The Penultimate Trek (we hope)

Well, Saturday was the day of our last training session - and we got three of us out on the trail plus two members of the B Team. The aim was to walk from Checkpoint 2 (Lysterfield Lake) to Checkpoint 6 (Mt Evelyn), starting at midday. Owing to a difference of recollection concerning the car shuffle, we actually started at nearly 1pm, but we used the irritation to our advantage and polished off the 15.5km to Ferntree Gully in about 2hrs 20mins. Apart from feeling slightly sick after the climb in to Belgrave, we all managed very well. Below you can see Marc and me on what we all agreed was the worst section of the trail - walking alongside the Burwood Highway...



Then came the 1000 steps, for the first time since last year's Trailwalker. Well, I'd certainly forgotten how long they went on for. It was something of a struggle for all of us (even Eoin said he was rather dizzy as he reached the top), and after that Marc seemed to go into a bit of a decline... For the rest of the walk he was apologising for holding us back and saying, "I'm really not enjoying this". This may have had something to do with the development of some blisters.

Here you can see us as we arrived in Sassafras - the Sassafras Creek track has been whipper-snippered out of recognition and yet I still managed to trip over every loose twig and bit of bark...



After a pleasant hour for dinner in Olinda (avoiding the wasps), we made for Mt Evelyn at good speed - I know the route like the back of my hand now, obviously - making it down at about 9:15pm.

All in all, not too shabby. Now for the full event!