Practice Walk

We had our first trial walk a few weekends ago.

We went for a "quick" walk up Mt Tennant and stayed at bushfold flats overnight. It was great to get out and try some of the stuff I had been planning.

The walk was only a few kilometres in an a few kilometres out (about 8km one way) put it gave us a chance to discover a few things about ourselves and our gear.

The first thing you discover was that bushwalking can be hard work. Although, it was not amazingly difficult, we stil had to climb two thirds of Mt Tennant with a fairly heavy backpack. The track up Mt Tennant is very good but very steep in places. It was on the steep sections that it starts to hit you the challenge - physical and mental - of doing the AAWT. You suddenly realise that you are gasping for breath on the steep sections and that it is difficult but you then realise that this just one small section of just one day of a much longer journey. You start to wonder what it is like going having to do this day after day after day in conditions much more difficult (heat, food, sleep, flies, boredom, etc) and you start to wonder whether you are really up to it. Well in any case, it was to have a bit of a reality check to put it all in perspective.

But enough of the bad stuff - on the whole the walk was great. Bushfold Flats was just fantastic. It was a beautiful spot. Although I have been through there once before, I never appreciated how beautiful the place was. Duncan especially could not believe that it was possible to go just a few kilometres out of town and have the opportuninity to walk and camp in such a great place. You tend to think that you have to drive for hours and hours to get somewhere so peaceful. If only a small proportion of the AAPT is like that it will be worth some of the bad things.

We found a great little campsite on some flatish ground with a wonderful view of the hills around. We set up, made a nice little meal, and then made a lovely campfire. We sat there and looked at the stars and talked about the walk and watched the planes flying low overhead as they came to land in Canberra. Duncan slept outside under the stars and I slept in the tent. It was lovely.

The best bit however was the snow. It was bitterly cold overnight (minus 8 degrees we think) and the morning started with a good dusting of snow. We had a leisurely breakfast as the snow came down and we watched it all slowly turn white it was great.

We are planning another more substantial walk this weekend to further test our gear and preparation for the main event.