TheBanyanTree: Unfinished business (the 100km walk)

[Red Pepper]

We did it. We completed the 2006 Oxfam Melbourne Trailwalker, and we 
survived it. We laughed, we cried, we mused on the great questions of 
life. Well, we didn’t cry, and I don’t know whether anyone mused on any 
great issues other than the next milestone, but we had a good time and 
achieved something terrific. One of the best aspects of the walk was the 
people around us and with us. Our support crew, Clare and John, did a 
FANTASTIC job keeping us fed, sheltered, clothed, and comforted. We were 
always 100% sure that they would be there for us and we were never 
disappointed.

The hardest thing about the walk was that the last stage, Donna Buang, 
was closed for the second time on Saturday, moving the ‘end’ of the walk 
to Checkpoint 7 – 88.5 kilometres. So we didn’t get the opportunity to 
walk the full 100 km. It broke our hearts, I have to tell you.
Prior to knowing this, I was dreading Mt Donna Buang. As soon as they 
told us (at Checkpoint 6) that we couldn’t do it, I nearly cried. After 
coming all that way, after all that training and after all those 
blisters!!!! Funny what lack of sleep and sore feet will do to you.

The long and short of it is that the weekend was very, very wet and 
Oxfam made a decision based on the advice of the Police, the State 
Emergency Services, and the local Ambulance service. But let me start 
from the beginning, a very good place to start.

We set off in the third group on Friday morning at 10am (the other 
groups left at 7am and 8:30am). It was drizzling but we were pumped, and 
it wasn’t just the coffee. Off we went, with about 170 other teams 
(though only 481 teams started, not 500, so it might have been fewer). 
For the first few kilometres the track was pretty congested and there 
was a bit of overtaking. This gave us the opportunity to check out the 
other teams. The toilets along the way were well patronised, probably a 
direct result of the well patronised coffee wagon at the start. One 
member of our team was getting stomach cramps and wasn’t sure he would 
make the (short) distance to the next pit stop, so he employed some 
creative visualisation (coin between the buttocks).

By the time we were into the second half of the walk, we had learnt not 
to judge any teams by appearances. It was quite apparent that all comers 
can do this walk if they train properly, walk within their limits, and 
don’t underestimate what they have ahead of them. I was very amused to 
be passed by a fresh-looking group of 50-plus ladies on Saturday 
morning, as we trudged down the Warburton trail. One of them was coyly 
revealing her age by saying ‘my next birthday will end in “7”’. They 
chirpily greeted us as they strode past, looking very limber. We were 
hurting at that stage, which amplified the contrast and our respect for 
their efforts.

Then there was the ‘Pinks’, a team of two young men and two young women 
dressed in pink t-shirts and pink towelling hats. They were animatedly 
discussing shopping at Dimmeys (did you know Dimmeys sells kinky nurses’ 
outfits? Get in quick) and were carrying very little (compared to our 
packs full of wet weather gear, copious first aid supplies, etc) so they 
were, we thought, not much of a chance. However, they were obviously 
well prepared and had a good support crew, because we saw them all along 
the path well into Saturday.

And of course there was ‘Star bum’, a young woman with an interesting 
pair of tracksuit pants who obviously had excellent aerobic capacity 
because she was talking non-stop whenever we saw her. The only time she 
didn’t talk was up the 1000 steps in Ferntree Gully. I overheard her 
laughing to a team-mate that she was hopelessly disorganised, having not 
gotten around to organising a headlamp for the night-walking component. 
‘You’d think I’d have a clue having done this before’, she was saying, 
or something along those lines. Being young, fit and having a positive 
attitude is definitely an advantage!

Friday night – the rain started. We were in Sassafras at about 8pm, when 
it started showering. By the time we got to Olinda it was very wet and 
from then on it didn’t stop. The whole stage from Olinda to Mt Evelyn it 
poured, and it was miserable. Slippery, muddy paths; wet clothes; poor 
visibility as the moon was covered by clouds. Yes, it was crap, no doubt 
about it. Thank god we had walking poles (the boys used ski stocks, I 
had telescoping walking poles), which helped us maintain stability on 
the paths which were fast turning into small creeks.

Oxfam closed the Donna Buang section at about 11pm on Friday night, but 
there would have been people still walking during the downpour. The 
temperatures were dropping and they were worried about injuries and 
hypothermia. This meant that they had to stop walkers at the last three 
checkpoints, to stop walkers building up at the last one. We had always 
planned to stop and sleep at Mt Evelyn, but some teams weren’t happy 
about not being able to go on and threw in the towel (as they were 
aiming to finish the walk within a target time). Perhaps not quite in 
line with the spirit of the event…

Donna Buang was opened again early Saturday morning and we were informed 
that it was going to be closed again for those who had not passed 
checkpoint 7 by 5pm. This stressed me out a bit, and I thought about 
dropping out a checkpoint early to allow the boys to go on ahead, as I 
am the slowest walker in the group. But they wouldn't have it. So we put 
on a bit of pace, even though we were pretty sure we’d make that final 
checkpoint with time to spare. However, the conditions must have 
deteriorated again and the Donna Buang stretch was closed to anyone who 
hadn’t reached Checkpoint 7 by 12:30pm, which we discovered at 
Checkpoint 6 (Woori Yallock). We were despondent as we munched on our 
excellent bacon and egg sandwiches at the next road crossing, where 
Clare and John were waiting for us.

As it turned out, we reached Checkpoint 7 (the new finish line) at 
3:30pm. Despite the feeling of it being an anti-climax, we did feel that 
we did very well, and boy did we enjoy those beers!

Advice for anyone considering doing the Oxfam? Do it! But train properly 
(in a range of weather if possible) so you know what you are in for, 
because it IS a hard walk. The dead skin is still dropping off my feet a 
week later.

Walk the actual trail and do some long distance– at least one of 40 or 
so kilometres. Some things just don’t start happening until you’ve 
walked a long distance – blisters, knees, hamstrings, sore feet, mental 
exhaustion. Understanding the range of surfaces and conditions you’ll be 
walking will help too. And this will help you determine what you need to 
carry – bandages, analgesics, insect repellent (especially for the 
leeches on Mt Donna Buang!), sunscreen, wet weather gear, music to amuse 
yourself when you don’t feel like talking, walking poles when you’re 
getting tired (the lightweight telescoping ones are great).

Good training will also make you realise that you CAN do it, and enjoy 
it. Insufficient training will result in the experience being much less 
satisfactory, possibly hellish.

And yes – we are planning a reprise next year – we have to get to the 
end! Phil and AJ did the Donna Buang stretch Easter weekend, just to say 
they did the whole thing...apparently the track was fine. Hmm. Anyway, 
maybe we'll see you on the trail next year…

P.S. We have raised about $3000 and the amount of support we got 
(financial and moral) was very much appreciated.