Hike and Bike Tazzie

This weekend i surprised my husband by showing up at his work on Friday, and taking him to Tazzie to mountain bike for the weekend. So the Walking Group was left to their own devises.

Their mission was to walk the coast road from Dee Why to Manly - including soft sand. Friday afternoon was when that enormous southerly came through and battered Sydney - do you think it stopped them? We had one stuck at work, but the rest all made it, and hiked into the wind and rain, one of them with a 12kg child in their pack. I was suitably impressed to hear this!

Winner of our challenge this week was Sandra Fowler, who did 10min K's with a 5kg pack. She got a handful of oregano from my garden.

The oldest standing bridge in Australia, 1814 i think.

I was left to my own devises, as Chris did 5-6hrs of mountain biking a day, and was consumed with filling his face in between rides (i must admit i engaged in that too...!!). I endeavored 2 walks a day, one with Evie in her backpack, and one with her in the pram, with lots of baby-activities in between to make sure she was happy to be still for a couple of hours!

The first walk on Saturday morning was supposed to be 4-5k.... it was actually 10! I took a walking trail instead of the bike trail (to be polite), but a train track cuts the walking track, so i had to walk 1.25k back to where i started and begin again! On top of this, but our friend had incorrectly "guesstimated" the distance, but communicated it to me like it was a fact....!

Mount Wellington Walk

Evie mercifully slept a lot of it, and i rewarded myself with a trip to Salamander Markets. That afternoon we headed up Mt Wellington, where the boys did a 2hr downhill expedition, and i did a gorgeous hike then drove down to meet them. It is such dramatic scenery, with spectacular views, and only 10min from town. This day was 15k's, i was off to a good start.

Evie in my boots

On Sunday i started with the pack, on a fantastic mountain bike course built by the private school, St Virgil's. This was a 5k walk, slow because my foot was starting to really hurt (not just generally hurt like it has been lately!). In the arvo, i did a lackluster 4k around the waterworks, and called it a day.

Sunday's walk

Despite my sore foot, i was pretty happy to get some decent kilometres under my belt! And so proud that my group went ahead without me even in the extreme circumstances. This is a journey that i am enjoying immensely already!