Today is the last day of this hike. I was not expecting it to be so challenging, yesterday with all it’s creek crossings was a very challenging day and in hotter weather lunch and a swim in the canyon would have been magic. Today there is a very steep long climb out of the gully.
We woke this morning to the dulcet tones of Paul swearing because the rats had scaled the ‘string’ the bags were tied to and gnawed through his food bag. They hadn’t actually gotten any of his food just destroyed his sea to summit dry sack. They had also gnawed on Stu & Kelly’s bag too but theirs was just a cheap K Mart one. It was another super comfortable night on the stretcher beds and no rats outside so our bags were safe oops.
Happy to ba backStu’s huge steaksome great games and company on our last night
The hike up the steep hill was slow and steady but some gorgeous views at the top.
It was great to arrive back at the cabin enjoy a beer in the sunshine on the deck and then have a lovely hot shower and steak and veges for dinner. Funny Kelly and I had organised the exact same meal down to the same vege combo. Paul made himself a lovely omlette. After dinner we enjoyed some games and managed to stay up a bit later and enjoy each other’s company. A great hike, very different to others we have done, as no tents and gas stoves to cook on each night plus the comfy stretcher beds. I am looking forward to our next adventure stay tuned for details.
We managed to start our hike at around 7:45am again today it was a cold start and layers was the order of the day.
A short sharp uphill along a single trail saw us paring down the layers pretty quickly. It was a stunning day again and we were hiking along quietly till we reached the trig point on the hill for a break.
After the trig point we came to an overlook that gave us a great view down into the gully that we would be hiking through tomorrow.
We hiked along the ridge for a few hours until we found a nice place to sit for lunch. Paul got some reception and made a phone call, a bit patchy but he got his message across.
After lunch the trail was so steep and there was a lot of sliding feet and slow going, we were all glad to get to the bottom and hike along the river. Close to Green Gully Hut we came to a beautiful ‘canyon’ like area with rock wallabies it was so beautiful. We arrived at the hut that was bathed in the afternoon sun and enjoyed a coffee sitting outside before a nice warm shower in the ‘outdoor’ shower stall.
photo does not do this justice it was so steepFiremaster
Everyone enjoyed the shower and then we made our dinner and ate early and were in bed again by 7:30pm ha ha!! Hiking takes a lot out of you especially hiking down steep rubbly hills.
September 10th 6am start – September 11th 5:56pm finish
Last year Chips started the GNW (Great North Walk) miler (162km) race and was unable to continue after 109km. So the plan this year was for me to run with him for the first 70km and then peel off and finish the 80km race and then support him for the remainder of his race (after a rest obviously). The rationale behind me doing this was to slow him down because he thinks that last year he went out too fast (Patonga to Girrakool CP1 4hrs, compared to 4hrs 46mins this year). A week out from the race we found out that the track had changed due to a bridge being down up towards Somersby. What that meant was instead of a 30km stretch after the first checkpoint it was about 8km and then instead of peeling off and heading to Patonga solo I was to run down to Little Wobby Sport & Rec with Chips and then to Patonga. This also meant that Chips’ race had become a two lap event.
So this is the story of how it went down.
Our training was on point and we were both feeling well leading up to the day. We stayed in a house in Umina with our friends Wal and Bec. It was perfect, close to the start line in Patonga and a short drive to the checkpoint at Girrakool picnic ground.
Our preparations start before leaving home. We make sure that our race gear is packed in a separate bag especially our shoes, which is a piece of equipment notoriously forgotten when attending events (not that we have but know people that have). Then our checkpoint bags are packed ensuring the right food, hydration and clothing is in the right place. And finally our race packs which are carried on our backs during the race. These must include a number of mandatory items. These items are checked at checkpoints and if you are not carrying them may be given a time penalty or withdrawn from the race. Our food and most importantly the aeropress to make coffee, we forgot this when we did the Ironwood 24hr endurance challenge a few weeks prior so I checked twice to make sure it was packed. All packed we drove to Umina. Our dinner the night before a race is always light, we don’t carb load as we live low carb, so it was nice to have a full kitchen to prepare our own meal. Fresh salmon fillets and salad a great prerace meal.
We wake very early on race day even though it’s a short drive to the start. Breakfast on race day is super important too. Coffee mmm coffee and oats with nuts, fruit, cream and honey. All fuelled up we drive down to checkin and attend the prerace briefing. It’s a cracker of a morning not too cold and no rain in sight (it rained pretty much the whole weekend last year and possibly this was another factor in Chips’ DNF).
