The Ducking Fruitcake Hill

Back again for the real thing, not quite as nasty as we had remembered it, but still suckful.

The plastic bags did not work. Dang!

Lisa, Di and Emma all ended up cranky with wet feet, I was lucky not to break my ankle rock hopping, but my feet were dry :)

We did it!

Jak just sent this to the SCU teams:

It's bloody over!!

I'm sure those of us who lined up on the weekend 
are feeling a mix of emotions (not to mention 
physical ailments).

Regardless of how you went, I think you should 
all be proud of your efforts as even attempting 
such an event is beyond most people.

I would particularly like to congratulate the 
Coffs Harbour team who really gutsed it out with 
Dianne, Ruben and Emma all making it to the finish 
line (despite Ruben dawdling the last 5K in three
hours!) Steve McFarlane also put in an exceptional
 effort, despite losing the rest of his team to 
illness and injury, to finish

In term's of my own team it was a fantastic effort
 all round with Val and Felicity again proving 
that men really are the weaker sex, while Rob 
Baglin never ceases to amaze me as a quite achiever 
(who likes traffic lights).

And thank you to the wonderful support crew who kept
 our spirits up and our bodies together as best they 
could.

So who's up for the 2009 Kokoda Challenge?

Mr Jak Carroll
Course Coordinator, Sport Management 
(Surfing Studies)**
Southern Cross University

I'm just a bit too knackered, will post something later ...
cheers
Ruben

Tomorrow Di, Emma, Lisa and I are heading up the coast to get prepared for The Race which starts on Saturday.
I have been magnifying every twinge and ache in my mind, getting paranoid that I am going to pop out a kneecap or pull a ligament. However my stupendous Captain Di has covered all possibilities and arranged for us to get taped up to prevent us rolling ankles or twisting knees. Thank You Chris!!

Emma and I will try and keep everyone up to date via the Live Kokoda Updates (see the feed on the left of this page). Our Twitter names are, tregeagle and diemma.
If you would like to get mangled groans via a text message in the middle of the night, subscribe and be my guest.

We'll be finished this time next week! Holy cow!
The emails are starting to fly around the uni is writing articles about us and we're getting space in the local paper. We are all frantically making lists of stuff to do before the start. For example:

1. Monday - Arg! that's tomorrow.
2. Tuesday - Put together kit, be amazed by the amount of donations pouring in!!
3. Wednesday - Make sure gear is packed
4. Thursday - See physio, get ankle taped
5. Friday - 9am Heading up the coast
6. Saturday - 5.30am race registration opens. 7am race starts
7. Sunday - hopefully will finish the walk in under 32 hours and go eat and sleep at the Zenith not before having a much needed rest in the spa though.

You can track my teams (Southern Cross University Wanderers, team 66) progress on KMLTracks
. Obviously it won't work yet, unless I have a tracking device hidden on me that I am unaware of. I have my doubts about how well it will work, these Brisvegas companies can be a bit shonky... :P

What a geek. Here I am, a night on the Razz at Cav Avenue on the Gold Coast without my family in tow... and what do I do? Go talk to my self on my blog, hello me.

After stacking my bicycle on Thursday night, like a fool (I'll let someone else share that story in the comments). I have been limping around like a pirate all weekend. I had to bunk off doing the Mini-Kokoda which really sucked. I feel like a limping piratical blob after having hung around all day.

Di, Emma and Lisa did the +30k walk like arctic explorers, they faced the hardships, conquered hills (despite grinding knee bones) all with a smile. Or possibly slightly insane grins... grimaces? Luckily nobody had to sacrifice themselves for the good of the expedition, unless you include me, but the girls just said it was because I was a wuss.

Di did offer to sacrifice herself, "You can go on without me you know". Hah bloody cheek, she inveigles us all into this crazy scheme and then offers to hop off the wagon just when it really starts rolling. SCU Wanderers sticks together. That's what it is all about folks!

Even if we have to crawl over the finish line dragging each other by the nostrils!!

Now there is a bunch of photos attached, see below. I can't be stuffed making little thumbnails and linky bits and stuff. I'm heading out to grab a stiff drink and then I'll go find somewhere to read the second half of, "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" written by Laurie Lee and first published the year I was born. Thanks Cheri, I'm loving re-reading it.

Chris took a pic of Emma, Di and me - after she had made us walk up every single mountain between Crossmaglen and Coffs. That was last week, this weekend we are all heading up to the Gold Coast hinterland to take part in the Mini Kokoda on Sunday. A 30km walk up and down the mountains. Then on Monday I am meeting Matt somewhere on the Goldcoast. We will then start cycling inland before heading down the dividing range (via pubs of course).

I'm a bit ditsy today so here is my checklist for everyone else to remind me....

1. er...
2. get a spare gear cable for bicycle
3. put together toolkit
4. post Galens' letter
5. Battery for bike computer
6. foot doctor@12
7. find out where to meet Matt
8. Where am I sleeping on Sunday night?
9. Talk to Matt re: "Tent" vs "Tarp & String"
10. cable ties, tape, string and bungee straps
11. ....erm ...

OK nearly there.....

Chris Di and I spent Saturday walking up and down Sealy Lookout. We climbed it three times, although Chris only did it two and a half times because she is allowed to, being our trainer and all. The tarmas is a killer, I'm glad the KC will be on dirt. My bike ran out of petrol on the way home (thanks for switching on the reserve kids...) so I was lucky enough to get an extra 2k pushing my motorbike over the hill past the Big Banana. meh.

Another week and back on the Peak Trail. Instead of out and back Chris has a new torture in store for us. She has been pouring over ancient pirate maps or maybe aboriginal carvings, I'm not sure. She has discovered an more arduous route through the peaks which adds about 40 million kilometres to the existing 12 or so. We shall discover it on Saturday, hopefully we shall live to tell the tale.

Last time we walked the Peak Trail we went out and back. I marked out our route here:

View Larger Map