Sunday's 17.8 km walk

On Sunday we had our first Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge 2018 training walk.  My poor Christina, coming from a cold wet NZ winter/spring, where if they are lucky, the temperature may manage to reach 18 - on a good day, to the 30 plus degree heat we had on Sunday. She really felt the heat.

We began our walk at Mt Nimmel Lodge and headed up the road a little, before heading off into the National Park on what appeared to be a very well used, rough, torn up 4 WD track, but I get ahead of myself. Prior to climbing the gate thing to get onto that track, the "boys" (who have done the GC Kokoda Challenge before) warned us that there were a couple of dogs that liked to hide and then race out barking. We were chatting away so much, we forgot them and the rotten pair sneaked up behind us and scared the s..t out of us - we all jumped and Andy, our hero, waved his hiking poles and yelled at them, which stopped them in their tracks. Christian guarded our rear to ensure they didn't make another run at us. That certainly got the adrenaline going.

Back to that first hill. Just a warm up, the boys said, like
Mt Ngungun, just straight up instead of zigzagging - hmm! There were a few expletives from us girls as we surveyed the steep, very slippery track - so dry that the dead leaves lying all over the track were like trying to climb up on marbles. We got the hang of using our hiking poles real quick.  If we thought the going up was bad, going down the other side was murder, even steeper, with loose stones and rocks. Andy (in the bright green shorts and our official trainer) bounded ahead, demonstrating how to navigate it. I followed then stopped to take a photo, (which doesn't really show how steep it is) so ended up at the back. My heart was in my mouth a couple of times when my foot slid out from under me - giving my knee a painful jolt, but thankfully no lasting damage done. Near the bottom we passed a couple of girls going up - we three girls shook our heads, thinking "wow, do they know what they're getting into". Then it was an easy stroll (yeah right) up the road to where Check Point 3 would be. Christian by now is saying, "oh, I remember this, can we turn back now". Once again us girls are looking at each other going, "if he wants to turn back and go up what we just came down, what are we going to be climbing up?".

After the big hill, along the ridge

This hill is the 2nd biggest of the "Big 5". Andy warned us. He said "you'll think you're at the top and then you look ahead and realise you're not, it just keeps going", and off he went. Christian hung with us girls for a bit, giving us encouragement and saying "the idea is not to stop, just keep going, even slowly".  Imagine a muffled 'snort' here from us, "even slowly", what do you think we'll be doing, running!", Off he went. leaving us three girls to stare at each other in horror, wondering what we had let ourselves in for. Andy wasn't lying, it just kept going up and up and up, forever - I didn't time it, but I reckon it took us about 40 mins to get up it - it was over a km of climbing. We stopped numerous times for a minute of two each time to catch our breath and stretch, before breathing deeply or should I say gasping as deeply as our lungs and racing hearts would allow us, before tackling the next "we'll stop at that big tree up there", or "we'll stop at the next water run off area". Finally we made it, or thought we'd made it, but the hill/ridge was just tricking us. The rest of the climb to the very top, before we hit the road to wind our way down, down, down, to Polly's Cafe, was a slow climb up and down the ridge, with a few steeper climbs, which if we hadn't just expended all our energy on that horrid hill, would have been a walk in the park.

Finally, on the way down. 

The 5 km or so down the tar-seal road was very hot. We slow jogged the steepest bits of it - it's actually easier on the knees to jog it than walk it. We also walked backwards several times, taking turns so one of us could ensure the others weren't heading for the edge. We stopped part way down to take a team photo, with the Gold Coast high-rises in the very hazy background.  4 hrs, 25 mins later, we got to Polly's Cafe, cold drinks all round and a lovely stone wall to sit on until our rides arrived to pick us up. Andy had thought we'd complete it in around 5 hrs, so we did well, coming in under that.

Surface Paradise, Gold Coast in the distance through the heat haze

One of the locals on the road down, has a sense of humour - see the sign above to the left. There is a bullet hole in the piece of tin tacked below the sign, that reads "If you can read this you are within range".  Strangely enough, none of us were that keen to linger to see if the owner of said sign wasn't joking and was simply sick of "townies" trespassing onto his farm instead of staying on the road. 

Andy cheerful told us "the actual Challenge Course is 5 times what we've just done" - what have we signed up for???  Once home, well where Anna lives, we availed ourselves of their newly installed spa - bliss.

Christina and I in the spa, Anna being photographer before joining us. 

Our days walk summary.

2 comments Fitness, Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge