total received funds
Sponsor our team and help us raise money for Oxfam Australia.
We're past our target of $7,000
Sponsor our team and help to overcome poverty and injustice.
We've raised $7,531.
$7,000 can provide chickens and materials to set up poultry farms for vulnerable women in Zimbabwe.
We're walking 100km. Help us make a difference.
Highschool Sweethearts are gold fundraisers Help us reach our target of $7,000.donate to our team
our top online donors
- Anonymous $899
- Anonymous $500
Great effort girls. May you stay blister free!
$500 can provide a water harvesting system to supply clean water for 200 families in South Africa.
- Awesome RT's at Austin Health $340
Good luck Girls!! from Bec's mates at the Austin: Kaz, Judene, Ange, MaryAnn, Min, Kim, Ed, Colleen, Megan, Sara, Heather & Corrado.
$325 can provide start up credit for a Women's Self Help Group in Cambodia.
where does the money go?
18 April
We made it - 100km in 31 hours!
Thank you so much to our amazing support crew, and everyone else who supported us along the way. We have not only completed one of the worlds toughest team challenges, but also have raised an outstanding amount of money for Oxfam - we really appreciate every cent, it is such a worth cause! Some interesting facts: We finished 482 out of 729 total teams We came 94th when compared to all girls team 28 team retired The quickest team finished in 12 hours The last team finished in 44 hours - outstanding with 4 hours to spare The first over 60s men’s team "Pacemakers" finished in 25 hours The first over 40s women’s team "Mums with momentum" finished in 19 hours (there were no women’s only team over 50) In terms of fundraising, in our category family and friends we are currently at #20 out of 339 teams - we have nearly reached our target of $7K. The current total amount of fundraising is 2.3 million
15 April
Its FInally Here!
After all our hard training the day has almost arrived! in only a few hours we will be leaving the start line! We are all ready to go, feet taped, water packed, the rest of our supplies (and we have plenty of supplies) are with our fantastic support crew, who have everything we need organised, so all we need to concentrate on now is walking! Wish us luck!
05 April
The friends you meet along the way
This cutie helped us overcome the boredom of the Warburton trail.
05 April
Picnic time
The girls enjoying some Mustard Pickle sandwiches (with cheese, ham and lettuce). After 40km anything tastes good - I am really going to miss the weekly picnics with the girls.
05 April
The Sandwich
We did it...the "Sandwich" 22km from 4pm till 9pm on Easter Sunday night, and backed it up with 19km Easter Monday morning. I am pretty sure we burnt off those chocolate eggs, however gained a few more sore knees and blisters which we have decided are inevitable.
26 March
Hills, Hills & More Hills
We love hills.....NOT! (of course excluding the ‘Heather Hill’ kind!) Although we do love the challenges we have been setting ourselves to train on them. We discovered what a great challenge the Hill next to the 1000 steps is and have added a few laps of this to our weekly training schedule. The first time we tackled it we thought once would be enough, but we made it up a second time and have never looked back! We are getting stronger and taking less breaks on the way up, this week we pushed ourselves even further, 3 times up and back.... With no breaks on the way up! And we did it, at a rather speedy pace! Be warned Hackett's Hill...... You dont scare us anymore!!
22 March
Can you Hackett?
Sorry it's been so long since our last post. After some great fundraising successes we have been knuckling down with our training, and the hard work has been paying off! Yesterday we were up at 4.30am again and walked 33km from Churchill National Park to Olinda Reserve. All kitted up with our spandex pants, headlamps and, me with my life saving hiking sticks (which the girls love to tease me about them but I think they will be jealous on the day), besides those sticks could of come in handy yesterday if we had to defend our selves from the 100s of Kangaroos that came out of the dark that morning! On that note we have been so fortunate to see so many gorgeous animals including echidnas, lyrebirds, emus, horses, and more - including the odd domestic dog that adopts us and continues to follow us way too far from home. We are continuing to enjoy the beautiful surroundings; sunrises, lookouts, forests, lakes and streams etc...
21 March
We can Hackett!
Victoria has so many gorgeous places we never even knew existed. This was the third time we had completed these 3 legs of the course and we are very proud to say it was almost easy this time. Broadway Street, the steps up to Belgrave and Old Monbulk Road were a breeze, we didn't even have to stop once going up Hackett's street (which we did multiple times on our first visit). Whilst the Gatorade, lollies and chicken sandwiches certainly assist, I am sure the Tuesday night hill training on the side of the 1000s steps in the Dandenongs might have something to do with it. But this is not to say we were without a few minor injuries. Personally I got my first blister, however I am blaming this on my new shoes, despite taking a few Voltaren in the morning I still needed to brace up my knee, and even the deep heat didn't stop those calves from aching the next day. The other girls pulled up very well, the bruises on Liz shins are fading, Bridgette’s well developed taping skills means she is only getting a few blisters rather than the 100s she used to get, and Bec was the star walking only 3 hours sleep and perhaps a little hangover (and I better not mention the black blister she has on her heel). We are getting very excited and would like once again to thank all of our amazing family and friends for their continued support – not long to go now! Heather xo
26 February
With a little help from our friends...
