heat and dust and hills, oh my!
Jan. 10th, 2010 12:11 pmAs I mentioned previously I'm participating in the Oxfam challenge this year. Yesterday we did our first major training walk. Actually, that's not strictly true - the other three did a walk just before Christmas but as I was still in the post-operative phase where I wasn't supposed to do major exercise I didn't go. (Also that was the day we were hosting Swedish Lisa's BBQ #1, so even if I could have gone I probably wouldn't have!)
In the last couple of weeks I've been walking around the suburb finding hills to walk up and generally trying to build up a bit of stamina - and usually to remember the lyrics to songs, which is apparently what my brain likes to do while I'm walking alone. (I spent nearly an hour walking around the other night trying to remember the lyrics to "Good King Wenceslas" and getting stuck on "bring me flesh and bring me wine, bring me [something] hither". My brain was very insistent that it was "pine nuts", which brings on images of "Good King Wenceslas: Masterchef". I was also fairly certain that getting pine nuts in the middle of winter in 13th century Poland would have been tricky, but I suppose there must be some advantages to being the king. I want pine nuts and I want them now! Incidentally it's actually "pine logs". I looked it up when I got home.)
Yesterday we'd decided to actually train together on the trail and to attempt the first two stages, a grand total of 21.5km. We also made the sensible choice to start early, given the forecast of 36oC. Originally that was going to be starting at 7am, but by the time we finished the car shuffle (leaving one car at the end and two cars at the start) it was 7.45am before we actually managed to head out from Jells Park tea house. The initial part of the trail was quite nice, a shared bike/foot trail with good shade. We trundled along and were doing quite nicely up until we realisd we'd missed a turn off onto a gravel path and had instead continued along the nicely paved trail. Consulting the map we decided to press on and rejoin the actual trail at Ferntree Gully road. Oh and to check our maps a bit more frequently, and watch for the turn offs!
Ferntree Gully Rd to Wellington Rd continued along the Dandenong Creek combined bike/foot path, with lots of cyclists and dog walkers out early before the heat kicked in. Midway along three quarters of "Three Aussies and a Scot" caught up with us, and we chatted about training. Their fourth member broke her ankle in two places over the Christmas break, so they are now finding a new member (preferably an Aussie presumably, given their team name!) They also plan to walk the whole thing right through on the day, with no sleep breaks, although on that day they were walking the same distance as us (possibly managing to stay on the correct trail the entire time as well...) Unsurprisingly, given their much higher level of fitness, they headed off past us after 5 minutes or so and walked quickly into the distance.
We crossed Wellington Rd, and continued along the Dandenong Creek trail. It always surprises me that more people aren't out on these trails - the Yarra trail is frequently like Bourke St, but other river and creek trails are often deserted. The last two times I've ridden the Plenty River trail for example I've seen a total of 10 people, two of whom were on bikes. And yet they're such great trails to ride or walk on. We crossed under Eastlink, admiring the pretty coloured sound barriers, which work surprisingly well. For most of this part we'd broken up into pairs, with myself and Georgina chatting about work (mostly) and Karena and Priscilla doing the same behind us. Most of this stage of the trail was also shaded, which was good as the sun was beginning to bite.
Down to Stud Rd, with a brief check of the map as we passed a side trail. I really wish they'd mark the trails a bit better at times, it wasn't obvious which was the creek trail and which was the trailing heading off to a local oval. Continuing along the nicely shaded creek trail we passed a hidden camp on the other side of the creek (nice at this time of year, dunno about winter) and another couple of walkers before turning off on Brady Road to start heading due east. Brady Rd of course was a road - not a large road, but wide enough that there was suddenly no shade. As it was approaching 9am by this point (and nearly 29oC according to BOM) it was noticeably hotter in the sun. We kept pushing on, hoping that we'd hit some shade again soon. Then, just up ahead of us we saw the "Three Aussies and a Scot" crew! Obviously we'd either made up some time or they'd stopped somewhere. When we reached the Nerre Nerre Warren Picnic area we realised they must have had a toilet stop, so we decided to do likewise and sat down in the shade of the toilet block. I also decided to refill my camelpak, which still had water in it but was getting lower. This was tricky as the taps were the kind that you have to hold on, and the basin was high enough to make filling difficult. I have to get Dean to show me the trick to this I think.
