
EXCELLENT NEWS - FUNDRAISING GOAL ACHIEVED!!!!!
THANKYOU THANYOU THANKYOU to all the wonderful people in our lives for helping us to reach our fundraising goal before the big event on Friday - Your sponsorships are greatly appreciated and your support for our success is overwhelming - it means the world to us as a team to achieve this goal! Please join us over the entire event by watching our progress via our "live tracking update" on our team webpage!
22 August
5 more sleeps
Had our final team and crew meeting today over a BBQ lunch at Sue & Paddy's. Almost everyone was there which was great so we could go through stuff all together. Did a quick Skype hookup with Libby as she is in Melbourne and flying up during the week to help out with crew duties. Full crew is Paddy, Allan & Libby doing CP 2,3,7 & 8 and Mandy, Peter & Tenille helping us out through the night at CP 5 & 6 - thanks heaps guys we love you all. Also a huge thanks to Mandy's parents, Sue's parents and the lovely Gabi for looking after all our children next weekend. Sorted through all our plans for food, hydration, clothes, gear, changeover of tubs and other stuff, vehicles, pick up points etc in between lots of noisy games, refereeing the fights that 8 kids will get themselves into and comforting the tears - from the kids, not the grownups :) We're all feeling great and really pleased with our training, preparation, planning and team work. Bring on game day!!!!!
16 August
a walking we will go.....
Saturday provided some wonderful weather for walking. Julie completed a 21km walk starting at Chatswood, walking to Roseville Bridge through to Ararat Reserve and then on to the finish at Balmoral. The weather was supurb, the flora and fauna were at their best and the new shoes working very well. A trip to the Osteopath for a final treatment last week also brought some good recommendations for necessary stretching to keep the muscles loose during the event. After a long day of soccer games, birthday parties and walking 21km, I was happily greeted by 3 beautiful little faces in the back of our car when I was collected by Craig in the early hours of the evening! Go supportive families go! This week we have our Briefing Session with Oxfam on Wednesday to learn about how it will all work on the big event...to be continued!!
10 August
Our Tapering Period...
Now that we are in the home stretch and have just over 2 weeks to go until the big event we are all tapering our training. Craig completed a 22km walk last Saturday morning starting from Parsley Bay (start of event) and finished at Berowra Waters. He was very pleased with his efforts and experienced no ITB pain. Goal achieved! Julie and the kids then met Craig at Berowra Waters drove back to the start and dropped Julie off to do her walk. There were certainly a greater number of teams training on the trail now that we are getting close to the event. Julie completed a 21km walk from the start to C1 and part of the way into section 2. There were some niggles with her feet, but she attended to them straight away and thankfully completed the walk blister free. Goal achieved! We have learnt along the way that management of the physical challenges is extremely important, it's about accepting our challenges, working with them and continuing to do the best we can on a personal and team level! A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR SUPPORTERS AND SPONSORS - YOU GUYS ARE WALKING THIS EVENT WITH US - WE APPRECIATE YOUR GENEROSITY AND ENDLESS WORDS OF SUPPORT!
08 August
City 2 Surf
After last weekends mammoth effort we all calmed down a bit this week and did much more civilised 20km walks now that we're into our official tapering for the event. Sue & Paddy enjoyed mingling with 80,000 others in glorious Sydney weather for the 40th City 2 Surf and added a few extra km by walking back to the city from Bondi to round off the day with 22km in total (probably quicker than waiting in the bus queue anyway). Craig & Julie tried out some gear and tested knee issues with similar length walks on the first parts of trail on Saturday and gave great reports that all is well.