Moon still fairly high in the skyMet Aaron at the startcheckinPatonga HQbeforebefore
Once checked in we attended to our ablutions.
For me to slow Chips down while still maintaining a good pace to enable him to beat the 36 hour cutoff was always going to push me to the limit.
We have run this trail many times and trained certain sections to gauge our times and give us an idea during the race how we were going. It’s a funny thing that in training you can run and do a time but when it comes to race day you always go faster. The trail was very wet and muddy some sections the water and/or mud was ankle deep and straddled the track so no tiptoeing around. At one point Chips behind me commented “I love how you’re just running straight through!” and my reply “It would take way more energy to avoid it so I just plow on through!”. It was at this point too that I said to Chips they should change the name of the race to Great North Mudrun!
If you’ve ever been on the GNW trail you’ll know just how challenging it is especially the area around Kariong Brook Falls. We made it to the intersection of Rocky Ponds road in 1hr 23mins (in training when I was solo this took me 1hr 35mins) so I was pretty pleased with that as every minute counts when it comes to cutoff. We were about an hour out of the first checkpoint when we came across another runner limping. He had hurt his knee. I had hiking poles which I was going to leave at the checkpoint and collect again on the way back through so I offered them to him to get him there a bit more easily which he reluctantly accepted, I’m sure he was ultimately happy that he did.
Coming in to the first checkpoint we felt strong and planned not to change much. A quick stop and we were back on trail heading towards the old Pacific highway. I forgot how challenging this section can be with lots of stairs. We soon reached Piles Creek bridge and ran on past and through the campsite there. Soon after this there was a very muddy section of trail that completely slowed me down Chips was a little miffed that I wasn’t running but the mud was quite deep and slippery and completely unavoidable. We made it to the turnaround point just above the old Mooney Mooney Creek bridge and I was struggling big time I’m not sure whether it was heat or lack of nutrition or what but when we hit the stairs after Piles creek my body just seemed to say “NO!” and so regretfully I let Chips go so that he could keep meeting the cutoffs. The whole idea was for me to slow him down a little but now I was slowing him down too much. I arrived at the checkpoint in time for the cutoff and the volunteers were trying to encourage me to keep going but I knew I was done so I got a lift back to our accomodation with Bec. After a shower and food I felt much better and then the job of supporting Chips began.
We met him on the road above Patonga his 80km mark and then again at the checkpoint down on the beach. He looked good ate some food and had a short break before heading out to do it all over again.
the next morning around 6am I met him at the Girrakool CP although tired he was determined to get it done today. After seeing him at this CP there was no other time to see him until the finish this afternoon so the only way to know if he was still moving was to watch him on ‘find my phone’ so it was a very nervous 11 hours to wait. He had until 6pm to make the cutoff he ended up running 100 miles in 35:54:20 so close to the 36 hour cutoff but he made it last finisher out of 7 who finished. 19 registered 3 DNS and 9 DNF. Consequently he was the only finisher not to receive a trophy, as three males and three females finished before him. He was so done but so happy I think the photo tells the tale.
After the race we took him back to our accomodation and we ordered takeaway chinese for dinner Chips barely touched his even though he had something like 18,000 calories to replace. It was an early night after a bath. I woke at 2am to the smells of awesome smelling food, Chips was eating the food I had served him for dinner. Then at 6am I woke to him polishing off the rest of the food ha ha then we all went out for breakfast together after Chips finished off Bec’s carton of choccie milk. ha ha
swollen feet meant no shoesyou can’t really see but our shoes were filthy!awesome medal
What do you do when you are in lockdown and cannot leave your LGA? Camp at home!
How blessed are we to live on 65acres of bushy land. We walked 400m from our home and camped in bush that could have been anywhere!!
We started off the day clearing some brush and lighting a fire that would later become our camp fire. In the process of clearing the mower broke a cutting blade so Chips loaded it onto the trailer to take back to the house at lunch time. Our plan was to go back to the house for lunch and pack the trailer with the essentials for dinner, beers and sleeping.
Clearing the boundary of our block to enable some fencing to happen was a priority. We then jumped in the truck to come back to the house for lunch as we drove towards the house Chips noticed the mower was no longer on the trailer. It was a mystery until after lunch when we returned to our campsite to find it halfway up the track it had rolled straight out of the trailer.
After lunch more clearing and setting up our tent. Luckily we were close to home as we forgot to pack the tent fly. We have slept with the fly off at times but the winter dew would have been too heavy and we would not have slept well. It was a very starry night and our dinner of steak and veges was just right. The beer went down a treat after a day of hard work on the farm. We enjoyed watching the stars and satellites and a few video memories from our 2018 hike of the PCT.
