of the great north walk
I was feeling rather tired and rundown from being sick-ish (not the full blown sick that makes you stay in bed delirious) the night before the walk, so I was rather surprised when I woke up I wasn’t feeling as crook and my cough had subsided a bit… and rather excited because I’ve been looking forward to this walk for a while (and also to test out my Gisteq Phototrackr).
Because of *someone* (you know who you are! ….*mutters under her breath* ram), we were about 20 minutes late to our Berowra station meeting point @ 10:35am. Luckily for us, no one was too grumpy (I think) with our tardiness.
The Berowra-Cowan Stations Walk is part of the Great North Walk, which winds around Berowra/Berowra Heights and swings by Berowra Waters before coming up to Cowan Station; such winding leads to an approximate 11.8km hike. (Map stolen from: Take A Stroll, thanks John!! ^_____^)
We started off enthusiastically, trudging the hard concrete pavement towards the bush. The skies were sunny and gorgeously blue (though to be honest I can’t remember if they were dotted by white fluffy cotton-wool-like clouds or not… yeah okay, I just wanted to say “white fluffy cotton-wool-like clouds” but I didn’t want to lie about it *sighs*); the temperature was set to be high 20s or low 30s, so John had advised us to have plenty of water, not to wear jeans, to wear polyester-type shirts, and more water (an email which I had missed =_=).
While everyone was appropriately dressed, I was the only silly goose who thought jeans was a good idea. Well, to be fair, it was my only option, as my other option was a white 3/4 polyester exercise pants with a meshy layer underneath that my mama bought me… white!!! =.=;; As a principle I don’t wear white (least of all pants) because I’m well aware that I’m rather a grot with minimal hesitation in sitting down anywhere…
Anywho!!
The first couple of kilometers of the walk was fairly easy, then where was some gentle ascension/descent… and then some steep ascension/descent. Clad in a cotton (Threadless) tee and jeans, armed with 600mL of water… I was pretty much done in by the time we passed the first steep ascension. While the others waited for my sorry patoot to finish climbing up, I was laboriously huffing and puffing away with a bright, red face.
It was kind of funny, looking at the photo points on the trail made by the collected geodata from Phototrackr, most of the photos were taken at the beginning of the trip, petering out by the time we got to the first steep bit lol.
The trail was peppered with various sizes of spiders (some were gigantic! *boggle*) and their webs would cris-cross by the side of the pathway or hanging ominously above our heads. The taller members of our party had to duck underneath them lest they get a face full of angry, mean-looking spiders, while the shorter ones (*ahem*) would walk by blissfully unaware.
The surrounding bush still bore scars of bushfires that had swept through – I idly wondered how long it has been since the last bushfire as things have grown back and some trees weren’t fully burnt, growing still even though half of its trunk was basically gone (that still amazes me).
We paused at a pretty lookout (Naa Badu Lookout) and as we neared Berowra Waters, the trail wound around the ridge, giving us glimpses of the sparkling Hawkesbury River (or more accurately for that section, Berowra Creek) glinting prettily, enticing us to jump in for a nice cool swim.
Thankfully, we broke for lunch when we arrived at Berowra Waters’ ferry thingy, where John astounded Larn with his organisational skills (he brought along all the necessities to cook our chicken caesar wraps – yummo! ^____^ – including pot, self-supporting stove, and cutlery). “I have to be if I want people to come,” he joked.
Ram, Sean, William, Christine, and I ambled over to the cafe to get some water and other drinks and were greeted by a hesitantly soft-spoken chick with, “Do you have a booking?” Sean and Ram reflexly glanced around the cafe: three tables taken up and seemed unlikely that the rest of the tables were reserved. Ram, slightly bemused, responded, “No, but we were after some water?” A passing waiter motioned Ram to hand him the empty 1.5L bottle and promptly refilled it, which I thought was rather nice. The guys mused that they must get lots of bedraggled hikers coming up asking for the same thing and was, by now, well-versed in what was needed. ^_^
We soldiered on after lunch.
I was a bit worried whether I could make it, as I was feeling less well than I did in the morning. I also could feel a twinge in my ankle as stepping on unsuspecting rollable rocks usually ain’t the best idea. The trail path was varied: dusty packed dirt to pebbles, then fist-sized rocks, back to packed dirt, packed dirt covered with brown gum leaves (making it slippery!), huge boulders, and sand; it was the fist-sized rocks bit that caught me out.
I’m going to be a whinge and say that the combination of lack of sufficient water, thick denim jeans, cotton tee, having to carry a backpack, and a hot day made the hike that little bit less enjoyable. Sean was very kind and sweet to carry it most of the way, though it was only through general group bullying and self-acceptance that I most probably wouldn’t make it (at least, finish the hike in some semblance of reasonable time) that I gave my backpack to him.
I, however, did keep a close hold onto my camera. XD
“That camera’s going to be the death of you,” John mildly said, as I refused and ignored hints of packing the camera away or at least giving it to someone else to hold. lol I’m so stubborn. I paid for it the next day though – my forearms were positively sore! >_<
To be honest, the middle was rather a blur to me. Hahahaha.. my efforts were purely focused on putting one foot in front of the other (and avoiding spiders/spider webs). =P Poor John though, he was carrying all our food, his backpack was easily twice the size of any one else's! I think he struggled with those steeps bits more than I did! *hugs johnjohn* I'm glad then that Ram exchanged backpacks with him for the rest of the way. ^_^
The last 2km of the hike was dead easy and it was a rather nice way to end to the track (I even started to take photos again! haha).
We walked an extra 600m to a convenience store that falsely claimed they were merely 200m away to grab ice cream (mmm Lipton Peach Tea), drinks, and various assorted snack stuff.
So... this is how lost the Gisteq Phototrackr got during the hike:
According to Gisteq, we walked 38km at an average of 5km/hr lol =D
[Edit 10-02-08: And *of course* I forgot to link photos =.=
John's photos are here, mine are on (as usual) flickr and picasaweb, and we're still waiting on ram for his photos.... T____T]