02 August
50km+ training day
All met at Berowra train station on a rainy Saturday morning with plans for our longest team training walk and our first attempt at more than 50km. Headed off on our adventure at 7:30am with a fairly pleasant Section 3, especially as the weather cleared (although that ridiculous hill coming up to Mt Kuringgai station is still tough even when you're fresh) and met support crew at Bobbin Head for a nice break. Blitzed the Section 4 track to Sphinx and headed along Section 5 to St Ives Showground for late lunch and a full support crew stop and catch up with all our kids. Section 6 to Kambora had a couple of tricky creek crossings that we managed in the dark with a combination of well placed rocks & tree branches in the water and plastic shopping bags over our feet, before once again meeting our wonderful crew at the top of the hill in Borgnis St for takeaway Chinese dinner. Section 7 to Davidson Park was fairly straightforward, although we were all pretty weary and looking forward to the end of our day. Once we got to the park we made it another few kms to Craig & Julie's place and finished the day at 11:30pm all very proud of our efforts. Massive thanks to Paddy, Mandy and Gabi for the support provided throughout the day (and for looking after all the kids). Once again we couldn't have done it without you and you are all wonderful :) Very happy with our day - 57km total in 16 hours including breaks. Experimented with changing shoes, socks, clothes, strapping tape, putting ice on sore knees, various ways to manage blisters and the acknowledgement that Nurofen is our friend. Overall we managed most of the issues we've had in the last couple of long walks really well although there are still some niggles to be sorted so we're all in great shape for game day.
18 July
all night long part 2
Some nasty blisters unfortunately meant Julie retired hurt here - or was it the lure of more devonshire tea...hmmm.....and so Craig, Alex & Sue powered on to Davidson Park where this time we had water views for our support crew restaurant meal. Allan & Paddy called it a night here at 3am and the 3 walkers headed for the finish. Gotta say the middle of the night support was absolutely fantastic and we are all very grateful for the effort the guys made to make sure we had hot meals, water and all the other stuff. Section 8 was fairly straightforward, we had a quick break at Ararat reserve and set off for Mosman. The last section was pretty slow compared to the other times we have done it. We made it to Balmoral by 7:25am and once we got to the coffee shops, decided that was enough. Total 47.5km in 12hrs 40 mins. Achieved our goal of walking thorugh the night and getting to know how our bodies are performing under stress. Lots of niggles that need to be sorted - blisters, sore knees, general weariness. Next long full team walk is in 2 weeks and we plan to do a full day Saturday of around 52 km and then a 15-20km walk on tired legs the following morning.
18 July
all night long
All night long... that was the plan. Jules started out late afternoon (but before eveyone else) at Apple Tree Bay to get a long walk happening as she need to tag with babysitters later in the night. Walk to Sphinx was great and Jules did lots of chatting with other teams along the way & got some great fundraising ideas. Alex & Sue met up with Julie at 6:30pm at Sphinx and headed off on the adventure around 6:45pm. We powered through the next section (last time we did it together it was in torrential rain) so this was heaps better. Sue got lots of ribbing for the number of gadgets in her bag (however when extra batteries were needed later in the night by others the gadget bag came in handy!). Ahead of our expected ETA so changed plans with support crew - instead of meeting us at St Ives Showground they met us just before we headed back into the bush after climbing up the hill at Kitchener St. Fantastic pasta meal, table, chairs, & our tubs with stuff was all laid out for us by the legends Paddy & Allan. Craig joined us here and then for the first time the 4 of us walked together as a team through Section 5 to the top of the hill near Kambora where we were once again welcomed by Paddy & Allan with ... wait for it.... devonshire tea, baked by Allan's lovely wife Judi, which we enjoyed at midnight by the edge of the bush in Davidson (complete with table, chairs etc once again).
11 July
Our Team Meeting at Last!
