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!!!