Date: Sunday, 15 July
Walkers: David, Kerrie. Absent - Ian, Ruth.
Track: CP6: Apple Tree Bay to CP7: Berowra - Map
Distance: 13.5km
Time: Estimated 3:30 - Actual 3:29
Well, it was a depleted team this week with Ian flying back from a few weeks in Bangalore for work and Ruth doing a stairs / 10km run session a bit closer to home, but David and Kerrie braved a 6.30am start and tackled CP6-7 on Sunday morning.
As we arrived at Apple Tree Bay, the fog was lifting and it was looking like a good morning for a walk. Despite the FREEZING cold, we were amazed the resilience of the kayakers who were already on the water and having a great laugh. Man, they must of been freezing their butts off! So out of Apple Tree Bay we walked and after following the shoreline for a while, we started the ascent up Mount Ku-ring-gai Track where Kerrie, who has a bit of a hill phobia thing going on, was pleasantly surprised to finally find a hill that she liked. This is good because her team-mates won't have to listen to her complain about them for a change!
Top of Mount Ku-ring-gai Track ascent - pretty fog!
At the end of the track lay the suburb of Mt Ku-ring-gai and although we tried to be quiet given it was so early on a Sunday morning, the local dogs thought otherwise and proceeded to howl the suburb down as they could hear us passing by their gates. Over the Pacific Highway we went and straight down Lyrebird Gully where we walked along the creek and some very pretty track for quite a while. Yes, this picture makes it look easy but these sections were few and far between. What was really lovely about this section of track was that there was very little pollution along the creek and that the water was so clear, you could see the bottom of it very easily.
David crossing the creek yet again! 
Calna Creek - so clear and lovely!
Great view - NOT! Kerrie attempting to run. 
'Steam' coming off the Marshes
At the end of this section of track was the marshes and we crossed a boardwalk to head towards Sams Creek where the next ascent began. Given it was still early morning and a Sunday to boot, we did get a bit of a surprise to come across a Japanese tour group who were checking out the area. Very cool! Over Sams Creek we go and so the big ascent begins - this section of track was graded a 5 last year but it's only marked a 4 this time around. We're pleased to say we managed it without any real difficulty - but that's probably because we know how tough the next section is which makes this one pale in comparison!
Looking Back from First Climb Up Berowra
David a.k.a. Papa Smurf.. 
Kerrie - this is definitely not a glamour event!
Finally, we made the last ascent into Berowra with some other Trailwalkers following hot on our heels. What's with all the runners? Sometimes we struggle to understand them but at this point we realised that we only had about 400m to go and about 4 minutes to hit our estimated time for this section of track and so with thoughts of pleasing Ruth, we broke into a run and joined the crazies in the mad dash to the checkpoint. The best news was that yes, we made it with about 5 seconds to spare and FINALLY after all these weeks, we actually came in right on time. and yes, Ruth was very happy with us. :-)
Donations
Thank you to our donors this week including some wonderful donations from our gym buddies - we'll do you proud!! Including online and paper donations, we're at $2 800 out of our $5 000 target. Only 5 weeks left now folks.. time to dig deep and get us across the line on this one.. donate now at the Bush Bashers - Oxfam Page. Thank yooooo!
Next Week..
.. we tackle a 51km walk! Yes, it's the big one as we undertake the first half of the course. Time expectations are somewhat fluctuating within the group around potentially how fast (or slow) we will go but right now, we're hoping it will be around 10.5 - 11 hours! Tune in next week to read about how we got on for our first full team training for quite a while...
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