After a great sleep so quiet, warm and comfy. We went for a nice little run through the bush. After breakfast back at the house and a nice hot shower we went back out with a thermos of coffee to sit and enjoy the fire, paint the boundary poles and do some more clearing and burning.
It was a great night out in the quiet bush just the reset we both needed.
Why were we so warm in our tent?
Our down sleeping bags are rated to -17deg so we just use them as a quilt with a silk liner snuggly warm. They don’t come cheap at $500+ but they were our sleeping system for the whole PCT, I only zipped up a few times mostly when it was snowing outside. Your gear is of paramount importance for a happy camping trip.
It’s been a while since we went on a fair dinkum road trip!
We had a very short run and a leisurely breakfast.
After dropping Lily at Jon & Sarah’s house we drove to the highway surprised at all the new housing developments along Medowie road.
Today was a great day for a road trip and driving along we were making plans for future hikes while I knitted and Chips drove.
We stopped at Riccardo’s tomato and strawberry farm cause we are in no hurry. We had fun picking our own delicious strawberries. The cherry tomatoes we bought were shiny and red and very delicious too.
We packed a picnic lunch and so after our PYO adventure we drove the short distance to Blackmans Point. It was very pleasant at the picnic table by the water.
We had decided to stay at Crescent Head because neither of us has been there before. It’s a quiet little community a short drive from Kempsey. The caravan park is large and there are a lot of people staying in all manner of vehicles we even saw one couple set up in a refrigerated truck! Just after we had a coffee and went for a walk there was a short shower of rain so we sat in the car for a while.
Dinner was delicious pork chops and veges with strawberries and cream for dessert.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to catching up with our friend Keith.
The plan today was to run the last two legs of the UTA100 so from Katoomba Falls van park to the Old Queen Victoria hospital down into Kedumba Valley then into the Jamieson valley and because the Furber steps are closed for renovations we use the giant stairway instead. A round trip of about 42kms.
Thankfully it’s a dry day. A bit misty when we start out but soon clears to give us views across the valley. The section that was closed to us a few weeks ago is open so we are able to run right up to checkpoint six. We actually made fairly good time to this point.
Down into the Kedumba Valley is a very steep descent along a fire trail road. We remember this section from the UTA22 in 2016.
Yes it was WAY OUT!
Makes me a bit cray cray
We could see those sisters for ages!
What a view!
Down down down we go
So many people at Echo point!
Our fuel today was bacon & egg pie, cheese, pork chipolatas and almonds. Our hydration water, low carb electrolyte drink and no sugar coke x2 bottles each.
We are happy with our timing my Strava did not record as my phone lost power but we are pretty sure at least 40kms maybe more.
Both tired but really happy. Steak and salad for dinner. YUMMO
Song of the day: James Taylor “You’ve got a friend”
Today we will be hiking a whole section we haven’t hiked before. This was the section where we got very lost with our friends Margo and Lisa back in 2016 turns out we almost hiked to Kirrily’s house! Who is Kirrily you ask? Well stay tuned.
After breakfast we hike through fairly easy terrain up to Greta Rd where we cross a stile to hike down Bumble Hill. Some of the track we are hiking on used to allow the bullock drays to bring the logs down out of the hills. This section has a fair few boardwalks many blow downs (trees that have blown across the trail) sometimes a bit tricky to negotiate. Our hiking poles help a lot!
We arrive in Yarramalong in time for second breakfast a lovely works burger and coffee mmmm Yarramalong store/cafe & fuel is a great place to stop the people there are lovely.
Shortly after getting back on the trail a couple pulls over in their car wanting to know if we are hiking the GNW. Why yes we are! Lynda and Steve pull over and we chat for a while and hopefully inspire Lynda to hike the trail.
Then we have an 11km road walk not our favourite but it goes pretty quickly. We get to Cedar Brush trackhead and it’s time for lunch even though we had burgers a short time ago. After lunch the hike up to Walkers Ridge rd seems to go quickly too mostly walking on forest road the trail is easy. On Ron Walkers Ridge road we message Kirrily as she is picking us up at The Basin. Kirrily is a friend we have met through running and she offered to hold our box of supplies and bring us to her home which is very close to the trail. The hike down to the Basin is quite difficult but beautiful technically not on the GNW but worth the effort, rainforest-like and lots of caves. Kirrily actually meets us along the trail it’s so lovely to see her but we smell so bad!!!