Today the whole team met for a team meeting at Sue and Paddy's home. All 3 families came together with 8 children between us and we discussed everything from the equipment we will need, to what meals we will be eating to refuel, to what the team goals are, to the strengths that each team member brings to this event. This meeting was an important milestone as we were able to realistically deduct (based on our previous training on the trail sections) the timeframe that we will complete the event in. It was terrific having some of our support crew present at the meeting to discuss our needs and the general schedule of the checkpoints and event as a whole. It is obvious that the support crew are just as much part of our team as the walkers! A special mention to Paddy for supervising, feeding, refereeing, disciplining, emotionally supporting, and generally showing his nurturing, loving nature to all of our children, without you the meeting could not have gone ahead.....Thankyou Sue and Paddy for your home - we hope the kaos and mess created stays long after we have gone to forever remind you of the fun 8 beautiful children can bring...in such a short time! We have 2 long walks remaining - a walk through the night as well as a 50km one day followed by a 20km the very next day and then we are headed into the home stretch!
06 July
Sections 1,2 & 3
Big weekend on the trail for our team as we took on sections 1,2 & 3. Craig & Alex did the walk on Saturday - began with a very early start to be on the trail by 6am and made great progress through the first section but then unforunately Craig's chest infection got the better of him and he finished up at Berowra. Alex powered on and had a full day on the trail to conquer the most difficult parts of the trail. It was the girls turn on Sunday and with a 7am start, Julie & Sue set off on their adventure. We made good time and managed to get to Berowra a full hour earlier than the last time we did this walk - something we put down to a combination of a better pace and shorter breaks which were really adding up. Met lots of other walkers on the trail with plenty of helpful hints which was great. Sue tested out a new gadget - a mini helmet cam to document our adventure by taking a photo every 2 seconds. Needs a bit of tweaking but should actually work well. Was dark as we left the boardwalk over the marshes so we walked by head torch light to Mt Kuringgai Station and then decided to do some street walking to meet our km goal rather than walking by ourselves in the bush to Apple Tree Bay & back again. Great walking in supurb conditions throughout the day & very happy to have achieved our goals for the day. Total was 45km in 13hrs including breaks. Next long walk will be the whole team (once we sort out babysitting) doing a long night walk into the small hours of the morning.
30 June
Go Girls Go!
On Tuesday 22 June Sue and Julie completed a 36km walk from the start at Brooklyn to the Berowra checkpoint while adding in a couple of extra km's at Berowra to increase the distance for the day. We had a lovely fresh morning start on the trail at 7am and finished at approximately 6.30pm that night.
Thankfully our husbands did the childrens morning wake ups, breakfasts and drop offs and the afternoon pick ups and dinners, baths, bedtime stories, cuddles and reassurances that ''yes mummy will be home soon''.......
Ohh the beautiful husbands we have supporting us all the way to the finish line...literally! We pre-prepared and tried out some real dinner food at dinner time and the hot meal was most welcomed in the cold cold air followed by walking some km's in the rain rain and more rain....well at least we are getting exposure to all different kinds of weather conditions....
We did well, if we don't say so ourselves....we snacked, we talked, we walked and walked some more...that's the name of this game....walk walk and walk some more....somehow I get the feeling we will be all walked out 
by the time we have completed the event - probably enough bushwalking to last us a lifetime!!!!! Great tip - changing socks is essential - very refreshing and a glorious sight to tired weary feet!
20 June
Training on the trail...
For those wondering what we've all been up to for the past few months we've put together a few pics to give our fabulous supporters an idea of what the training and event involves....
13 June
Long weekend training
Julie & Sue did a 36km walk over 10.5 hrs on Saturday in fantastic conditions. Started at 7:45am at CP4 at Sphinx and walked on parts of Sections 5, 6 and 7 (we cut out the bit to St Ives Showground and back out again and up the hill to Kambora and back again) through to Davidson Park in 5.5 hrs. The creek crossings we tackled in the dark last week in the pouring rain were no longer raging rapids and whilst it was still slow going through that section it was a much nicer walk than the last time we did it. Poles were very helpful with creek crossings where we didn't want to get wet and we only came across one that we had to take our shoes and socks off to get across. Awaiting us at Davidson Park was a wonderful picnic lunch that Paddy, Craig & the kids had ready for us - THANKS guys for the great support :) The long break was a good chance to test out a few things that will be important at the checkpoints in the event and then we headed off for the trek to Balmoral. A change of shoes and socks at lunch was a welcome relief for our feet and made the walk on Section 8 to Ararat and Section 9 to Balmoral pretty smooth. Sue's caffiene habit casued a need for lots of wee stops throughout the day which we managed to fit in with snack breaks - we are both big fans of sandwiches, gels and lollies on the trail. We did the afternoon walk in 4 hours and were met by Paddy, Craig & the kids at Balmoral after a very satisfying day in the bush. Take away thai & pizza were a bonus for dinner as we debriefed about the day and talked through our training schedule, support crew stuff and more fundraising ideas for the countdown to the big event in 11 weeks.
