Friday & Saturday, 28th - 29th August – Brooklyn to Mosman

Saturday, 22nd August – Brooklyn to Berowra

Last Chance Training

A relatively easy walk this week after the slog of previous sessions doing only the first two legs from Brooklyn via Cowan to Berowra. We started nice and early meeting up at the favourite Top of the Ridge bakery for a cheese and bacon pie and an apple and cinnamon slice before jumping on a train to Brooklyn with a guest walker, Nico, visiting from France and keen to see a side of Sydney that is probably unknown to many people who actually live here.

We had a little rude awakening in the new start route which takes you up a very steep paved trail only a minutes walk from the Parsley Bay car park that had us warmed up and panting in no time...

A link to trail directions and map for the first leg can be found here and for the second leg here.

 Brekky, Psuedo springtime floral delights and Berowra Waters (yet again, but this time it’s a panorama with fires off in the distance!)

THE STATS

Start – Cp1
Start Time: 6:54am
Duration: 3:14:08
Finish Time: 10:09am
Distance: 14.73km
Average Pace: 13.11 min/km
Average Speed: 4.6 km/h

Cp1 - Cp2
Start Time: 10:09am
Duration: 3:19:08
Finish Time: 1:44pm
Distance: 13.98km
Average Pace: 14.19 min/km
Average Speed: 4.2 km/h

Total Time: 6:34:07
Total Distance: 28.70km

For a Google Earth file of this session, click here.

Monday, 17th August – Brooklyn to Ku-ring-gai

Another First

Coming off the success of our last big walk we decided to go one better with a crack at 50+km and while the finishing stages got a little slower as blisters and fatigue set in (which explains the extra distance on the GPS readings) we reached the end at Ku-ring-gai a little sorer but very pleased.

I used this walk to try out my new BSc compression pants and I don’t know if it was due to the pants or the cheese and bacon meat pie I had for brekkie at Hornsby but the legs felt great for the whole hike and in the words of Ned Flanders, “I felt like I was wearing nothing at all!” On that note, no sign of naked-guy this week… woo hoo!

A link to trail directions and map for the first leg can be found here,  for the second leg here, for the third leg here and for the fourth leg here.

 

 

One of many rock formations and Berowra Valley.

THE STATS

Start – Cp1
Start Time: 7:19am
Duration: 3:35:06
Finish Time: 10:54am
Distance: 15.32km
Average Pace: 14.02 min/km
Average Speed: 4.3 km/h

Cp1 - Cp2
Start Time: 10:56am
Duration: 4:20:02
Finish Time: 3:46pm
Distance: 14.47km
Average Pace: 17.58 min/km
Average Speed: 3.3 km/h

Cp2 – Cp3
Start Time: 4:33pm
Duration: 4:13:07
Finish Time: 8:47pm
Distance: 14.60km
Average Pace: 17.21 min/km
Average Speed: 3.5 km/h

Cp3 – Cp4
Start Time: 8:55pm
Duration: 2:37:50
Finish Time: 11:33pm
Distance: 9.03km
Average Pace: 17.29 min/km
Average Speed: 3.4 km/h

Total Time: 14:46:05
Total Distance: 53.41km

For a Google Earth file of this session, click here.

Friday, 7th August – Brooklyn to Apple Tree Bay

Raising the bar

This walk was our longest so far starting at Brooklyn and going through Cowan and Berowra before ending up at Apple Tree Bay just after 11pm with over 40km under our belts.

This is the toughest test we’ve given ourselves so far but thanks to the right combination of pre-walk training and meat pies, we managed to come though it well, even when being meters away from the car at Apple Tree Bay, Tony P. finds that his wallet has fallen out of his pack. So, about face and back up the trail to look for it for a few more kilometres before heading home without it. As luck would have it, a fellow Oxfam hiker picked the wallet up the following day and returned it with all of it’s contents intact.

We also walked by another naked guy, this time washing his undies in Jerusalem Bay… Brrrr… Not pleasant..

A link to trail directions and map for the first leg can be found here,  for the second leg here and for the third leg here.

  

Berowra Waters (again) and some (more) pretty flowers..

THE STATS

Start – Cp1
Start Time: 10:01am
Duration: 3:40:39
Finish Time: 1:51pm
Distance: 15.29km
Average Pace: 14.26 min/km
Average Speed: 4.2 km/h

Cp1 - Cp2
Start Time: 1:51pm
Duration: 4:52:59
Finish Time: 7:08pm
Distance: 15.17km
Average Pace: 19.19 min/km
Average Speed: 3.1 km/h

Cp2 – Cp3
Start Time: 7:35pm
Duration: 3:33:21
Finish Time: 11:08pm
Distance: 13.77km
Average Pace: 15.30 min/km
Average Speed: 3.9 km/h

Total Time: 12:06:59
Total Distance: 44.22km

For a Google Earth file of this session, click here.

