Oxfam Trailwalker 2007

For those that don't know, the Trailwalker is a 100km trek through the nature reserves of Sydney. It is a large charity event and teams need to raise $1000 in charity just to enter. One day I plan to finish in under 16 hours. This year it was raining the entire time, ensuring river crossings were incredibly exciting and making my feet fertile places for blisters. It was also really, really cold. This is the fourth year I've done the event, but the first time I haven't completed it.

Here are a few pics. Most are taken early on. This year the course was run in reverse. That won't mean much to many people, but those of you you have been a part of my team previuosly these two photoa show what used to be mentally the hardest section of the track (its not to bad after 20 km in the sun, but after 80km, 14 hours and at night it is 12 km of hell).

This year my team consisted of three people I didn't know. They found me on an online database. We were going well until about the 65 km mark when my team started to feel sick. By the time we got to the sixth checkpoint (69 km) two of them were throwing up and the other was suffering from major dizziness when we went up the larger hills. Unfortunately we had to pull out. This means I'll have to be back on the trail next year, already people from Fenner are lining up to join me. Fools!

Here is my team. From left to right, Louise, Alison and Ian. This hill was pretty brutal and lasted a kilometre or two, however there is much harder still to come.

We found a rope swing, anyone for a dip?