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

 

Oxfam Trailwalker 2020 – Cape Otway Circuit Training, 27km

The wonderful thing about the front end of the year is the abundance of public holidays in which to get some training Kilometers in!

Alongside my friend and mega-supporter Julian, we took off down the coast and made for Apollo Bay and surrounds, to Australia Day weekend amongst gorgeous oceans and many wonderful State Forests.

Our Saturday was spent on a 27km hike, the Cape Otway Blanket Bay circuit. This circuit begins and ends at Cape Otway lighthouse.

The trail began by winding through giant ancient trees. We were treated to numerous Koala sightings, a couple of Wallabies, an array of birds (including a Gang-Gang Cockatoo – which was a treat!), a fat blue-tongue lizard and less-excitingly a Copperhead Snake making its way along our path

The circuit pops-out on a secluded beach which was a perfect spot to stop for a lunch break, provided by the Apollo Bay Bakery (the Florentines are wonder unto themselves)

The trail back to the lighthouse hugged the coast – letting us enjoy beautiful sea views and some nice warm sunshine (mmm, sweaty AND sunburnt! What a combo!)

We completed the circuit and made it back to Apollo Bay to crash-out with a can of Solo and hot showers. Mission Complete!

Our Top 3 Learnings from This Walk

• Balancing looking up for koala spotting, with looking down for snake spotting, is important.
• Hiking sticks are a MUST HAVE accessory – the difference they made to fatigue and speed was huge.
•  I’m definitely requesting Solo from my support crew at the Oxfam breaks.

(We backed the big walk up with a couple of short walks to look at local waterfalls in the area on Monday – so enjoy a couple of bonus pictures for making it this far)

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

Oxfam Trailwalker 2020 – Section 6 and 7, Night Time Training

Walking 26km at 7pm on a Saturday night may not be your definition of fun, and having just completed it – it’s not our definition either!

Katie and I signed up for one of the Active State Oxfam training walks to kick our prep efforts into a new gear – choosing this particular one because it aligns with the distances we need to be walking at this stage, because it lets us preview part of the track but also because we are both inexperienced hikers and were nervous about walking in the dark with nothing but our headlamps to light the way.

We parked at the end point and split an uber with a couple of other people to the start point – which was a great idea – we made new friends in Lachlan and Katherine from team “Active State 2” which kept Katie and I laughing and social throughout the night (even when it was REALLY hurting!)

We took off into what Katie called a “nice breeze” and I called “a head wind” and enjoyed walking through the parklands and streets of Lillydale – despite a few small hills we comfortably made it through Section 6 of the walk.

Section 7 was more of a test. The terrain was not too bad, being wide and well marked pathways – but once we passed the 20km walk our feet and legs started giving us some pretty strong feedback that this was not what they wanted to be doing at 11pm at night. We pushed through and just about cried when we finally saw my car on the horizon. A huge effort, very rewarding to know we did it – but clearly some more training to be done!

Our Top 3 learnings from this walk

• Don’t get stuck behind the team who decide to eat Tuna on the trail, smelling catfood on top of physical pain is not ideal
• Trail toiletting – ‘bring toilet paper’ is the advice, but the lack of bushes along most of this section will put us at risk of being arrested for indecent exposure.
• Everyone else is sh*tting themselves about this walk too! We are not alone.

 

To support our team, the Gorgeous Tortoises, donate here: https://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/my/team/35395