Starting up again we ran into a jogger who stopped to ask us if we were a walking club, as we were the 5th lot of people we'd seen all carrying the same maps. We explained what we (and the others) were doing, and mentioned that some people run the trail, and complete it in 10-12 hours. He looked surprised. "Where's the fun in that?!" "If you're a Ghurka, the fun is that you don't have to do it in full army kit" I offered. He looked surprised again. "Do they normally do that?" "Yes... but it takes them a bit longer." He wished us luck and went back to jogging. Two minutes later half of another team caught up to us. "Where's the rest of your team?" Karena asked. "Oh they're off at a mountain biking event - we're lazy so we bailed on that and decided to train instead." They jogged off past us, turning to confirm that they were supposed to turn left at the T-intersection we were about to reach. They weren't carrying the maps which impressed me no end - I can't hold a route in my head that well!
Turning onto the same fire trail we passed the police horses, who were all out grazing. You really wouldn't think you were in the suburbs of a city of 4 million at this point. More so as we crossed Power Rd and continued up a dirt track, suddenly in bushland that looked suspiciously like the bush around Kinglake. As in, completely burned out. I have the strong feeling that this was one of the "going" fires on Black Saturday - there were over 20 of them on the day, and I know there were at least 3 that I can think of offhand in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The fires everyone remembers are of course the ones that killed people - Kinglake and surrounds, Marysville, Callignee, Bendigo, Horsham. There were so many others that were raging out of control though, and given where this patch of bush was it was again a matter of luck that people weren't killed nearby. The trees were black, with almost none sprouting new growth. The undergrowth was back and very green though, which made for an interesting contrast. This time last year the trail must have been very shady. It was less so as we walked it.
We emerged onto a main road, carefully crossed it and then totally missed the trail we were supposed to follow to get to the location of checkpoint one, accidentally arriving there via the main road instead. Oops. I had intended to fill up my water again here, but it turned out that there was no potable water available. This was a bit of a worry, as I wasn't the only one of us who'd planned this. We had a brief rest, checked our watches (10.15am - just over 30oC according to BOM) and then started out on leg 2. 12.5km (give or take a few hundred metres, allowing for our unexpected detours) down, 9km to go.
As we started to get moving we saw another team jogging off on the trail. None were carrying water. You've got to worry about some people.
Off on the Shelter trail - handily marked with a very large sign - we headed, switching on to the Bellbird Track, then onto the Ridge track. The track started rising steeply which, combined with the loose gravel nature of parts of it, made things interesting. Karena and Georgina were now walking together, with Priscilla and I bringing up the rear. Georgina is both the fittest and the tallest of us, and looked to be almost strolling. Priscilla and I not so much. We all stopped under a tree at the top of the rise to catch our breath and look at the map. "Please tell me that was that really big hill there" said Priscilla who was looking at the altitude scale map. "Um...", said Karena who did this event two years ago. "Damn, I knew that was too good to be true. So we've still got a really big hill to go on this stretch then?"
Yes, we did. Turning on to the Lysterfield Hills trail (a bit of a giveaway that) the trail suddenly became really quite steep and not particularly shady. Priscilla and I started falling further behind. As we got to a tree about half way up the slope I realised that my camelpak had run dry. This was not good news. We stopped to see if I'd managed to twist the tube and inadvertently cut off the water supply - and suddenly I was extremely dizzy and feeling like I was about to throw up. This was even worse news. I sat down (managing to find a patch of grass both kangaroo poo and stone free) and started eating jelly snakes, figuring my blood sugar was probably not at peak levels. It was weird, I was completely fine right up to the point we stopped. Hm, next time maybe I should just keep going. Priscilla sat down with me, declined the offer of jelly snakes and sultanas, and gave me some water instead. A couple of minutes later I was mostly OK again. This sudden collapse is actually something that's happened a couple of times since the operation, although usually in a more convenient place than halfway up a hill in the back of nowhere. Granted the exercise, the water and the heat didn't help there. We continued up the slope, with me walking backwards as it was easier than going forwards, and caught up with the others near the summit under another tree.
