Walkers: Ruth, David, Kerrie. Absent - Ian.
Track: Start: Chowder Bay to Checkpoint 3: Acron Oval, St Ives
Distance: 30.5km
Time: Estimated 6:30 - Actual 8:14
After last week's 17.5km effort, we were feeling brave enough to tackle a longer and a seemingly easier walk on the first three sections of the trail. These three sections are graded a 2, 1 and 3 which gave us hope of being able to whiz through them without too many problems and therefore setting us up in plenty of time to complete the rest of the event within 24 hours. Oh, how wrong we were... our biggest assumption was that these sections of trail would be relatively 'easy' compared to what we've already hiked on.
Read on and check out the fashion, the spectacular sights, and David's final glory at a sausage sizzle! Oh.. and in case you missed it during the week, it seems we have our very own streaker!
Start to Checkpoint 1: Map
Distance: 13km
Time Taken: 2 hours 45 mins
It was a gorgeous, clear morning at Chowder Bay when we set out - some of us sporting new gear to trial for the big day itself and two of us battling the remanants of head colds. Up the hill and down across Balmoral Beach, everything was looking good. The map was easy to follow and before you know it, we'd crossed the Spit Bridge and had climbed up the torturous Gallipoli Stairs to be greeted with an amazing view back over The Spit to Mosman. Through some back streets of Seaforth and into the bush, we were making excellent time and had even run a few easy sections of the trail along the way.
After a descent via the Timbercutters Track and a brief wander by the waterside, we were a bit taken aback when the climb up Bluff Track to the checkpoint proved to be quite the challenge indeed! As we entered Checkpoint 1 at Ararat Reserve in 15 minutes over our estimated time, some of us (okay, me) were suddenly wondering what on earth we'd got ourselves into considering this was only the 13.5km mark out of 100km and already our legs were on fire!
Balmoral Beach
Balgowlah looking back to Mosman - Top of Gallipoli Stairs
Ruth's Skins - Sexy!
David's Kit including the new pole!
Start to Checkpoint 1: Map
Distance: 7.5km
Time Taken: 2 hours 18 mins
Okay.. so this section was marked as grade one (easiest) and we thought we'd whip through this very quickly given the majority of it appeared to be downhill. What we didn't count on was:
- We spent 20-25 minutes lost and trying to find the track after exiting Ararat Reserve
- The downhill bits we thought we'd run were actually steep, rocky descents that has us sliding down on our backsides at some points!
- That the 20-30 fallen trees on Magazine Track would cause us a lot of trouble and lengthy delays.
It was almost as if a mini-cyclone had torn through this section of track and our pace slowed to a crawl as we we spent a considerable amount of time working our way around or over fallen trees. The branches were all facing oncoming traffic (i.e. us!) but that was also complicated by the wire (and sometimes bared wire) fence on our left.
We managed to get through relatively unscathed in the end with only a few scratches and banged heads, but we were quite behind schedule by the time we reached the checkpoint having completed 20.5km in around 5 hours and 10 minutes. Oh.. and did we mentioned that the girls FINALLY got to see some decent male Trailwalker talent?! :-)
Through the bush to Killarney Heights
Kerrie looking thrilled at the 20.5km mark 
Checkpoint 2 - 3: Map
Time: Too long!
After a brief stop at Davidson Park, we set out on the last section of trail for today and having walked this track previously and got lost, the aim this time was to stay on track and actually end up at Acron Oval! This leg of the trip was also where we all started to notice the little aches and pains in our legs and our feet and it gave us the opportunity to exercise the 'mind over matter' principle as we stretched ourselves in the distance and endurance stakes.
This section of trail is named the Lyrebird Track and as luck would have it, Ruth and Kerrie actually saw a lyrebird very briefly in the underbrush scratching around! After following Middle Harbour Creek for seemingly ages, we ended up at The Cascades - a wide rock platform where a number of tributaries pool together to form the start of Middle Harbour Creek. Just beautiful..
The last and final stage of the day involved crossing the creek and embarking on the final 1.5km climb up to Acron Oval. This was a real slog but we made it, reaching our final destination with the support of a cheering crowd... well, they were actually cheering for an AFL match in progress but the main attraction to us was the unbelievably good sausage sizzle that was going on at the same time! What is it with the sausage sizzles? We keep finding them. And although we'd told David that there'd be no sausages until 25 August after the finish line, some of us crumbled and enjoyed every last bite!
Acron Oval, St Ives - AFL match in action
Yes, David did partake.. 
So much for no sausages until the 100km mark!
Donations
Next Week..
We're tackling the two hardest sections of trail marked a grade 4 and 5. We're preparing for burning thighs, sore calves and we're just holding on to hope that it doesn't quite take as long as this week...
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