Don't come a-knocking...

...when this building's rocking.

Hannah & I, along with half of Melbourne, just felt an earthquake hit Melbourne. It only lasted 5~10 seconds and was enough to rock the entire building (and we're on the 2nd floor), but nowhere near enough to knock anything over.

Initial estimates put it at about a magnitude 4.7, originating 90kms south east of Melbourne.

It's no big deal. I suppose after a few weeks of the packing boxes ready to head away, we get a little excited about these things. 8-D

As a quick update:

• We're both resigning next Friday, as soon as our pay hits our bank accounts. I've been there for 11.5 years so it's A Big Move, but I'm really looking forwards to moving on to some new adventures, whatever they may be.
• We're moving house next Friday. Yep, the same day that we're resigning. It wasn't planned that way -- it's just coincidental that's when the lease expires.
• I'm planning on shaving my head next Friday/Saturday for the World's Greatest Shave (fundraising for the Leukaemia Foundation). We'll be moving house when the official public head shavings occur, so we'll have our own private shaving and upload the video to YouTube. :-)
• Next Friday is my nephew's birthday.
• Why the hell do all these things need to happen on the same day? And why does that day need to be Friday the 13th? ZOMFG! SRSLY!

We've stopped walking as much. We're still walking 5kms around Albert Park Lake most nights, but we're not doing the 15km hikes with backpacks in state parks anymore. It's partly because we need to focus on putting everything into storage for a year or two (we can only take what we can fit in a suitcase!) and finalising paperwork; and partly because bushfires have limited the places we can hike with the backpacks. We've clocked up over 650kms of walking in the last few months, so I think we're in a good position to relax a little while we concentrate on getting the last cores done before we go.

OK. Sleep time now. BAI!

Bushfire season

It's bushfire season in Victoria. A week or two back the forecast was for the hottest week in 100 years, and we've just had our second driest January on record.

It was only a fortnight ago that we went hiking in Bunyip State Park, and this park is currently on fire. Articles here and here. It's a beautiful part of the world, so I hope it recovers quickly.

Park rangers are recommending that people stay out of the state/national parks at the moment, so we'll switch to doing our longer walks around local parks & rivers in the 'burbs.

Offtopic: I always imagine park rangers as looking like Aragorn, carrying a sword, wearing a hooded cloak and having a fashionable amount of stubble, but I've always been proven wrong when I see them.

Rocket Man

Well, it's official. We now look like rocketmen.

During the last trip we discovered that we couldn't attach the walking poles to the backpacks without needing to assist each other -- the attachment points were right in the middle of the back. The guys at Backpacking Light (the place we've bought 90% of our gear) told us about quivers that could be attached to either side of our packs. With the poles stashed away, we both now look like Rocketman (or Rocketpeople to be PC).

We headed out to Bunyip State Park on Saturday, carrying the full packs (~10kg each). Here's the approximate route we walked. Once again we had a few map issues. We took the map from Parks Victoria, but found that it was no longer accurate (some trails closed long ago for revegetation, some tracks renamed, etc). The Parks Victoria map bears little resemblance to the GoogleMaps equivalent. Meh, it's all part of the adventure. :-)

A few highlights: meeting Enid Echidna; climbing over a massive fallen tree; walking for hours without seeing anyone (seems to be a common theme on the tracks we're taking); guessing how out of date & inaccurate the map was; waking at 4am to rub Tigerbalm into our knees.

Yesterday we headed out for a few hours of relaxed riding with Hong & Vy. It was good to get back on the bikes again, especially since we spent more time eating icecream than we did peddling.

A lot of short walks

I generally log the distance of each of our walks, and the weight we carry. I was surprised tonight to see that in the last few months we've each walked about 460kms -- the equivalent of Melbourne to Wagga Wagga (NSW), or Melbourne to Bordertown (Sth Aust).

We're not quite in Forrest Gump's league yet, but we're on our way.

Lerderderderderderderderg

Lerderderg. Who the hell named that place? Anyway, it's a great place for hiking.

Hannah & I went out today with the backpacks, carrying about 8kgs and 11gks respectively. Part of the weight in the packs was our real gear, but I ended up stuffing woolen blankets and other things in there to bring the weight up higher still.

We started off down in the gorge, and walked for a solid hour straight up one of the hills. We walked for over 2.5 hours in total, which doesn't sounds like much, but when it's unrelenting uphill carrying a decent weight, you certainly notice your legs. :-) Here's the track we walked.

It's physically demanding at times, but we figure, the fitter & healthier we are when we start the Camino, the more we will enjoy it and learn from it. Plus, it's fresh air & beautiful scenery... how can we really complain?

One thing I would definitely recommend for people going out there: track down and purchase the official map to the park. The place is huge (14,250 hectares), and the signage within the park is shitful. You can get a basic map from here, but I'm not sure how much I'd trust it. The one place in the park that we really wanted a map for simply didn't have the detail to work out where the track started from. Oh, if you forget to print the map before you leave, they've got copies of it at the tourist info office in Bacchus Marsh (about 20 mins before you get to the park).

Something in the park amused me: somebody had graffitied "Wolf Creek" in the picnic area. If you've seen the movie (inspired by Ivan Milat's backpacker murders, and Peter Falconio's murder), I'm sure that's the last thing you'd want to be thinking about just before you head off into the wilderness. Glad we saw that after the hike. ;-)

We're very much in Get Stuff Done mode now. It's only just over 3 months until we leave, and we still have soooooooo much to do -- the main thing being obtaining work visas for an as yet undecided destination. EEEEEEEK! I've created project management documents, and Hannah has printed A3 sized calendars for the remaining few months. Our place is going to look like NASA headquarters until we've got everything sorted.

Quick Update

Wow. It's Jan 2009 already!

Just a very quick update:

Hannah & I walked the 1000 Steps (AKA Kokoda Walk) in the Dandenongs just before Christmas. It's not all that long (only around 3kms return), but it's bloody steep! There's a climb of about 300 meters in only 1500 meters of walking. Great for the leg muscles! Here's the GoogleMaps link for all the adventurers that want to find it.

I dropped Hannah off at Tullamarine Airport the following day, and while I was out that direction I headed out to Lerderderg State Park. It's not as picturesque as the Dandenongs, but the walking trails seem much much longer. I walked about 20kms over 5 hours and only covered a tiny part of it (maybe 2% of the available tracks). Actually, it's poorly signposted, so a lot of the walking I did was outside the park itself. If you're heading in, make sure you print a Google Map first (it's outside the range the street directory covers). Here's the GoogleMaps link.

On Saturday, Hannah & I are heading out to Lerderderg again, probably with heavier packs than we've taken before. I'm going to suggest to the park ranger that they change its name. "Lerderderg". What the hell were they thinking?

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. ;-)

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. :-)

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. :-)

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:

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!