Sweet Jacket Love

Last night we were half way through watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (one of my alltime faves), and we heard the sweet sound of heavy rain. We've been hanging out to try the new gear, so rushed out into the rain for a walk around the lake wearing only t-shirts and shorts, along with our new jackets and shoes.

OMG I'm so happy with them. :-D The jacket kept us warm & dry through the rain, and the shoes didn't let any water through. Once the rain had stopped, I deliberately sought out the deepest puddles I could find, and waded straight through. Not a drop came through. Woot!

We've got an outside work BBQ today, and it's been raining throughout the night, so I've got a feeling we'll get to try them out again today. ;-)

* KA-CHING! *

That was a sound we kept on hearing as we went on a huge weekend of purchasing hiking gear. We've got all the major items sorted now: backpacks, sleeping bags, shoes, sandals, socks, rain/wind jackets, thermals tops, etc.

Our biggest dilemma was who to listen to for shoe/boot advice. Some retailers were obvious n00bs, while others had had a lot of experience and strongly recommended one way or another. Some recommended the ankle support boots provided; others recommended the lighter weight of shoes with a solid sole. Some recommended the water resistance Gore-Tex provides; others recommended cooler non-Gore-Tex footwear. Nobody recommended leather. A mountain of discarded footwear later, we finally settled on some light weight water resistant Raichle hiking shoes.

We then got so sweeeeeet Montane jackets (our most expensive purchases to date). Now we're just waiting for some suitably shit weather to try them out in.

Oh, I'm mainly just naming the items we bought as a reference point for anybody else doing the same type of hiking.

We're supposed to stay well under 10kgs pack weight. Hannah is currently on 5kgs (including shoes & sandals); I'm on 6.7kgs (including shoes, sandals & DSLR camera gear). We've got the vast majority of our gear, it's mainly just toiletries we still need to include.

To try them out, we're heading up to the 1000 Steps in the Dandenongs on Saturday. I'm just hoping for some suitably shit weather. ;-)

This is supposed to be a blog about our training for the Camino. I know I'm posting a fair bit about the swans on Albert Park Lake, but we're watching them grow as we walk it every day, and they're just so damn cute and fluffy!

From a training point of view, we've walked about 330kms so far. That's the equivalent of Melbourne to Albury or Swan Hill, or from Brisbane to Bundaberg. Although... it's in short daily bursts carrying almost no weight. :-)

Swan Lake

I have wonderful news.

Not all the ducklings were killed the other day. There are still four left, including Red Curry and Twice Cooked.

The entire lake is covered in Swans & their cygnets. They're soooo cute and fluffy. I want to fill my doona with them.

The one/two month old cygnets are almost fully grown, and have stopped hiding behind their mums, and are now coming over to see if we've got food. Now is my chance to start feeding them up, getting them ready for Christmas dinner.

Why did the ducklings cross the road?

I have terrible news.

The ducklings we've been watching grow for the last month or two are no longer with us. There've been some terrible drivers around the lake recently, and one of them took out four ducklings in the one incident. Only a week ago there were at least 10 ducklings, but I'm not sure there are any left now. :'-(

Farewell Red Curry, farewell Twice Cooked. We'll miss you.

A quick update

I can't believe it's been 3 months since we last wrote. Oops. So much has happened since then: we've been to Samoa & New Zealand; had shingles, the 'flu & various excercise injuries; and in the process have become the fittest we've ever been.

In the very first post I outlined a few things we'd need to do before the Camino, and we've made some great progress on some of those. As a summary:

• Get fit: we're averaging about 5kms every single day, and I'm putting in about an hour on the Wii Fit most mornings (if you ignore the trivial excercises, it's harder than it looks).
• Retire the car: for the most part, we've done this. A tank of petrol lasts a couple of weeks now. We're lucky enough to live within walking range of work & Fitzroy St.
• Learn Spanish: we did a 10 week beginner course with Tres Culturas Spanish, and we're half way through another 10 weeks of intermediate. If anyone is thinking of learning Spanish, I can highly recommend Luis!
• Research/buy the hiking gear: We got our lightweight backpacks and sleeping bags a few months ago, and still need to get the books and everything else. There's still quite a few months to go, but we'll make the boots a high priority.

Incase you're still reading, I'll put a few more stories in.

We were originally planning on doing the Camino when our lease expired in November. We've bumped it back by a few months and will now be heading over some time in April. There's a few reasons for this, but the main ones are that it'll save us from walking in mid-winter, and that we'll be able to save a few more dollars beforehand. Hopefully the Aussie dollar will be stronger by then too.

The first night that I had the Nintendo Wii, I played Wii Boxing for about half an hour. OMG! It was days before I could use my arm again! Hannah played it the following week, and ZOMFG I hope she never hits me! Those long arms can swing from a mile away, and her battle face is terrible to behold. After 10 minutes of frenzied mayhem, it was days before she could use her arm again. :D

We're absolutely loving living right next to Albert Park lake. We walk out the door, cross the road, and we're on the water. We're walking around it (~5kms) almost every day, and over the last month or two we've been watching the swans & ducks looking after their bambinos. They're soooo cute and fluffy, and they grow soooooo quickly.

I've named some of the ducks Red Curry and Twice Cooked. I'm yet to find a good recipe for the swans, but I've started feeding them spiced bread in the hope of having them pre-stuffed when we're ready to eat 'em.

Well, that's enough for now. We're off around the lake. Gotta spice the swans. :-)

Chair repair

Hannah had a blue chair that helped us through the renovation at Arthurton Rd. It ended up covered in white paint, so to compensate for the months of abuse it received at the time, we're going to strip it back to bare wood.