Karena looked at me with concern and offered me some of her Gatorade. The first time she'd walked this trail on a similar day she'd collapsed near the summit and had to rest for about 20 minutes. One of her team mates had stayed with her - the other, not known for his people skills or teamwork abilities, had rolled his eyes and kept going. The second time they'd walked it the other team mate had collapsed. Apparently it's a bit notorious. This might have been helpful to know earlier. We drank more water and ate some more food while admiring the view back across to the bay. It's a very nice view, and coupled with the shade and the breeze which was finally reaching us - it doesn't reach the part of the trail we were coming up for some reason - very relaxing. Five minutes later we got up again and continued on our fortunately downhill way towards checkpoint two, Lysterfield lake, which lay gleaming in the sunlight below us. We turned off the Lysterfield hills track (yay!) onto Wallaby track at the 3km mark - still 6km to go. On the other hand, it was downhill and mostly shady.
As we merged onto Lamberts track we saw an echidna crossing the road. Wildlife everywhere today! From insects flying into us, crickets jumping around us, birdlife and now monotremes. No kangaroos, despite the prediction of the jogger back at the rest area - then again by this stage it was approaching 36oC according to BOM so any sensible kangaroos would have been lying in the shade somewhere. Karena and I walked together with Priscilla and Georgina up ahead. This nearly went wrong, as Karena and I were the two with maps, and we had to yell to get them to turn left at the Causarina trail and start heading around the lake. At the 6km mark we passed the "Short Cut Trail" - "can we turn here?" "No! It's not a short cut! The map says so!"
Walking around the lake was good on the one hand - very shady - and bad on the other as we were very close to water but not close enough to be able to actually go in it or drink it or anything, which would have been useful. I finished Karena's Gatorade just as we turned on to the Acacia Nature Walk, which proved to be a mowed trail through bush.
"God I'm glad this is mowed" said Karena who was walking behind me on the single file trail. "Otherwise I'd be really nervous about snakes."
I looked at her. "I'm still nervous about snakes!" We thumped as much as possible and kept going, rejoining the Causarina trail and then the Snipe track which lead over the causeway to our final checkpoint at the lake. The causeway went on. And on. And on. I think it was because we could see our final destination, and it was hot, and there wasn't a single tree planted along the entire route, and we could see people swimming in the lake goddammit that made it the single longest part of the entire trek. Finally we made it to the other side and started heading for the nearest taps. By this stage everyone was out of water and we really wanted to refill our canteens, and possibly pour water on our heads.
Naturally the first tap we found had been closed off because of the drought. The second was occupied by a mother washing all of her kids who'd been swimming in the lake. The third, in the women's toilets, gave only a tiny dribble of water, presumably for conservation reasons.
"Does anyone need the loo?" asked Priscilla. We all looked at each other. "That's a bit of a worry if none of us actually do..."
We headed back to the second tap, which was fortunately free by then, refilled all our camelpaks and drank a lot. Then staggered to Georgina's car, which was still in the shady spot where she'd left it, fortunately! I don't think we could have walked back to Jells Park again.
21.5km (ish) down. 79.9km to go on the actual hike.
So training day one down. Lesson 1 for me - I need to check the camelpak is completely filled and have at least one extra litre of water/Gatorade on me (3 litres in total). Lesson 2 - I really need to practice on hills a lot more. Lesson 3 - we're all going to have to work on this endurance thing!
The good thing is I think we work well together as a team - we have roughly similar speeds and motivation. I'm definitely the weakest link, which means I'll have to work a lot harder to get up to speed. Having said that I feel fine this morning (ask me again after soccer this afternoon though!) even though I was dead tired last night. I do have some foot problems - I need to sort out my little toes which are rubbing a bit, but although I noticed some wear patterns which would probably have developed into blisters if we'd kept going they're not at all painful which is good. It's probably a good idea to note where they are though so I can strap my feet.
And hey, 21.5km is a good walk and at least I know we can make it to checkpoint 2 if nothing else! Next week we're attempting checkpoint 2 to checkpoint three - which is uphill the entire way. If I don't die I'll let you know how we go.
And just for information, here's our route.
Oh and the dust part? I didn't realise how much we'd picked up until I got home and had a shower. The back of my legs were black.
