Gold Coast Kokoda Challege Training

Hello, I'm a passionate person and my aim is to get the most out of my life.  I would also like to inspire others to make each day count.  I have a husband Greg and two children, Kelly age 12 and Mitchell age 13.  We are training as a family to walk the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea in September 2011.  Greg is also in a team walking the Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge so he has been walking the Kokoda Challege training routes on weekends and we tag along whenever we can.    

It's been a big weekend of training for my husband and I.  The kids had a break.  They have been walking 7 km home from school at least three times a week and they carry their school bag.   The hike home from school isn't an easy one and with a backpack of books I know they are getting a good workout.  There are two very large hills that would simulate the hills we will be facing in Kokoda.

Greg had his Challenge team 2011 travel to the Gold Coast for a walk on Saturday.  They are all mates from across Queensland who walked Kokoda Trail in September last year.  They left at 6am and walked from Mt Nimmel lodge to Numinbah Environmental Cente.  It was the first time they had traveled the training route together and although they had a lot of laughs it was an eyeopener about how much work they will need to do before the Challenge in July.

 
Introducing   "The Bee that cried Wolf"
The top photo left to right

My husband Greg Baade
Mark Dooley - Best Doors
Tony Morris - Toowoomba
Graham Coleman - Mackay

My Challenge - On Sunday morning I got up early as I wanted to get my walk completed quickly to get back to help with our visitors.  I arrived at Mt Nimmel Lodge at 4.30am.  I've walked this leg once before but it was in daylight.    In the dark I walked straight past the Tallowwood Road turnoff and ended up walking down Alstonville Road until I hit the creek and I realised I'd taken a wrong turn.  So I returned to Tallowwood Road and tried again.  I kept walking along Tallowwood until the end of the sealed road and in the dark and under a tiny torch light I couldn't see the gate so again I turned around to go back to the carpark.  The night before I had checked the sky and it was a full moon and plenty of light.  I was almost back when I found a challenge team coming the other way.  They hadn't done the track before however they had a map.  On speaking with them it turned out that one of them use to work with Greg so we were able to relax and chat about various things.  I wasn't convinced that we hadn't passed the gate until we got to the end of the road and there it was.  It was now 6am, daylight and easy to see.  As I wanted to get around the full loop and back to the car as quickly as possible I said goodbye to Shaun and his friends and pushed ahead.  Unfortunately when you are on your own there is nobody to take photos for you so I don't have any from this week but I'll put last week's in. This week I looked pretty filthy anyway as I took a slide in the clay on the second hill. It was a pretty challenging hill as you'd take one step forward and surf the clay back down again.   I completed the journey and drove back up to Mt Nimmel to see how Shaun's team were traveling.  I asked some others exiting the bush and they said the team was going ok but not yet out.  I traveled home feeling guilty that I didn't stay to see if they needed a lift.  I guess they were there for the training.

The family on top of Beechmont - we have walked the hills in the background.




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