TheBanyanTree: Hell and Back

[Red Pepper]

Hello all - another slightly edited entry from my Oxfam Trailwalker
blog. Full text here: http://www.redpepper001.blogspot.com/
=================================
Note: 65 km is about 40.39 miles.

Well - we did it. An overnight walk of 65 freakin' kilometres, last
Friday night. After work. No sleep - we walked straight through. We
completed it in 18 hours, which means we did 2/3 of the "real" walk with
30 hours to spare, and learnt a lot in the process.

Personally, I can assure you that I was shattered by the end of it.

We first did two stages of the Trailwalker walk - Ferntree Gully (and
the 1000 steps) to Olinda, then Olinda to Mt Evelyn. The months of
training really showed when we went up the 1000 steps - the first time I
did them, I had to stop every couple of hundred metres (or more) - this
time I could have done it in one go, though we did stop once. We started
at 8pm, arriving in Mt Evelyn at 2am. It was so strange to sit at a
picnic table munching our sandwiches by the light of our headlamps, but
to our amazement another Trailwalker group emerged from the same trail
about 10 minute behind us - they had done the same thing.

Then we doubled back towards Melbourne via Montrose, Bayswater,
Wantirna, Vermont South, Glen Waverley, ending at East Malvern station.
We did this because the logistics of getting cars to the end point of
such a long walk on a Friday night were a bit too difficult, and we also
wanted to allow ourselves "escape routes" if anyone had a hard time
toward the end of the walk, given it was the longest we had done.

All four of us walked, with no support crew. The hardest part of the
night-time walk was the stretch between 3am and 5:30am, when your body
wants to sleep, the rhythm of your footsteps is hypnotic and you follow
the light of your head lamp like a zombie. I have heard of people on
Trailwalker walking into trees because they have fallen asleep on their
feet, and I can totally believe it.

I have to say - thank god for McDonalds! I will never bag Macca's ever
again. Seeing those golden arches at 6am Saturday morning in Wantirna
was such a relief, it was almost accompanied by the angelic playing of
harps. For a horrible moment we thought they weren't open, then we saw
the staff inside and galloped towards it like camels to an oasis.

We must have looked pretty feral, having walked for 10 hours, especially
when we collapsed into the booths and started stripping off our stinky
socks and binding up feet in between drinking coffee and scoffing down
sausage and egg McMuffins. To their credit, none of the staff looked at
us strangely or called the police - they just did that Maccas thing of
serving all comers politely. The only thing missing in Maccas is a
shower, but despite that we were able to change underwear and socks,
brush teeth, wash faces, re-apply deodorant and generally feel human again.

There were tears, I admit it - just mine, because boys don't cry. We got
to the point where I thought we only had about 2km to go (early Saturday
afternoon). All I could think of was taking the weight off my feet and
lying in my bed. "There's Warrigal Road", I thought, "just over there,
so we only have 2km to go to East Malvern Station." Alas, it wasn't
Warrigal Road, and the sign said we still had 3.3 km to go, and the
blisters on the sole of my right foot were getting worse, and I was so
disappointed I burst into tears and just cried for about a minute.

Once I got over that feeling of utter despair I got angry. At what, I'm
not exactly sure, but it was a shot of energy that I needed. I couldn't
look or smile at anyone, and I didn't stop when I caught up to where the
boys were waiting, I just kept walking. I just had to keep going till
the freakin' walk was over - at which point I stopped, refused to move,
and called a taxi.

So what were the "learnings" out of this? There were a few, and not the
obvious one of "this is a dumb thing to do":

    * We can do it. We can push through tiredness and physical
      discomfort and make good progress.
    * We did 65km carrying all our requirements on our back, so the real
      walk should be easier as the support crew will be carrying changes
      of clothing etc.
    * I used a walking stick and it was fantastic for both support and
      for setting a rhythm; I might buy another one and use two, but
      just one is okay.
    * A really good light with long battery life is critical so that the
      torch doesn't even fade, much less kark it. We had the Petzl Tikka
      Plus - excellent.
    * The sections of track we walked at night are likely to be the same
      ones we'll walk on the night of the Trailwalker, and we managed
      just fine. We had the benefit of a moon that had just passed full,
      and will have a similar level of moonlight on the full walk.
    * MP3 players are essential. There are times during the walk where
      you can't or don't want to talk to anyone - you need to "go
      inside", especially if coping with physical pain.
    * The physical issues are what you would expect - foot pain,
      blisters, knee problems, back problems. No mozzie bites,
      amazingly. No psychopaths or feral dogs attacking us during the
      night, despite my overactive imagination. In fact, we only saw a
      couple of possums and a horse that looked pleased to see us,
      probably thinking we were there to bust him out of his paddock.
    * We will definitely need a decent rest, both for physical and
      mental rejuvenation. We figure Mt Evelyn is the place to do it -
      just past the halfway mark and we'll reach it in the early hours
      of Saturday morning when we're most tired.
    * And finally - after a sleep and good feed, we all felt good about
      what we had achieved and optimistic about the real thing.

The next thing we absolutely have to get sorted is the support planning,
and we have a great support team ready to go. Clare and John, who work
with the boys, are the core team, and we have (oh bliss!) Clare's niece
helping out, who is a MASSAGE THERAPIST. We're in the process of sorting
out what is needed, and I'll go through that next post.