19 June

MG and BB phone a friend

MG & BB had the pleasure of Bert's company, it was a welcome relief for MG who maintains (wrongly) that my singing the previous week was more like cries of pain... hurtful... "rubber ducky" ... Bert and MG had quite a tricky creek crossing, fortunately Bert went first to ensure the damsel had a smooth walking path (thanks), but ended up in the drink. Having established the best path was not the way he went, MG who was behind the damsel moved out of the way on a wobbly rock and like skittles it was 2 nimble Mountain Goats bowled over, leaving the BB standing gracefully upon her rock (the Queen of the castle). It was quite the male bonding session as they carried their lattes and strolled along the walk. BB struggling to keep up with the lads, tried to catch up, got distracted by wildlife in the bush and came crashing down. Bert wet himself laughing, causing tourette's in BB when she got up after hitting her head (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). Took a while to even attempt a smile at that one, sorry Bert. BB was really grumpy on this walk and the "encouraging" lady with the ugly dog nearly became a kebab on BB's pink poles. Helpful suggestions on how to get up steep hills in St Ives, AFTER traipsing through the bush for 10km were not welcome after the tourette's outburst. BB pulled out of the race to go home and have a good soak, leaving the MG's to complete the course. Bert completed 39k's and MG completed 50k's - well done MG! As you can see there is much training to be done, but we appreciate your support and sponsorship in our endeavours. Looking forward to our first training session as an entire team - go team Hajas!

19 June

Rubber Ducky You're the One

It started out a pleasant day, a nice walk around the Hawksbury a steep incline, a little fire trail and then the hell began!!! Dan and team came flying past, the Mountain Goat was highly amused by the Laurel and Hardy act, some guys should never wear skins (Methane Dan that means you!) So after some helpful advice on how much one should pack, they moved on - thanks Oi, couldn't do it without you :o) As we recovered from choking on their dust we made our way down the big descent, crossed the river, Jesus like - walking on water - ok, so the stream was low and it did not get into my gore-tex hedgehogs! By the end of the day that was the only part of me which was dry. Fortunately our support crew is getting opportunities to train too, meeting up with Chris who lightened my load in response to Oi's gentle suggestions. We traipsed on and due to the torrential downpour it was my great pleasure to see the unveiling of the rubber ducky! You have got to get a load of MG's coat, bright yellow, very entertaining. I of course burst into song, direct from Bert and Ernie it delighted the MG no end. While that was entertaining, I had drunk too much water (the cause of the overpacking) so that slow descent was killing me!!! Not just because of the joint pain - can you get skins back on in a delicate manner when they are wet, you are wet and you are crouching behind a bush answering the call of nature - I chose no, finally made it to the bathrooms after being rescued by Hitman Harding - thanks for waiting for us and delivering me to the bathroom door. Great relief to get off the trail and head home, any excuse will do.

11 May

The Evil Red Man

The below could just be the delusional ramblings of someone truly dehydrated, however, it is my new theory on the walking trail. I truly do have a new dislike for the little red signs with the hiking man on it. It seems every time we see him the trail gets more difficult. Slippery stream crossings with moss covered rocks, rock climbing required etc. I really do believe there is a green sign somewhere with a hiking man on it and it is the easy trail, we have just been caught up in the belief to follow the red man, but he is just a nasty piece of work who takes us the hard way. Last week I actually saw a red man near a bus stop – of course directing away from the stop and into the bush – that’s what we expect from the red man. It's going to be a long walk........

11 May

Davidson to Mosman - it's a long way!