In the last couple of weeks I've been walking around the suburb finding hills to walk up and generally trying to build up a bit of stamina - and usually to remember the lyrics to songs, which is apparently what my brain likes to do while I'm walking alone. (I spent nearly an hour walking around the other night trying to remember the lyrics to "Good King Wenceslas" and getting stuck on "bring me flesh and bring me wine, bring me [something] hither". My brain was very insistent that it was "pine nuts", which brings on images of "Good King Wenceslas: Masterchef". I was also fairly certain that getting pine nuts in the middle of winter in 13th century Poland would have been tricky, but I suppose there must be some advantages to being the king. I want pine nuts and I want them now! Incidentally it's actually "pine logs". I looked it up when I got home.)
Yesterday we'd decided to actually train together on the trail and to attempt the first two stages, a grand total of 21.5km. We also made the sensible choice to start early, given the forecast of 36oC. Originally that was going to be starting at 7am, but by the time we finished the car shuffle (leaving one car at the end and two cars at the start) it was 7.45am before we actually managed to head out from Jells Park tea house. The initial part of the trail was quite nice, a shared bike/foot trail with good shade. We trundled along and were doing quite nicely up until we realisd we'd missed a turn off onto a gravel path and had instead continued along the nicely paved trail. Consulting the map we decided to press on and rejoin the actual trail at Ferntree Gully road. Oh and to check our maps a bit more frequently, and watch for the turn offs!
Ferntree Gully Rd to Wellington Rd continued along the Dandenong Creek combined bike/foot path, with lots of cyclists and dog walkers out early before the heat kicked in. Midway along three quarters of "Three Aussies and a Scot" caught up with us, and we chatted about training. Their fourth member broke her ankle in two places over the Christmas break, so they are now finding a new member (preferably an Aussie presumably, given their team name!) They also plan to walk the whole thing right through on the day, with no sleep breaks, although on that day they were walking the same distance as us (possibly managing to stay on the correct trail the entire time as well...) Unsurprisingly, given their much higher level of fitness, they headed off past us after 5 minutes or so and walked quickly into the distance.
We crossed Wellington Rd, and continued along the Dandenong Creek trail. It always surprises me that more people aren't out on these trails - the Yarra trail is frequently like Bourke St, but other river and creek trails are often deserted. The last two times I've ridden the Plenty River trail for example I've seen a total of 10 people, two of whom were on bikes. And yet they're such great trails to ride or walk on. We crossed under Eastlink, admiring the pretty coloured sound barriers, which work surprisingly well. For most of this part we'd broken up into pairs, with myself and Georgina chatting about work (mostly) and Karena and Priscilla doing the same behind us. Most of this stage of the trail was also shaded, which was good as the sun was beginning to bite.
Down to Stud Rd, with a brief check of the map as we passed a side trail. I really wish they'd mark the trails a bit better at times, it wasn't obvious which was the creek trail and which was the trailing heading off to a local oval. Continuing along the nicely shaded creek trail we passed a hidden camp on the other side of the creek (nice at this time of year, dunno about winter) and another couple of walkers before turning off on Brady Road to start heading due east. Brady Rd of course was a road - not a large road, but wide enough that there was suddenly no shade. As it was approaching 9am by this point (and nearly 29oC according to BOM) it was noticeably hotter in the sun. We kept pushing on, hoping that we'd hit some shade again soon. Then, just up ahead of us we saw the "Three Aussies and a Scot" crew! Obviously we'd either made up some time or they'd stopped somewhere. When we reached the Nerre Nerre Warren Picnic area we realised they must have had a toilet stop, so we decided to do likewise and sat down in the shade of the toilet block. I also decided to refill my camelpak, which still had water in it but was getting lower. This was tricky as the taps were the kind that you have to hold on, and the basin was high enough to make filling difficult. I have to get Dean to show me the trick to this I think.
Starting up again we ran into a jogger who stopped to ask us if we were a walking club, as we were the 5th lot of people we'd seen all carrying the same maps. We explained what we (and the others) were doing, and mentioned that some people run the trail, and complete it in 10-12 hours. He looked surprised. "Where's the fun in that?!" "If you're a Ghurka, the fun is that you don't have to do it in full army kit" I offered. He looked surprised again. "Do they normally do that?" "Yes... but it takes them a bit longer." He wished us luck and went back to jogging. Two minutes later half of another team caught up to us. "Where's the rest of your team?" Karena asked. "Oh they're off at a mountain biking event - we're lazy so we bailed on that and decided to train instead." They jogged off past us, turning to confirm that they were supposed to turn left at the T-intersection we were about to reach. They weren't carrying the maps which impressed me no end - I can't hold a route in my head that well!