08 June
The Family Joins in on the Training!
Craig, Julie and their 3 boys participated in the 9km MS Fun Walk in the city on Sunday. The weather turned out to be beautiful and there were many smiles from participants enjoying the walk outdoors with gorgeous harbour views. The highlights for the kids were the Star Wars Storm Troopers we passed at morning tea and the gigantic bubbles being created at the finish in Hyde Park. Sam and Charlie happily rode their razors the entire way while James snoozed in the pram. Thankfully this walk seemed like a 'walk in the park' compared to the 'on trail training' we have been doing in the last couple of months. Yay it is all paying off!
07 June
Yes We Were Nearly Washed Away!
Last Thursday night, Sue, Alex and Julie completed an interesting night walk on section 5 starting at Sphinx War Memorial. We were all prepared and confident with appropriate gear for wet weather and happily proceeded on our walk. We experienced light rain on the climb down and successfully crossed 2 creek crossings safely. We proceeded to climb up the steep incline and managed to avoid the many large puddles that continually lay in our path. However things changed, and by the time we were nearing the 3km mark the rain was heavy and our footwear was no longer waterproof. We even had the pleasure of lightning and thunder to complete the picture of "what the hell are we doing"! So we turned back and swiftly increased our walking speed to get out of there as quickly as possible. All was okay until we reached the first creek crossing. Well, it was no longer a creek crossing but full on gushing rapids where the water levels had dramatically increased from when we first crossed it. We soon found out that there was no way of crossing above the water so instead we made the short journey at thigh level through the gushing cold water. Big tip – poles are a HUGE asset in these conditions and we were very glad we had some to assist us to cross safely. Thanks to Alex for leading the way to cross successfully! For the remainder of the walk back up the hill to Sphinx, the trail was completely washed out with waterfalls and huge puddles of water so we were well and truly soaked! At the end we were all greeted by our wonderful friends the leeches, happily making a new home on our shoes and clothing! If we can get through this, then we can get through anything!!!!!
01 June
Julie goes solo today!
Today I decided at the last minute to do some training by myself on the final section to the finish (Ararat Reserve to Georges Heights Oval). I walked the 11km section to the finish and then back again making it a 22km training run. The day started out cloudly so I was prepared for rain however the weather quickly changed to beautiful sunshine for most of the walk. The highlight today were the gorgeous views of the harbour and quiet weekday Balmoral Beach! The lowlight was finding 2 possums dead on the trail, not a pretty sight! Poor little critters! The ying and the yang were in form once again today! The challenging part was the Gallipoli steps leading down to The Spit which are quite steep both going down and up, similar to the Balmoral Burn held on the weekend - short and steep!!! I managed to treat some 'hot spots' on my feet quickly - yay - and enjoyed the 'thinking time' walking alone provided - I wasn't even tempted to listed to my music! All up the walk took 4 and 1/4 hours - my feet being a little tired and weary at the completion!
28 May
Thankyou to our supporters
Yay - we've reached the first $1000 - thankyou so much to all our supporters who have donated to our team.
24 May
It's a long way to...