Once at Kirrily’s home we meet Martin and have a lovely long hot shower, a tasty hot meal and a bed. We also wash all our clothes such luxury!
of course dinner conversation turns to running but we also hear all about Martin’s love of smoking meat and cheese. We also sample some of his cheese which is yum!
We are very tired and in bed before hiker midnight (9pm).
Forgot to tell you yesterday we cracked ourselves up hiking along talking about hiking another trail and no not the PCT we were actually talking about the AT aarrggh I hear you say “but you said you’d never hike that trail!” Well minds change so Chips said “how funny are we?!” And I said “we’re hilarious!”
This was the view from the tent this morning Chips stoking up the fire to make our coffee. It wasn’t as cold a start as we expected this morning.
I don’t remember this section being so beautiful. We were walking through avenues of gymea Lillie’s which have a flower stalk that is metres high and very sought after by florists with the chiming of bell birds and whip birds calling to one another. Then there was a cacophony of bird noise parrots, minors, bell birds and whip birds. At one point we even believed we heard a powerful owl. Powerful Owl click this link to check out this amazing bird.
We both have ancestors that were timber getters my grandfather (Mt Baw Baw region in Victoria) and Chips great grandfather (Taylor’s Arm region NTH NSW) today on the trail we saw evidence of this history and found an ancient tree that had been spared probably due to its shape and the hollow through the middle.
Somersby General Store was a fantastic stop for second breakfast.
We asked if we could fill our water but the woman there stated “we are on tank water and the health department forbids it” ok so Chips heads next door where there is some kind of depot and asks there if we can fill up. The man grudgingly allows him to use their hose. As we are leaving we go to use the roadside pit toilet and find a tank with water in it and a tap oops!
After Somersby we see our first group of cows and hike through an area called Palm Grove it is full of all different palms and ferns and is so gorgeous.
Crawl space?
Signing the walkers register
there was a fair bit of road walking today past some very large acreages with lots of gorgeous horses.
We arrive at camp early again this afternoon just in time to sit and listen to our favourite radio series The Castlereagh Line. Another lovely campfire with a cup of peppermint tea mmmm
Song of the day: Something in the way she moves James Taylor
It was a fairly warm night last night so everything is dry when we awake. It’s a beautiful blue sky day and we hike to Kariong Brook falls for breakfast. It is disappointing to us that the water sources along the GNW are polluted some worse than others. This morning at the falls there was just a slight scum on the water, it’s very accessible to the public so i guess you get that. We were completely spoilt by the pristine water sources through the Sierra on the PCT.
We do see our fair share of fauna and flora.
The ants know it’s going to rain aren’t they clever
Today has been a fairly easy day passing by Mooney Mooney creek bridge, Piles Creek and Gosford rifle range where there was lots of activity from 7:30am this morning.
Mooney Mooney Creek Bridge allllll the way up there!
Chips says “I’m surrounded by turkeys”
Fish is saying the whole way across “I hate these bridges!”
We had lunch at some falls on Mooney Mooney creek we were able to wash ourselves, our socks and cook lunch on an open fire. Chips wants to use fires as much as we can because it’s hard to buy the gas canisters we use along the way and we don’t want to run out at an inopportune moment. We arrive early at our campsite for tonight and set up our tent and air out our sleeping gear. Then light a fire for dinner.
What a great property to stay in! Four bedrooms three King beds and a Queen. Lily is in heaven everyone patting her. Burgers for dinner and games after dinner. Just missing Chelsea but she’ll be here soon.
Then there was a cacophony of bird noise parrots, minors, bell birds and whip birds. At one point we even believed we heard a powerful owl. 
and hike through an area called Palm Grove it is full of all different palms and ferns and is so gorgeous.
It’s a beautiful blue sky day and we hike to Kariong Brook falls for breakfast. 
It is disappointing to us that the water sources along the GNW are polluted some worse than others. This morning at the falls there was just a slight scum on the water, it’s very accessible to the public so i guess you get that. We were completely spoilt by the pristine water sources through the Sierra on the PCT.
Today has been a fairly easy day passing by Mooney Mooney creek bridge, Piles Creek and Gosford rifle range where there was lots of activity from 7:30am this morning. 
We had lunch at some falls on Mooney Mooney creek we were able to wash ourselves, our socks and cook lunch on an open fire. Chips wants to use fires as much as we can because it’s hard to buy the gas canisters we use along the way and we don’t want to run out at an inopportune moment. We arrive early at our campsite for tonight and set up our tent and air out our sleeping gear. Then light a fire for dinner.
The Adventures of FishnChips 