Oxfam Trailwalker 2020, Barefoot Bowls fundraiser

29 degrees

3 lanes

15 friends and 2 babies

A SHEDLOAD of sausages.

Today we held our fundraiser for the Oxfam trailwalker at Princes Park bowls club in Carlton.

We enjoyed a quick lesson in lawn bowls and were left to our own devices. Katie and I cooked up a storm as rivalries played out on the green.

The biggest winner of the day? The gorgeous tortoises’ Oxfam team. We have met our $3500 target that lets us choose our own start time – such a relief!

Thanks to all that came out and supported us. We appreciate your company and generosity so much!

If you would like to make a donation to our team, you can do so here: https://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/my/team/35395

Oxfam Trailwalker 2020 – Sections 1 and 2 25km, Team training

Last Sunday was a monumental day for the Gorgeous Tortoises.

Three of the four of us managed to coordinate calendars and get onto the trail together. Lora, Katie and I, sleepily made our way at 8am to the end of Stage 2 , the 1000 steps at Upper Ferntree Gully. We were joined by our wonderful supporters Snowie and Lora’s daughter Mia and made our way to the Oxfam start line.

I’ve completed section 1 twice now, getting it VERY wrong on my first attempt, and while we worked out most of the quirks later on, the start is still quite confusing…! Still we got onto the trail and away – pleased to see our paces were not too far spread and we were able to comfortably walk as a group.

The benefit of having 5 women walking together is that the conversation never stopped (except for a couple of god-awful hill climbs) and we covered everything from babies, to careers, to fitness, to health, to TV shows, to death, and more. It’s a wonderful thing to have good, intelligent company to keep us distracted and motivated.

We fairly comfortably made it through Section 1 (only 2 bush-wee’s needed across the group) and restocked at our checkpoint. Some footcare, protein balls and a water top up and we were off again.

This is the first time any of us had completed Section 2, and the first part is quite a lovely walk – lots of kangaroo spotting and changes in scenery as we went. The downsides were a couple of KILLER hills (see my salute to the hill below) and the last third of Section 2 being all on paved footpaths.

We were quite happy to arrive at the bottom of the 1000 steps, completing Section 2 and able to tuck into our lunches. Any earlier ideas of “lets just finish our walk off with an up and down of the stairs” was gone at this stage though!

Our Top 3 learnings this walk:

• Our pace is well matched! What a relief!
• If going for a bush-wee, try and avoid getting spurs on your knickers or inside of your walking pants. It will make for a very loooooong walk.
• We all hate hills.

If you’re interested in making a donation to our Oxfam team, you can do so here: https://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/my/team/35395