Set out at 7am yesterday and walked ten hours over the hardest sections of the course. Left knee = excellent. Right knee = not so excellent. Arse Breaker Hill lived up to its reputation. Buns of steel! Tips to remember - when you leave your car at the end of the walk (so you can drive home) and then take a second car to the start of the walk - don't leave the keys to the first car in the second car! Kudos to Paddy for collecting keys AND coffee. Cheers, Craig
19 May
Information and Gear Nights
Last week Sue and Julie attended the Oxfam Information Night. It was great to be around like-minded people and take in the atmosphere surrounding this challenging, yet rewarding event! We received great ideas regarding fundraising, absorbed every little bit of advice regarding blister prevention and care, noted recommendations for nutrition and hydration and had the pleasure of listening to the professionals whom have taken on the challenge many times before us. Yes, we could have listened to them talk all night, they knew what they were talking about and they knew exactly what we needed to hear in our preparations for what we are about to endure. Some tips included: - Our Feet are Our Friend! - Don't do anything different on the day of the event to what you have been doing on the training. - The support crew stays out of the way when the team come into the checkpoint angry and annoyed with each other! - Team goals are everything, it can make or break the success of the event. - Carb load in the 3 days prior to the event. - The longest distance we should need to train on is 50km, this is where we will encounter problems if there are any. Then last night both Sue and Julie attended the Gear Night at Paddy Palin city store. This was also a great night as being in the outdoor store reminded us both of the days of travelling the world, carefree and adventurous! We had the pleasure of listening to a speaker whom had completed the walk a number of times before. He ran through clothing, top to toe and gear we will need to carry as well as pack for our support crew. All in all, we have learnt that this walk is a huge commitment; in time, investment in purchasing appropriate gear, planning and logistics tasks and a huge family commitment to make this work but we are all up for the challenge and enjoying the process along the way.
18 May
Section 1
We took on Section 1 last Saturday and it was actually better than we thought it would be - may just be that we're fitter than a few months ago :) Craig, Alex & Sue did the early morning walk and Julie & Paddy did the afternoon one. We saw lots of other trailwalkers on the trail - more than any other time we've been out training - so it was great to have a chat to a few and compare stories on training experiences, gear, strategies etc.
Sue's gaiters were the subject of many comments from other walkers, mostly wanting to know where to get them (http://www.dirtygirlgaiters.com/). Craig's knee held up well with regular stretch breaks and we all did the 18km walk in just under 4 hrs so happy with our pace and pleased we've had a go at the first section. Once again great weather with magnificent views up around Mooney Mooney, Brooklyn and Jerusalem Bay. Next week...... team walk all together as we have babysitters for the kids so look out for us on Sections 2, 3 & 4 including the infamous ass-breaker hill!!
12 May
mothers day walk
We were't able to do a team walk last weekend so all did our own thing. Julie ran the 8km Mothers Day Classic at the Domain and Sue & Paddy walked the Mothers Day Classic in Parramatta with some friends and thousands of others in pink and it was lovely. To get a longer walk in we decided to walk home so that added an extra 17km to our day. There are some excellent shared bike/ walking paths in the West and North West now and so we were able to go from Parramatta to Castle Hill entirely on pathways. Pushing kids in prams the whole way gave us a great extra workout and a couple of well timed stops at parks along the way made for a long but nice day out.
06 May
In the wee small hours of the morning...