Big delay in the posting of this update, Amber status Kathryn on the organisation of website updates. Last walk on the trail was the BB and the MG tackling the final 28.5km of the trail, Davidson to Mosman. Time still took forever thanks to the BB – Red status Kathryn’s fitness, it really will get better – I hope! Have learnt a couple of things from our last walk, one that Andrew really is a Mountain Goat as he leapt from rock to rock gracefully crossing streams, moving up sandstone inclines. I, the BB took a more practical approach, that of the sit and slide, whereby I would do no leaping but sit down and slide off, or the ever so graceful, hands and knees crawl up sandstone inclines. (* Inclines, read rock formations which you have to climb to get over) This section for the most part was not as “challenging” except for the pushing of the BB through the eye of a needle – well that’s what it felt like – great suggestion taking the backpack off – there was no way both the BB and backpack was going to fit through!!! Much talking about the organisers of the walk in the second half of the Davidson Park to Ararat Reserve section – not so much nice talk about the trail planners, words like mongrels etc – could we not take the fire trails all the way around rather than rock climbing to Ararat Reserve!! While there was no leech/spider body count this week thought I would update you all on the injury list. MG – no injuries, just a bit puffed. BB – 1 bruise from squeezing through the eye of the needle, 2 massive blisters and missing skin where the strapping from the bodgie knee from last week caused some damage. Really need to look at prevention, not the cure. Of course it is all for a worthy cause and we truly are appreciative to all of those kind and generous people who have donated to our team – thank you from all of us.

29 April

Training Session 1 – Take 2

Mr Hajas has certainly been working on his action item and redeemed himself from Red status to Green status along with a nomination for sainthood. The 2 team members needing to redeem themselves set out with our fundraising manager, Lauren, to hit the same sections I attempted with my other team mates 1 week prior. Arriving at Berowra at 7am for the 21.5km ahead of us, Lauren headed off and we started the training. The walk itself was arduous and picturesque, with Andrew seeing more of the sights than my good self as I was head down and just trying to survive. Great excitement when I successfully crossed the stream which had hindered the first training session. Excitement mixed with disappointment to see how shallow it was and slightly perplexed as to how I could have got wet up to my waist. The most “fun” was had at around the 19km mark as we headed up the sharp incline – read cliff face with no fixed track – slight meltdown by Kathryn. This allowed time for Andrew “David Attenborough” Hajas to come alive – oh, there’s a funnel web spider hole – let’s put a stick in it to see if it comes out!!?? Later discovered this was his motivation to get me moving, however, don’t think he realises it was probably going to make me retreat, not advance!!! Successfully completing the training the body count was as follows: 3 leeches – 1 Andrew, 2 Kathryn. No funnel web spiders despite best efforts to see one. Number of branches/dead trees/bushes/sticks jumping out to get Kathryn – 5 – I am not unco they really did try and get me. Action item Kathryn – red status on fitness – will be hitting the track every weekend if anyone is interested in joining me? Action item everyone, we are nearly at 20% of our fundraising target, you can partner with us in this worthy cause without getting attacked by trees/leeches/spiders by supporting us in raising $5,000 for Oxfam. Green status to those family, friends and colleagues who have already made generous donations – thank you.

23 April

What Were We Thinking!!??

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We started our first training session at 6 am as one of our team members lay sleeping (Action Item Andrew – address team spirit red status). Within 5 minutes on the track we had run into our first snake. Next 5 minutes we took a wrong turn and ended up doing a circle under my expert guidance (not privy to seeing the map after that until the end of our walk). To top it all off there was a leech fest on my shoes the entire walk - gross! I was finding the first training session tough, much internal bickering, started to pray and declare how I was as surefooted as a deer and similar declarations of mountains / feet / surefootedness. Felt better, started to pick up the pace, knew I could do it and close the gap, within 100m of said declarations at a creek crossing I slipped and fell into a hole up to my waist between boulders. Had gone from surefooted deer to soaking hippo – this was not what I had signed up for. Fortunately my colleagues were on hand to laugh, cry out “if only we had a video we could win money on Funniest Home Videos” and then assist. At least the leeches would have drowned was Hayden’s comforting words. Continued to slosh and squish my way ahead on the walk but was sick of it by then, soaking wet and aware of time pressures, called one of our support crew – Narelle - who lives nearby. She quickly came to rescue me- did not care at that point if my team mates carried on or came with me – I was getting out of there!!! (Action Item Kathryn – address team spirit amber status) Finally found my team mates and they decided to join me, wasn’t alone in leaving the track. Fortunately it provided a great opportunity for the support team to “practice”, they passed their first training session with flying colours! Action Item Team – 19 weeks to get this right, much training to be done! You can partner with us in this worthy cause (without getting sore feet and sleep deprived) by supporting us in raising $5,000 for Oxfam.