how can hell look like heaven?

yesterday brad, majella and myself set off to do the border track between binna burra and o'reillys (21km). i had read online that it takes 6-7hrs but experienced walkers can do it in 5hrs. so of course i thought why dont we do it both ways (total 42km) in 10hrs!!

we got there at 6.45am (forgot it takes longer to drive there) so were a bit late taking off. the trail is very well marked didnt really need a map but used it just to have an idea of where we were.

the track is gentle and soft under foot with no real steep hills, so this should be easy i thought! the first section was lovely and we really were walking fast but towards o'reillys my feet just went to bits and i thought i cant do this, majella (the super woman) helped carry my pack for a little while (it was too heavy with stuff!!)

we got to 20km and i just sat down and said this was as far as i could go, so shoes off, rubbed feet, retied shoes, had food and gave some of my stuff to the others to help carry. (things like first aid kit and snake bite bandages - i am prepared for anything)

we rested for a while and then set off for the return trip, my feet were better and so we tried to get back as quick as we could, it was a long way back and we were all in our own world of pain in the last 10km. we made it back to the car by 6pm (so about 10.5hrs walking time) very proud but the last bit i had to have my headlamp on as it was so dark.

we stopped for subway and then headed home, got to my house at 8pm, having left at 4.15am that morning it was a very long day.

positives about the hike 1. beautiful scenary and fun team members 2. got to break through another barrier in time and distance 3. learning to walk through the pain (havent learnt to stop whinging about it yet) 4. i still have a very healthy respect of what doing 96km will take

next week alan is back so will do a gentle 15km hike but the following week will be another endurance hike from hell to welcome him back to training.

our first snake!!!

hi all

yesterday brad and i set off to do the final two sections of the kokoda challenge that we had yet to complete, they were short with a total distance of 19km.

the first one will take us from the watercircuit to the top of upper beechmont (syd duncan park), we were unsure of the entry area to the track and thought we were going the wrong way, but rather than turn around we would just walk and use it as traing, we eventually came out onto a road and saw that infact we had found the right track but it seems too easy, maybe walking for 2hours has become easy.

then we set off on the next section this takes us from the bottom of hell fires pass over mt nathan and to the beginning of nerang forest (the last section before the finish line).

the first section was up mt nathan on a very eroded track you had to keep from one ledge to another as the crevices were quite deep (would not like to do this in the dark. when we got to the top we had to find a overgrown footpad to a wire gate, it was so overgrown but found the gate and it had a huge sign saying private property, trespasses will be prosecuted. i did think this was the right gate but we thought we should continue and look for another gate, about 100m away i said to brad that we should go back as i was sure we were going the wrong way, i went under the fence to see if the mango trees (which were on the map were there) and just then we heard some voices, another team came along (beechmont bellbirds) and they told us that they had done this section before and yes this was the right way, so everyone crawled under the fence.

we then went through a "grassy lane" which meant that the grass was about 3 ft high and you had to push through it, i was nervous about snakes but thought we so many of us and lots of chatting they would be scared away.

just when we were near the end and the grass was lower, brad loudly warned us about a brown snake, it was only about a foot in front of me and just quickly crawled into grass beside us. we were all a bit shakened and got out of there fast, the only thing brad and i had to return back that way later.

we came out on a road which winded steeply down to the next checkpoint but the view of the gold coast in the back ground were lovely, i a clear day it would be fantastic. after some lunch at the bottom we headed back and it seemed to take forever to get through the grass section again. we were finished at about 12md, so it was all up only about 6hrs, but we did it in good time and headed home.

next week we are doing the border track from binna burra to o'reillys, hope to do about 10hrs, it should be beautiful tracks in the cool rainforest, so looing forward to it.

then the team is back together and the real training will begin!!!

steps where art thou?

brad and i thought we would try the 900 stairs at apple tree park that we had heard about. we found the park easy enough but no mention of stairs so we thought we would just follow one of the tracks and see if they were there. we didnt have a map, so after taking one of the tracks and ending up back at the road, i was reluctant to keep trying.

in the end we went back to pollys and did the hill (in 50mins) and then had lunch at pollys, have tried to google where the stairs are but hard to find any information, i plan to ring the forestry dept tomorrow and see if we can find them.

the plan for next saturday is to do the final 2 sections (total 19km) and if enough energy do the stairs. have been reading other teams news and we seem to be extra slow with teams doing the same distance in about 8 hrs compared to our 10hrs, i just dont think i can walk much faster, but next time we do the sections when alan is back at least we wont waste time checking the maps as we will know where we are going.

next month we are going to have to put in some long days to get ready as there is now only 14 wks to go and the time is going fast!!!