The original plan was to give it a new lease on life with a funky new paint job -- maybe some sort of organic design -- but now that we've seen the bare wood we're tempted to leave it as is.

What do you reckon? Should we repaint it, or leave it nekid?

Who Can? You Yang!

We had a great walk up the You Yangs on the weekend.

One thing is for sure: 3kms up rocky paths is harder on your knees than 3kms on the flat. The view is certainly better though!

Bag Of Holding

OK, we've got our bag of holding sorted out. We'd initially been looking at the Macpac Utopia but, while it was a damn nice bag, it was just too heavy for what we needed. We're aiming to carry around 9kgs in total, and the Utopia was well over 4kgs by itself.

We've gone with the Aarn Featherlite Freedom, at 1.8kgs (including two front balance packs). If you're into long-distance hiking, these packs are well worth looking into. We've loaded them up once or twice with weights and they're really comfortable. The balance packs are waaaay cool -- instead of a single back that clips to your chest, this pair of packs clip to either side of your chest so you can see where you're placing your feet. These guys have thought of everything!

We've also got the sleeping bag situation sorted. The Western Mountaineering Summerlite is supposed to be able to handle 0 degree temperatures... something I hope we don't have to test! Brrrrr!!!

Haz shoes, will use

I wouldn't blame you if you'd told me our first official major training expedition was going to be rained out. But two people, bleary-eyed, had rolled out of bed at 8.30 on a weekend morning, and neither of us were about to back out.

The first couple of kilometers we walked with our hoodies and beanies on and our heads down. And then the winter sun came out and it became the perfect formal debut walking session.

Fort Nepean was formerly a strategic military location at one end of the mouth of Port Phillip Bay - now it's a gorgeous, windy, beachy, mostly flat place to explore, and safe I think as long as you stick to the paths.

We clocked up more than 11kms, strolling, meandering, thundering and even running. Our footsies got sore but our legs were long and strong. We had coffee in a thermos. We had an apple each. Oh, we had Smarty chocolate!

After so long with some pretty dull but necessary priorities, I can't tell you how fulfilling it is to spend a whole relaxed day making our bodies strong, taking photographs, and reacquainting ourselves with some of Melbourne's beauty.

Here's happy Jason:

Tired legs

We just did our longest walk in a while, and we can certainly feel it in our legs. Over the night it would have been around 15kms (walked to the moves & back).

I think it's starting to dawn on us how much training we need to do. Soon we'll have to be walking roughly double that... carrying 10~15kgs.

We've got a list of backpack shops we'll be visiting tomorrow, and we're heading to Point Nepean on Sunday with a friend for a long walk.

We're getting excited now. The preparations have officially started.

Backpack Shopping!

One of the most important things we'll need is a really good backpack. We'll be carrying everything we need on our backs for 800kms, so our choice could make or break our trip. Both of us are similar heights (6' and over) with a reasonable degree of strength, so we'll have very similar requirements and will probably both get exactly the same type of pack.

On our extensive research of *cough* one morning's shopping, our favourite so far is the hybrid Macpac Utopia (circa AU$500). Of all the packs we tried, it seemed the most comfortable & sturdy, with numerous compartments and attachment points for hanging stuff from.

We had a look at the Kathmandu range (here and here), but did not seem as impressed with the level of adjustability or overall quality of the packs. They do seem to be aiming at a slightly lower price range, and much shorter hikes, so it's not really comparing apples with apples.

In the quick look that we had, Mountain Designs seemed to have a similar range to Kathmandu.

So... we've looked at 3 or 4 shops from a selection of dozens (hundreds?). We've got a lot more research to do before making a selection.

I'd be interested to hear what other people think of Macpack/Kathmandu/Mountain Design's ranges. Does anyone know of any packpack shops that we absolutely must visit before making a final decision?

Camino De Santiago

Buen Camino!

In several months, Hannah & I will be walking the Camino De Santiago. I'll be posting more info about this in the coming months, but as a summary we'll be walking about 800kms across the north of Spain. This will be completely on foot, and is supposed to take around 5 weeks of walking between 25~30kms per day.

We also have a few friends that will be joining us for parts of the journey, so it'll be a wonderful experience spending time with them on such an adventure.

There's a few things we need to do beforehand:

• Get fit. This is a biggie, as I'm not exactly in tip-top condition. Hiking & walking while carrying heavy loads will probably constitute a large part of the training, but we're also going to retire the car as much as possible and build walking into our daily lifestyle.
  
• Research and purchase the most suitable gear to take. This would include backpacks, footwear (shoes/sandals), clothes for all conditions, walking poles, etc. We'll have to carry our gear the entire distance, so weight is very much an issue.
  
• Get tourist visas, and whatever other bureaucratic red tape we need. I've NFI what is involved.
  
• Learn at least some Spanish. I currently no hablo Español.
• Read everything I can about the topic and anything remotely associated with it.
• Research the best way of keeping my Nikon D80 charged up, and archiving photos to safe storage. (I've learned the hard way... don't assume people won't steal your stuff.)
• Learn how to sketch. I want to take time in between walking and siestas to sketch things along the route.

It seems like a pretty short list, right? What could posibly go wrong? X-D (Actually it'd be pointless if nothing went wrong. The whole point is to test ourselves.)

This blog will primarily be about our preparations for the Camino, and once we're there we'll be posting updates from the road.

Buen Camino!

New House!!

We picked up the keys to the new house last night. Woohoo! =D