Sue and I did a great walk this morning - up at 3am for a bit of night walking from Roseville to Ararat Reserve - on the coldest morning of the year so far - BONUS! First time in the new boots which went well, still having some knee probelms though so off to the Osteo on Monday - looks like it's Iliotibial band syndrome (basically means it hurts going downhill!). Certainly makes a difference walking by headlamp. Gearing up for the next big challenge whch is to complete the first 3 sections (43klms) all grade 4 and 5. According to the map it is straight up and straight down a number of times. Should be fun - hope the knees hold out. Till next time. Cheers Craig
30 April
the last bit of the trail
Last week's training we walked Section 8 (Davidson Park at Roseville - to Ararat Reserve in Forestville) and Section 9 (Forestville - Mosman) which are the final two sections of the walk. Sue & Julie did an extra few km as we started at home so the total was approx 22km which took about 5hrs 40 mins including breaks. We met up at the end with our hubby's and swapped kids and then Paddy joined Craig again for the afternoon walk and the boys did the trail sections in 4 hrs even for the 18.5km with fewer breaks and a faster pace than the girls. Nice weather again in Sydney, pleasant walking conditions, no major issues, still testing out drinks, food, gels etc as well as shoes, socks, clothing, backpacks to see what works best. Great views along the walk, especially at the top of Gallipoli Steps coming towards the Spit Bridge. The steps at the very end of the walk coming out of Balmoral Oval will be interesting in the real event as they are in the last few km and not likely to be the most welcome sight at the 98km mark! Next few "on the trail walks" will be the big 3 - the first three sections of the trail with the most challenging terrain and once we've conquered those we'll string some longer walks together with more than 2 sections at a time. Big thanks to some of the other teams with blogs and websites full of useful tips from those who have done it before.
22 April
autumn in Sydney on the trail part 2
The second section of the walk from Sphinx Memorial to St Ives Showground (Section 7 of the trail) had a long downhill trek to the creek and then a very steep climb back out. The rest of the trail around the Wildflower Gardens at St Ives was mostly uphill so a good training walk overall. Sue & Julie did a couple of extra detours :) so finished our 17km in 4hrs and Craig & Paddy did 16.5km in 3.5hrs. Paddy is one of our support crew so it's great that he can train on the trail with us sometimes. We're all experimenting with various shoes, socks, gaiters, hydration packs, shorts, shirts, water, sports drinks, energy bars/ gels & snacks throughout our training to get a sense of what will work for each of us.
22 April
autumn in Sydney on the trail
For last weekend's long walk we decided to tackle Sections 4 (Apple Tree Bay - Sphinx Memorial) and Section 5 (Sphinx Memorial - St Ives Showground). The area around Apple Tree Bay and Empire Marina at Bobbin Head is simply beautiful and on a clear sunny Sydney autumn day we were in for a great day's walking. 
Loved the sign at the entrance to the Marina asking bushwalkers to remove leaches before enterting the Marina.
Sue & Julie did the walk in the morning, then swapped kids with Paddy & Craig so they could do the walk in the afternoon. Section 4 is graded as "1" in the Trailwalk Guide but this is a trap for young players as the climb out of both Apple Tree Bay and Bobbin Head is a series of steep rock steps and long winding fire trails which gave us a real workout.
However the fire trail at the top then led us on a casual stroll for several km down to Sphinx Memorial.
The weather has been magnificent in Sydney lately and the trails are through some fantastic parts of Sydney's bushland. Reflecting on the choices we make and the lives we lead a favourite saying is... "We don't HAVE to do anything, we GET to"
14 April
If at first you don't succeed.....do it in the daylight
Keen to get back and conquer that section of trail, we went back this morning and started from the top of the track where it meets the road in Davidson. Beautiful sunny weather, with a cool morning which warmed up quickly. Got to the Bungaroo track turn off and then paid close attention to the next bit to figure out what we missed in the dark on Saturday night. We followed the trail straight into the creek as we did on Saturday night, however in the daylight, we could see that it actually wasn't the main creek, just a small stream and once we crossed it, the trail on the other side was obvious. In the dark however, we couldn't see it from the other side as it is at an angle to the creek and was obscured by trees. So, lessons learned - we need to do each section of the trail at least once in the daylight and pay particular attention to navigation such as creek crossings and offshoot trails so when we do them at night we know where to go!
14 April
If at first you don't succeed..... Part 1
Julie & Sue had an adventure on Saturday with our long walk on the trail. Starting at 3pm we did the trail along Section 5 from St Ives Showground to the bottom of the hill at Davidson which was lovely. Great weather, nice wide fire trails and relatively straightforward track to navigate so all ok. Deciede not to walk up the hill and back down again and so began Section 6 at the Middle Harbour Trail sign in the late afternoon and we soon found ourselves needing our headlamps on whilst walking as it got dark. All ok with the lights but the trail is much more narrow and requires lots of scrambling over rocks and tree roots, not to mention the debris washed up on the sides of the trail from recent flooding in the area. Anyway, we got about 5km in, just a bit past the Bungaroo track turnoff, and suddenly we lost the trail. We had limited long range vision from our headlamps and back tracked several times but couldn't find where it went - it just seemed to end in the creek and we knew we didn't cross the creek in this section of the trail. So whilst we had plenty of water and food, and were feeling strong and healthy, with night properly set in, no phone reception, fallen logs and boulders in front of us and no apparent way forward, we didn't fancy the prospect of completely losing the trail in the dark and spending hours in the bush. We went back the way we came, trying not to be spooked by loud "thump thump rustle" noises from the wallabies we disturbed along the way and our lovely husbands and children picked us up in Davidson near Checkpoint 6 and we called it a night. Walk was approx 20km and took 5 hours including the messing about trying to find the trail again.
12 April
Craig's Training on the Track
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Haven't been on line for a couple of weeks but have still been training with some smaller walks of 10klm or so. Completed the St Ives to Roseville Bridge walk on the weekend started at 4am to get some night walking in. Lights worked well. Could do without the scurrying animal noises though - a little disconcerting for the first night walk. Walked home from Roseville so about 23 kilms in all. Did well, sore knees though so need to work on building up the strength a bit. More squats me thinks and time on the rower...yay. Won't be wearing runners again, not enough ankle support, but was worth a try. Back to the boots. The photo is of one of our many spider firends we encountered along the way. Won't be sad when they hibernate. Having said that though, Alex walks faster than me so he encounters more than I do - there are advantages to walking a little bit slower... Till next time. Planning a 25klm walk for the weekend.
24 March
Sue's holiday training blog
We're away on holidays in country Victoria this week but have managed to fit in a few training walks with the kids in tow. On Sunday the Splash & Dash festival was held in Yarrawonga so Paddy & I did the 5km run as a family with Zoe & Matthew in prams and then Zoe & I ran the 1km kids event afterwards (see picture). We actually intended to do the 10km event but about 500m into the course one of the prams got a flat tyre from the millions of super spiky bindis. After spending a while fixing it we missed the cut off for the 10km course but the 5km was still really good to do, especially as we ran most of the course so gave our muscles a real workout pushing the prams as well. Today we managed a longer walk around the wetlands near Numurkah which was very picturesque and had lots of interesting things for Zoe to ask questions about. Matthew fell asleep at the start of the walk so he missed the views but had a much needed rest. Something we've really noticed about this region is how incredibly flat it is out here. Living in north west Sydney we have a constant workout on hills as soon as we walk out the front door so it is very strange to be on flat ground all the time. However we're enjoying the sights of the area and are having a good week.
24 March
Craig's Training Blog 2
Walked to North Sydney and back last night, (about 10klm), body seems to be responding well so far, shoulders are tight though, thank god for the massage machine.
22 March
Craig's Training Blog 1
Completed a 20klm walk with Alex on the weekend, the bulk of stage 4 and 5 of the trail from St Ives to Davidson Park. Ouch!! that was only 20% of the total walk. Was certainly feeling it by the end. Can't wait for the cooler weather to kick in. Finished the walk feeling a little intimidated at the prospect of 100klms, particularly when the three young guys (also training for the trail) jogged past us and disappeared into the distance. Oh to be 20 years younger! Loved the direction on th emap "at the next vague intersection veer left", turns out there's two or three vague intersections before you get to the real vague intersection. All part of the fun - and a good reason to train on the track! Thats all for now. Off for a night walk tonight - but not as long! Cheers Craig
