1000 miles

This weekend was definitely a new adventure for me.

The task: hike through 30km's of bush (in the Royal National Park) which includes climbing up and down cliff tops, carrying a 45-50 kilo backpack, fighting the natural elements such as sun, wind, rain and deadly animals.

The reward: Personal satisfaction, a large pint of beer and one heaping hamburger.

Without really thinking it through, we were asked a couple days prior to leaving if we wanted to do a hike by a couple of fellow Canadians. Considering we didn't have anything else going on during the weekend, why not? What we didn't realize at the time, but learned very quickly was the physical and mental challenges we were about to face. We would start by walking through what seemed like a jungle with several parts of the trail being unmarked. It was a good thing we had the ocean to orientate us. Once we passed through that successfully, it was then open fields of grass on top of a cliff with the sun bearing down on us. Our greatest challenge came late in the day as we were exhausted and ready to give up only to face what seemed like a cliff that kept growing as you approached it. If that wasn't hard enough to climb on our own, we still had our 50 kilo backpacks still hanging around. As gruelling as it was, to finally look down and see what we accomplished left us feeling victorious that day. As it was a 30 km hike, we did need to break it up into 2 days.

Therefore, as the sun set we decide to set up camp at a cove we found along the way. Our first thought was to set up our tents on the beach, only to find that a storm was blowing in which made it impossible for our tents to remain still. We were lucky enough to find shelter in between some trees but our next task was to find a source of warmth. What better way to do it then create a fire in the middle of a dry forest right? Well, we successfully did so without burning the national park down.

We were triumphant in surviving the night, only to be welcomed the next morning by an infestation of black flies. These of course, weren't your ordinary flies. For some reason, once they land on your back, its as if they've laid claim to the new territory and decide to bring their entire colony over. No joke, there were around 500 or more of these flies hanging on each of our backpacks for the entire day and even as you brush them off, they keep coming back. It was definately a new experience with the Aussie insects.

Day 2 saw us probably doing the same amount of distance as we did in day one. When we finally arrived into town, it was the most bizarre feeling we had seeing buildings, people and motorized vehicles all surrounding us. Even though it was only 2 days, being in the forest definitely played some mind games with you.

Looking back now, I can honestly say that was one of the greatest hikes I have ever done. The natural beauty we saw can never be captured in a picture. You need to experience the real thing!

"I would have walked 500 miles and 500 more just to be the man who walks 1000 miles..."