Our next and major thank you needs to go to Adam Martin- Director of TrewRehab. Adam knows us all from school, and has been extremely generous in not only giving us a donation from his Company, but by offering his personal services to train us, give us tips and advice and to be of general support. To give a bit of background on his company, TrewRehab is associated with TrewHealth (both located in MSAC at Albert Park) and uses a "best practice" approach in clinical exercise prescription and biomechanics, with specialisation in the following areas- - Sports Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation - Work Place Design and Ergonomics - Clinical Pilates - Back Care and - Private Health Insurance Claims All of his assistance is greatly appreciated, as Adam has numerous accreditations and qualifications in his field. With all his experience in health and fitness (personal training and boot camps etc) he is putting together various strength and cardio programs for us- (Stay tuned to see if we survive the sessions!!) and his chosen specialisation of sports injury prevention and rehabilitation will clearly come in handy before and after the event! Thanks so much Adam :) www.trewrehab.com
11 February
Thanks to Weight Watchers
A big thank you to our most recent supporter Weight Watchers who have written a feature story about our Oxfam Ambition on thier homepage and online newsletter to assist us further with donations. They have not only helped a few of us achieve our goal weight, but continue to motivate us, not just with exercise and healthy eating, but now with fundraising! http://www.weightwatchers.com.au/success/art/index.aspx?SuccessStoryId=7151&sc=17
11 February
Bunnings BBQ Fundraiser
We completed a whole weekend of sausage sizzling at Bunnings Port Melbourne over the 6th and 7th of February - what a weekend! Basically, we had great fundraising success and we would like to send a big thanks to Bwalya from Bunnings for being so helpful in the lead up to and throughout the event. Also, thanks to Kevin Munday and his company, Black Mount Natural Springwater, for donating 10 cases of water for us to sell, we really appreciate it. And lastly once again to our great families, partners and friends who helped us out on the days; special mention to Steve, Adil, Ryan, Andrew and Gary for being our ‘gofers’ and helping us set up. We can’t wait to bank our money and watch our fundraising figure grow.
04 February
Meet the team!!
Liz Stewart. Team Captain. Takes staying well hydrated very seriously. (especially after last week.) Has been encouraging the team to continue their research into this vital aspect of the challenge. Has decided that cocktails (although very tasty and refreshing on a hot day) possibly do not have the same beneficial effects as H2o...
04 February
More of the team..
Bridgette Walker. Queen of cooking the snags. Fan of a sparkling wine, though has decided the glass bottle may be unnecessary weight in her backpack. (sadly).
04 February
The rest of the team..
Heather Hill & Bec Morrell The idiots who like running up the hills. Currently in a heated debate as to whether Gatorade or Powerade should feature on the day.. the jury's still out.
02 February
Fundraising so far..
So we haven’t as yet begged and pestered our friends and family for money as we still have a few events we are thinking of running that will really maximise their contributions (haha!). We have however, held our first Bunnings BBQ at Box Hill, which was a great success and we managed to generate takings only $300 under their record and came away with a pretty pleasing profit and a fine skill for cooking sausages! We would especially like to thank the friends and family who came down to help us – in particular, Andrew (Dad), Steve and Ryan and Poppy for his extra generous donation.
02 February
Injuries sustained to date...
So it is fair to say that we are a bunch of very determined young ladies. Overall, we are reasonably fit. However, we have found that a blister can be the most painful thing ever endured and enough to take down the most stubborn of competitors. Granted, we have been a little stiff here and there after our early training sessions and some particularly long walks, but the blister is definitely our worst enemy. We have single-handedly increased the profits of Coles and Chemists everywhere due to our excessive Band-Aid purchases. Our faces deserve to be on the box. The elusive prevention/cure continues to be what we strive to conquer.
02 February
Saturday 31st January
Now this may seem dramatic.... but at the time, running out of water for 5 kms on the middle of the Warburton Trail in 36 degree temperatures with no shade and with 25kms behind us already, was no laughing matter! As you can imagine, the gossip had died down at this stage, as we pushed to make it to Woori Yallock to steal water from someone's garden tap. Lesson learnt/note to self- Hydration Packs? More than 1.2L water each? Fill water bottle at every tap you see, even if you think it may be 'horse water'? Not ideal. We ended up piking on the last 5 kms and caught a cab to our car. You may rightly refer to us at this point as a bunch of dumb blondes (which would be harsh but very fair).
02 February
Major Catch Up!
So we are feeling pretty behind the 8 ball that we haven managed to get a post on our page yet... especially when we see the great efforts of other teams... However, in our defence we have been training for the last couple of months, hence now the big catch up. Firstly, to introduce our team; we have Heather, Liz, Bec and Bridgette. We are all old high school friends (hence the dorky team name) and decided to challenge ourselves to not only participate in the Trailwalker but also raise money for Oxfam. Secondly, our training... as we mentioned we started this back in November by walking the earlier legs of the trail on a Saturday. We quickly decided that this would not be enough training and agreed to meet up on a Tuesday night also. Besides a few blisters we were still feeling pretty invincible at this stage.... how quickly that has changed! (more on that later) By Christmas we had covered the first four stages of the track a few times mixing up our distances and progressively increasing their length (to a max of a bout 20kms). The tracks have been beautiful and we have seen so much wildlife along the way in overall perfect walking weather conditions. This plus the opportunity for a 5 hour gossip session while we were walking made us think we were on easy street.... Until the fateful Saturday the 31st of January...Stay tuned for the next installment....
