Monday 4 June 2007
Closing remarks
OK, well the prize giving is tomorrow night, and we got pipped at the post in the Health, Education etc section. Still, we've raised $9001 (thanks to Eoin giving just enough to put us over the line). Another huge thank you to everyone who donated. Registration for next year's walk opens on October 2nd, and given that the Moovettes had their first training walk over the weekend, I think you can expect them to be early applicants. We'll be the ones driving the battlebus this time!
Monday 16 April 2007
Introducing the Moovettes
Well, we're winding down now (current total raised, $8541), but the B Team are just getting started. They have reinvented themselves as the Moovettes and Bridget has even started looking at shoes for the long walk in 2008!
Belinda has apparently declined this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, probably because she is sane, but Bob and Bridgid from our wonderful sponsor Baretto have signed up. So have we, according to the blog (as support crew), although I don't remember signing anything...
By the way, we've still got another month or so until the totals are finalised - it would be great to get over the $10000 mark, so if anybody out there still hasn't donated (or perhaps you enjoyed the feeling so much you'd like to do it again), head on over here.
Belinda has apparently declined this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, probably because she is sane, but Bob and Bridgid from our wonderful sponsor Baretto have signed up. So have we, according to the blog (as support crew), although I don't remember signing anything...
By the way, we've still got another month or so until the totals are finalised - it would be great to get over the $10000 mark, so if anybody out there still hasn't donated (or perhaps you enjoyed the feeling so much you'd like to do it again), head on over here.
Tuesday 3 April 2007
Monday 2 April 2007
Team photo
Well, there's no real news but I thought the photo was a good one. The feet are healing nicely thank you. The mental scars may take slightly longer... Marc has been feeling the comedown!
Total funds raised is now a little over $8300, thanks to the last of the tip-jar at Baretto and a hefty donation from the till. Can we make $10000?
Monday 26 March 2007
The tale of the trail
Well, we knew that the weather was going to be 'interesting' last Friday, but we didn't realise just how interesting. Thursday night was one of the hottest March nights on record, so even at the 8:30am start we were in our shirt sleeves and the day was clearly going to be hot...
Here you can see us as part of the gaggle of starters.
And here was the view as we headed off down the Dandenong Creek valley, through an avenue of pylons...
We made good time across the first two stages - it wasn't too hot (although it was very windy with lots of raised dust), and we got to Lysterfield Lake (20km mark) shortly after midday. It was after this point that our (or at least, my) problems began...
The track out from this checkpoint was due north, straight into the sun and the hot wind, and the temperature got up over 36 degrees. I started to really struggle and was feeling alternately far too hot and then shivering, as well as nauseous and a complete lack of strength in the legs. When we got to Birds Land Reserve, I had a fairly lengthy lie down and Marc filled my hat with water, both of which helped my get back on my feet. It also helped to know that at the end of the stage I didn't have to go up the 1000 steps, and instead could get a car ride to Olinda and an icy pole!
This meant that I felt an enormous amount better after leaving Olinda and we soon came to this sign...
After dinner at Silvan (chicken risotto referred to by Marc as 'creamy gooey love'), during which we were interrupted by numerous messages telling us that it was raining very hard in Melbourne, we set off again expecting a cool change. This came pretty quickly and we got fairly wet - though it soon stopped and we cheered up at Cafe Bob in Mt Evelyn.
The next two stages were the long distance Warburton Trail, and we made good time (we even got Eoin to skip his way out of the Woori Yallock primary school where we'd retired last year). We'd hoped that we'd seen the last of the rain, but about 20 minutes out of the last checkpoint it really started coming down. We were extremely pleased to find bacon & egg sandwiches waiting for us, although as you can see, the trail was starting to affect us somewhat...
It was very hard to go back out into the rain for the final stage, and we all found it difficult to get stiff legs working again and reattain blister-numbness. The rain had made the Backstairs Track extremely muddy, and visibility in our headlights was not much further than three or four metres. At the start of the descent from Mt Little Joe the track became literally a swamp, and with the temperature hovering close to 10 degrees and all of us soaked through and tired, the finish line couldn't come quickly enough! The last part required a rope to get down a particularly slippery slope and then splashing through a creek, but we got there to loud sounds of 'Moo' from the B Team.
As I said before, this (and the last stage in particular) was the hardest thing I've done. Now if we could just get to $10000 I'd feel it was worth it...
Here you can see us as part of the gaggle of starters.
And here was the view as we headed off down the Dandenong Creek valley, through an avenue of pylons...
We made good time across the first two stages - it wasn't too hot (although it was very windy with lots of raised dust), and we got to Lysterfield Lake (20km mark) shortly after midday. It was after this point that our (or at least, my) problems began...
The track out from this checkpoint was due north, straight into the sun and the hot wind, and the temperature got up over 36 degrees. I started to really struggle and was feeling alternately far too hot and then shivering, as well as nauseous and a complete lack of strength in the legs. When we got to Birds Land Reserve, I had a fairly lengthy lie down and Marc filled my hat with water, both of which helped my get back on my feet. It also helped to know that at the end of the stage I didn't have to go up the 1000 steps, and instead could get a car ride to Olinda and an icy pole!
This meant that I felt an enormous amount better after leaving Olinda and we soon came to this sign...
After dinner at Silvan (chicken risotto referred to by Marc as 'creamy gooey love'), during which we were interrupted by numerous messages telling us that it was raining very hard in Melbourne, we set off again expecting a cool change. This came pretty quickly and we got fairly wet - though it soon stopped and we cheered up at Cafe Bob in Mt Evelyn.
The next two stages were the long distance Warburton Trail, and we made good time (we even got Eoin to skip his way out of the Woori Yallock primary school where we'd retired last year). We'd hoped that we'd seen the last of the rain, but about 20 minutes out of the last checkpoint it really started coming down. We were extremely pleased to find bacon & egg sandwiches waiting for us, although as you can see, the trail was starting to affect us somewhat...
It was very hard to go back out into the rain for the final stage, and we all found it difficult to get stiff legs working again and reattain blister-numbness. The rain had made the Backstairs Track extremely muddy, and visibility in our headlights was not much further than three or four metres. At the start of the descent from Mt Little Joe the track became literally a swamp, and with the temperature hovering close to 10 degrees and all of us soaked through and tired, the finish line couldn't come quickly enough! The last part required a rope to get down a particularly slippery slope and then splashing through a creek, but we got there to loud sounds of 'Moo' from the B Team.
As I said before, this (and the last stage in particular) was the hardest thing I've done. Now if we could just get to $10000 I'd feel it was worth it...
Coming across the finishing line ... at 6:50am
(I know the quality isn't great, but feel the emotion)
Sunday 25 March 2007
The B Team...
...were the most superb bunch of supporters you could ever hope to have. They actually made us walk the trail faster because it meant we got to sit down and be pampered for longer. Simply put, without them, we would never have finished.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)