Turning onto the same fire trail we passed the police horses, who were all out grazing. You really wouldn't think you were in the suburbs of a city of 4 million at this point. More so as we crossed Power Rd and continued up a dirt track, suddenly in bushland that looked suspiciously like the bush around Kinglake. As in, completely burned out. I have the strong feeling that this was one of the "going" fires on Black Saturday - there were over 20 of them on the day, and I know there were at least 3 that I can think of offhand in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The fires everyone remembers are of course the ones that killed people - Kinglake and surrounds, Marysville, Callignee, Bendigo, Horsham. There were so many others that were raging out of control though, and given where this patch of bush was it was again a matter of luck that people weren't killed nearby. The trees were black, with almost none sprouting new growth. The undergrowth was back and very green though, which made for an interesting contrast. This time last year the trail must have been very shady. It was less so as we walked it.
We emerged onto a main road, carefully crossed it and then totally missed the trail we were supposed to follow to get to the location of checkpoint one, accidentally arriving there via the main road instead. Oops. I had intended to fill up my water again here, but it turned out that there was no potable water available. This was a bit of a worry, as I wasn't the only one of us who'd planned this. We had a brief rest, checked our watches (10.15am - just over 30oC according to BOM) and then started out on leg 2. 12.5km (give or take a few hundred metres, allowing for our unexpected detours) down, 9km to go.
As we started to get moving we saw another team jogging off on the trail. None were carrying water. You've got to worry about some people.
Off on the Shelter trail - handily marked with a very large sign - we headed, switching on to the Bellbird Track, then onto the Ridge track. The track started rising steeply which, combined with the loose gravel nature of parts of it, made things interesting. Karena and Georgina were now walking together, with Priscilla and I bringing up the rear. Georgina is both the fittest and the tallest of us, and looked to be almost strolling. Priscilla and I not so much. We all stopped under a tree at the top of the rise to catch our breath and look at the map. "Please tell me that was that really big hill there" said Priscilla who was looking at the altitude scale map. "Um...", said Karena who did this event two years ago. "Damn, I knew that was too good to be true. So we've still got a really big hill to go on this stretch then?"
Yes, we did. Turning on to the Lysterfield Hills trail (a bit of a giveaway that) the trail suddenly became really quite steep and not particularly shady. Priscilla and I started falling further behind. As we got to a tree about half way up the slope I realised that my camelpak had run dry. This was not good news. We stopped to see if I'd managed to twist the tube and inadvertently cut off the water supply - and suddenly I was extremely dizzy and feeling like I was about to throw up. This was even worse news. I sat down (managing to find a patch of grass both kangaroo poo and stone free) and started eating jelly snakes, figuring my blood sugar was probably not at peak levels. It was weird, I was completely fine right up to the point we stopped. Hm, next time maybe I should just keep going. Priscilla sat down with me, declined the offer of jelly snakes and sultanas, and gave me some water instead. A couple of minutes later I was mostly OK again. This sudden collapse is actually something that's happened a couple of times since the operation, although usually in a more convenient place than halfway up a hill in the back of nowhere. Granted the exercise, the water and the heat didn't help there. We continued up the slope, with me walking backwards as it was easier than going forwards, and caught up with the others near the summit under another tree.
Karena looked at me with concern and offered me some of her Gatorade. The first time she'd walked this trail on a similar day she'd collapsed near the summit and had to rest for about 20 minutes. One of her team mates had stayed with her - the other, not known for his people skills or teamwork abilities, had rolled his eyes and kept going. The second time they'd walked it the other team mate had collapsed. Apparently it's a bit notorious. This might have been helpful to know earlier. We drank more water and ate some more food while admiring the view back across to the bay. It's a very nice view, and coupled with the shade and the breeze which was finally reaching us - it doesn't reach the part of the trail we were coming up for some reason - very relaxing. Five minutes later we got up again and continued on our fortunately downhill way towards checkpoint two, Lysterfield lake, which lay gleaming in the sunlight below us. We turned off the Lysterfield hills track (yay!) onto Wallaby track at the 3km mark - still 6km to go. On the other hand, it was downhill and mostly shady.
