Loiking the hoiking and boiking!!
Another year rolls by and I’ve managed to elude the Great Perth Bike ride yet again. Lots of great efforts from friends in the 106km effort. Brendan McSweeney put in a sensational effort for a 39.6kph average. Shannon Arnott just shy of a 36kph effort putting her among the top female efforts. If you check out Blue Chip Timing you’ll find the results. So what was it that made me miss this final cyclosportif event for 2008? Yet another trek on the Bibbulmun Track from Dwellingup to Swamp Oak hut.
The Dwellingup Caravan Park are very gracious with walkers using their carpark. Obviously they like it when walkers actually use their accommodation at the front or back end of a trek. There were only 5 of us this time and , as usual, we’d packed lots of stuff into our backpacks. One of us was trying out some Backcountry meals (freeze-dried) available from most camping stores. We had been careful to adjust our shoulder straps and hip straps. We’d all waterproofed our boots, brought hiking tents and lots of snacks.
For those of you who haven’t given hiking on the Bibbulmun Track a go yet, it’s very taxing yet very satisfying. The track is well-marked with the yellow waugals (or wiggy-wiggy’s as we called them). It’s very reassuring to see them every few hundred metres or so. We started around 10.30am and it took us around 4 hours with a few breaks thrown in for good measure. We saw noone else on the track. Once we got to Swamp Oak (some 13kms south of Dwellingup) we gathered some dry firewood ahead of the rain and set up our tents. We listened to Australia succumb to the New Zealand All Blacks on the rugby league. It rained from midnight to 5am but we all managed to stay dry. I was responsible with the rubbish and walked it down to the Charlie’s Flat (we heard the familiar ‘doof, doof’ of leavers at that campsite)
It’s bizarre but as soon as we dropped a scrap of food in the hut, little field mice would scoop it up. We left a big sage-scented candle, some tuna packets, a diary entry , a large toilet roll and some matches. Always good karma to give the next group of hikers something to use.
Went for a 15km run yesterday and another this morning at 5.30am. I’ve also had the bike commutes to work that I’ve been trying to work hard on. I have another 4 days of hard intermediate run efforts (15 to 20kms). I’ll do the Front Runner training on Thursday and still on to do the Sunday Deepwater Point 15km run. This will be the final hard run effort before Ironman WA. A one week taper should do the trick. I’ll do the Bikeforce Southern River ride on Saturday morning. A lot of the regulars are involved in IMWA so it shouldn’t be further than our normal 60km effort.
I think I’ll put down aboujt 3 double whoppers straight after this. I’m down to 77kgs now and I’ll try to be 75kgs by the time I do the IMWA run. Our team cyclist Brendan is certainly in the zone and our swimmer is only 17 but is 18yo just 2 weeks after IMWA so has been given special permission to compete. I think her older brother, Todd, is one of the youngest males doing IMWA and I really think he’ll do well.
It seems such a long time ago that I did IMWA but it was only last year. I swore off doing it ever again yet I have it pencilled in for my 50th birthday in 6 years. Dee and I received a Kilimanjaro dvd that we saw today. She’s getting very excited about the trek in January. Matt’s had a mixed time at Leavers. i think pretty poorly of the WA Police for issuing him a $100 fine for a bald tyre. He’s just bought the car after having a friend write off his previous one and he’s been very responsible down at Dunsborough. I don’t think the police win any friends by issuing on-the-spots when warnings would suffice (heck, he could have bought a new tyre with plenty of change with the money he’ll now have to pay the fine with. He’ll get over it but it just sort of sours his experience a little (and a little harsh by the police) My little turn on the soapbox.
Good luck to all you prospective IMWA folk (especially the first-timers). There’ll be lots of overseas visitors too. Can’t wait for it.
Reservoir
CHRISTO
ps A friend gave us a conundrum. Try it out on your friends. See how long it takes for someone to come up with 3 words starting with ‘dw’. Apparently there are 55 words in the English language. Hard to believe!….And googling is cheating!!