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20 August
New Team Member
A lot has happened since the last entry all those weeks ago! Most importantly, Ingrid has had to swap over to the support crew due to overriding work and family commitments, so we now have a new team member. He is Robert 'Scotty' Campbell and that's him on the left of the picture (which was taken at Jerusalem Bay). We know he doesn't match Ingrid as the Beauty in the team, but he makes up for that by being much fitter than the rest of us! Meanwhile our training has continued apace. The longest single walk has been the first three sections from Brooklyn to Apple Tree Bay (43 km). A week from today it's all that plus 57 km more! Even more importantly, we have been getting terrific fundraising support. Many, many thanks to all those who have supported Beauty and the beasts so far!
31 May
Which Way Now?
On the first section between Parsley Bay and Cowan.
31 May
Getting into it!
Since the previous report we have had six training walks out on various sections of the trail, with various combinations of team members. The shortest and probably hardest was the dreaded Section 2 from Cowan to Berowra on 4th May, only 12.5 km but very steep! The longest was on 30th May from Sphinx war memorial to Davidson Park (31 km). So far we are building up an interesting collection of wildlife sightings. Ingrid attracts the scary ones - after her leech encounter (see our previous blog) she nearly stepped on a black snake on the track beside Middle Harbour Creek. She remains undaunted as you can see from the picture. Brenton has chalked up the weirdest wildlife event so far with his encounter with a red crayfish, also on the Middle Harbour Creek track. He assures us he was not hallucinating! The crayfish also no doubt considered this a weird encounter. During this week we plan to have our first night walk and on 5th or 6th of June will combine the first two sections from Parsley Bay to Berowra (29 km). After that we'll have to start getting serious.
29 April
Training Continues!
Thank you for the donations so far received! They certainly give us the encouragement we need. While Craig has been roughing it overseas for the last two weeks, Ingrid, Brenton and Mike have been striding out along various parts of the Trail. Hopefully all four of us will be together on Sunday 2 May stringing together a couple of sections. 18 April saw Ingrid, Mike and Ed (Ingrid's intrepid young son) doing the 9 km section from the Sphinx Memorial to St Ives Showground - only Grade 3, but there's a steep climb in the middle! On 20 April, Ingrid and Mike covered the two sections between St Ives Showground and Davidson Park, with a necessary timesaving shortcut bringing it down to about 19 km. On 25 April Ingrid, Brenton and Mike set out on a drizzly Anzac Day to do the two sections between Berowra and the Sphinx Memorial. This turned out to be more of a struggle than expected with a pair of very sore knees, some painful leg cramps and, in Lyrebird Gully, a mass leech attack against Ingrid and Brenton (Mike's blood wasn't good enough for them apparently). Here's Mike looking out for the critters as he crosses a creek. In between times we've all been trying to build up our individual walking fitness and endurance. Please continue to support Beauty and the Beasts!
14 April
Training Underway!
Our team training is underway. The stiffness and soreness felt by at least some of us tells us we have a long way to go. Here is Brenton boldly leading the way to Checkpoint 7!
04 April
Our Challenge
We're taking part in Oxfam Trailwalker in August, a 100km endurance walk from the Hawkesbury to the Harbour in teams of four (it’s not a relay!), through the Australian bush. One of us (Mike) has done it before and his previous team members believe that he must be crazy and/or in his old age has forgotten all the pain. This is us about to start our first training walk. By the time we are ready for the real event, after hundreds of training kilometres, we’ll be so trim, taut and terrific we’ll be unrecognisable! We’ll update this page as our training progresses. We're doing all this to raise money for Oxfam Australia, who work to fight poverty and injustice in 29 countries around the world, including Indigenous Australia. Your sponsorship of our team will be for a really great cause and will keep us focussed on the task over the months ahead as we struggle to get fit enough, so please help by donating here!
