Perry's Blog

How on earth did we get here? Less that a week to go and a bit to do?

This is the last weekend of our "Training Walks": over the last 4 weeks we've walked well over 100km through varying terrain. Hopefully this will help us get into the swing of the Bibbulmun sooner, with less start-up issues, when we're on the track. It's also helped us refine our requirements, and helped us 'test' our new gear:

• When we walked Katoomba to Kanangra, Sandi blistered by the time we got to the Fire Tower (just 7km into the walk). Sandi also had blister issues on the Mittagong to Katoomba. Since then we've bought her better merino socks, with merino inners. This has made a huge improvement: no blisters so far (and we've done Narrow Neck twice now!); although there seems to be the beginnings of a couple of hot spots on our second days.
• Blister Treatment. Because the hot spots are still occurring (albeit slowly), we're definitely investing in some Fixomul and a post-blister treatment (I'm definitely not taking any chances with Sandi's blisters on this walk!).
• This is the first time that either of us have bought specialist bushwalking clothing, but now we both have shirts and I also have shorts (I put a hole in my current vinnies ones). The shirts are long sleeve, which we thought gave us extra options when it was cold.

We're definitely on the final countdown now, and it feels each day has its "must do" items.

This Weekend's Walks
We've had two good walks this weekend: the first down the Megalong valley from the Cemetry to Coxs River and return.

Then we did Narrow Neck again, stopping for a cooked lunch at the lookout (with a superb view of the Warragamba). We didn't do this with a lot of weight: I was just carrying the 11kg for lunch (mainly )

Coxs River

We've done this walk numerous times, this time our good friend Meredith came with us and we enjoyed a lovely amble down and back with a good load in the packs (though Meredith did tend to speed up the hills a bit - Sandi was carrying 11kg and I was carrying 18kg).

The bush was really starting to do its Spring Thing, and the swing bridge was exciting (and springy) as usual:

The water in the Cox was rather icy as we rock hopped our way across:

Made sure we found Toad Rock to show Meredith:

...and after a glorious walk out and afternoon tea at the Megalong Tea Rooms headed out to Hargraves Lookout for an awesome sunset!

Narrow Neck
This was the second time we've done this walk in the last month, so I had to make it sweeter for Sandi by giving her a hot lunch (at the lookout) and allowing her not to take a pack. I only took 11kg, and this walk was similar to what we'll have walking into Gringer Creek after Mount Cooke - a long flatish run of about 20km with empty packs. At the end of that day is the Three Ways Roadhouse at North Bannister, where we pick up our food parcel and buy a dinner. We need to get there before they close, so I was interested how fast we'd go without weight in the packs (I think 4.8km/h, including breaks, is fast enough).

Today the view over Warragamba Dam was amazing, with a great reflection; and Sandi managed to get a great echo too!