As we merged onto Lamberts track we saw an echidna crossing the road. Wildlife everywhere today! From insects flying into us, crickets jumping around us, birdlife and now monotremes. No kangaroos, despite the prediction of the jogger back at the rest area - then again by this stage it was approaching 36oC according to BOM so any sensible kangaroos would have been lying in the shade somewhere. Karena and I walked together with Priscilla and Georgina up ahead. This nearly went wrong, as Karena and I were the two with maps, and we had to yell to get them to turn left at the Causarina trail and start heading around the lake. At the 6km mark we passed the "Short Cut Trail" - "can we turn here?" "No! It's not a short cut! The map says so!"
Walking around the lake was good on the one hand - very shady - and bad on the other as we were very close to water but not close enough to be able to actually go in it or drink it or anything, which would have been useful. I finished Karena's Gatorade just as we turned on to the Acacia Nature Walk, which proved to be a mowed trail through bush.
"God I'm glad this is mowed" said Karena who was walking behind me on the single file trail. "Otherwise I'd be really nervous about snakes."
I looked at her. "I'm still nervous about snakes!" We thumped as much as possible and kept going, rejoining the Causarina trail and then the Snipe track which lead over the causeway to our final checkpoint at the lake. The causeway went on. And on. And on. I think it was because we could see our final destination, and it was hot, and there wasn't a single tree planted along the entire route, and we could see people swimming in the lake goddammit that made it the single longest part of the entire trek. Finally we made it to the other side and started heading for the nearest taps. By this stage everyone was out of water and we really wanted to refill our canteens, and possibly pour water on our heads.
Naturally the first tap we found had been closed off because of the drought. The second was occupied by a mother washing all of her kids who'd been swimming in the lake. The third, in the women's toilets, gave only a tiny dribble of water, presumably for conservation reasons.
"Does anyone need the loo?" asked Priscilla. We all looked at each other. "That's a bit of a worry if none of us actually do..."
We headed back to the second tap, which was fortunately free by then, refilled all our camelpaks and drank a lot. Then staggered to Georgina's car, which was still in the shady spot where she'd left it, fortunately! I don't think we could have walked back to Jells Park again.
21.5km (ish) down. 79.9km to go on the actual hike.
So training day one down. Lesson 1 for me - I need to check the camelpak is completely filled and have at least one extra litre of water/Gatorade on me (3 litres in total). Lesson 2 - I really need to practice on hills a lot more. Lesson 3 - we're all going to have to work on this endurance thing!
The good thing is I think we work well together as a team - we have roughly similar speeds and motivation. I'm definitely the weakest link, which means I'll have to work a lot harder to get up to speed. Having said that I feel fine this morning (ask me again after soccer this afternoon though!) even though I was dead tired last night. I do have some foot problems - I need to sort out my little toes which are rubbing a bit, but although I noticed some wear patterns which would probably have developed into blisters if we'd kept going they're not at all painful which is good. It's probably a good idea to note where they are though so I can strap my feet.
And hey, 21.5km is a good walk and at least I know we can make it to checkpoint 2 if nothing else! Next week we're attempting checkpoint 2 to checkpoint three - which is uphill the entire way. If I don't die I'll let you know how we go.
And just for information, here's our route.
Oh and the dust part? I didn't realise how much we'd picked up until I got home and had a shower. The back of my legs were black.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-10 01:22 am (UTC)Wow!
Date: 2010-01-10 04:03 pm (UTC)And, I stand in awe. (Well sit actually, but you get my drift I hope ;)
when was the surgery? Sounds like not _that_ long ago, so, way to go girl! Give yourself a big pat on the back.
It's an even more awesome feet when you take the heat into account.
Like the subject line says- wow!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-11 02:16 am (UTC)Next time you feel the urge, perhaps you should just sit down in front of the fan, crack open a bag of pine nuts and munch them up while watching Red Dwarf. You can hum Christmas carols instead if you like. If that's your thing. Which it is.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-11 06:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 09:28 pm (UTC)So now you know!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 09:49 pm (UTC)