Into the wide green yonder
Monday, August 28, 2006

At the Cascades (the 8Km mark on this 17Km section) we take a blister check and food break. This bush fire truck and crew were having a training session that apparently ended up with the bank of the creek giving way under the truck and the trainees desperately trying to prevent the whole thing tipping into the water. Unfortunately we had moved on by then.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Finally at CP6, the lovely Tanya met us with porridge. Unfortunately, due to the lateness of our arrival the porridge had become somewhat thicker, and it was not until we all had the spoons in our mouths that we realised the similarities between porridge and super glue.
Actually, the porridge was fantastic after a nine Km trudge along the edge of the water. Mike had bowed to the weight of reason behind Ren's arguments and withdrew from Trailwalker 06. It was a gallant effort to struggle on for so many Km in the pain he must have been in.


Dawn between CP5 and 6. There is a big gap in the photos here because I was too tired to notice that I hadn't taken one for a while. Mike had battled on with his knee pain and tiredness since leaving CP4, but reversed a decision to withdraw after he had a good strapping from a physio and a two hour pass-out in the O'Brien's camper. The rest of us also put our heads down in the camper, and at 4:30AM we headded off for CP6.
Ren had entered her silent phase, so no-one really knew how she was, but at least she wasn't limping. Tony, as always, seemed in good spirits, and dispite having some pain in his knees was happy to keep moving at a solid pace. Mike made the initial down-hill section quite well, but was thankful at one point for Tony's quick hands when he almost slipped off a ledge into the darkness and was grabbed by Tony just in time. Drama!
After that, the pain in Mike's knee and various other areas kicked back in with avengance, and his pace slowed to about 2 Km/h and a gait that would in any other circumstances been pretty damn hillarious. Imagine how the Hunchback of Notre Dame would walk after three weeks on horseback and you get pretty close. It is my greatest regret that I didn't get some film of that.


Mike had had it by the time we reached crosslands (CP4) and the hospitality of Tanya's parents. The picture says it all, and so did Mike when - in a repeat performance of the falling-on-his-arse-in-the-water incident - he dropped the F- word in front of persons of a more respectable age. However, Dave and Cheryl didn't bat an eyelid, and made us all feel much better with some hot stew. (Later, after his Trailwalk was over, he realised the error of his ways and appologised several times to Dave and Cheryl.)