Saturday, 11th July 2009 - Brooklyn to Berowra

 

Double header

After a couple of attempts to get these two legs completed back to back I can report that we finally cracked it, even if it meant that our later start time had us walking the last couple of hours in the dark. Overall we came through it really well and did it in pretty good time.

A link to trail directions and map for the first leg can be found here and for the second leg here.

 

   

Berowra Waters and some pretty flowers..

THE STATS

Start – Cp1
Start Time: 10:50am
Duration: 3:16:35
Finish Time: 2:07pm
Distance: 15.33km
Average Pace: 12.49 min/km
Average Speed: 4.7 km/h

Cp1 - Cp2
Start Time: 2:23pm
Duration: 3:56:56
Finish Time: 6:29pm
Distance: 14.46km
Average Pace: 16.23 min/km
Average Speed: 3.7 km/h

Total Time: 07:13:31
Total Distance: 29.80km

For a Google Earth file of this session, click here.

 

Sunday 28th Jun 2009 - Brooklyn to Cowan

Finally error free…

This is the third time we’ve walked this leg and for the first time we got to the checkpoint in Cowan without making any wrong turns. That doesn’t mean that the walk wasn’t without it’s moments though with a naked bloke spotted walking off the side of the trail and down into the bush about 9km in and we also witnessed one unlucky fella slip off the rocks around Jerusalem Bay and into the creek, head first!

Another improvement in pace this week, managing to slice an hour off our last time.

A link to trail directions and map for this leg can be found here.

THE STATS

Start - Cp1

Start Time: 8:15am
Duration: 2:50:31
Finish Time: 11:06am
Distance: 15.19km
Average Pace: 11.14 min/km
Average Speed: 5.3 km/h

For a Google Earth file of this session, click here.

Saturday 7th Jun 2009 - Brooklyn to Cowan

Back to Back walk

Fresh and eager from our night walk of the previous day we met at Berowra for an energy-giving pie before heading to the start point in Brooklyn for this walk to Cowan. This map may look like two legs from the attached image and Google Earth file because after an obscure *cough* turnoff was missed, my tinkering with the GPS to put us back on track, reset the session.

This is the same walk as the one done on the 25th of April and it's good to see an improvement in time since then, must have been the pies..

A link to trail directions and map for this leg can be found here.

THE STATS

Start - Cp1

Start Time: 8:30am
Duration: 3:59:16
Finish Time: 12:29am
Distance: 17.44km
Average Pace: 13.43 min/km
Average Speed: 4.4 km/h

For a Google Earth file of this session, click here.

Saturday 6th Jun 2009 - Berowra to Ku-Ring-Gai

Aaaaaaaafternoon delight

This session was our first afternoon/night walk starting at Berowra then arriving at Apple Tree in darkness and finishing at Ku-Ring-Gai. The main lesson I learnt during this session was that a poor headlamp = wet feet and stubbed toes, so a trip to the outdoor shop is in order for me I think.

Our arrival at Apple Tree Bay on a high tide during a full moon meant that the short boardwalk section was partially flooded, requiring a stop to take shoes off for a refreshing wade in chilly shin-high water before another stop to try and dry off as thoroughly as possible, get the shoes and socks back on, then continue on our way.

Thanks to Tony P for his trail finding ability in the darkness and also for his nocturnal wildlife spotting prowess.

A link to trail directions and map for the first leg can be found here and for the second leg here.

THE STATS

Cp2 - Cp3

Start Time: 3:39pm
Duration: 2:59:17
Finish Time: 6:38pm
Distance: 13.89km
Average Pace: 12.54 min/km
Average Speed: 4.6 km/h

Cp3 - Cp4
Start Time: 6:51am
Duration: 2:20:05
Finish Time: 9:11pm
Distance: 9.22km
Average Pace: 15.11 min/km
Average Speed: 3.9 km/h

Total Time: 05:19:22
Total Distance: 23.11km

For a Google Earth file of this session, click here.

Saturday 25th Apr 2009 - Brooklyn to Cowan

 

The First taste of Trailwalker 2009

We've kicked off our training with the first walk in preparation of the Oxfam Trailwalker for 2009 from the start point in Brooklyn to checkpoint 1 in Cowan. In my opinion this direction was much easier to complete and felt more like walking on the level 3 trails than the level 4 trail it's supposed to be, some of that comes from the extent of work that has been done on the trail with the deep erosion ruts we all loved so much now filled in making a nice even surface and part comes from the fact that the climb into Cowan is an easy gradual climb instead of the steep slog in the other direction.

We liked this leg so much that we did part of it twice. We managed to loop around the section at Brooklyn reservoir and ended up heading back to Brooklyn adding over 3km to the walk once we got back on track again.

A link to trail directions and map can be found here.

Jerusalem Bay

THE STATS

Start Time: 8:59am
Duration: 4:42:39 
Finish Time: 2:27pm
Distance: 18.55km
Average Pace:15:14min/km
Average Speed: 3.9km/hr

For a Google Earth file of this leg, click here.