Once again, if you haven’t been keeping up, the “why” of this training can be found here. Otherwise, read on for deets on Hike #3.
Right off the bat though I should say, “No, I didn’t walk Sections 2, 3 & 4 of the Canberra Centenary Trail in their entirety, in a single day” despite the title. That would be like, 60km+ and probably a good 15hrs+ walking.
Instead, you will see from the map above, that I walked the last 5km of Section 2, from Forde (Point 2A) to the Northern Border Campsite (Point 2/3). I then walked the entire 14km of Section 3 from the campsite to Hall (Point 3/4). Along the way I took a little 1km round trip detour up to the top of One Tree Hill (oh, that was a fun climb after having already hiked for 17km). And finally, due to the lack of public transport options in Hall, I started Section 4, ending about 3km in at the Nicholls KFC (Point 3A on the map). All up a nice 23km.
Another beautiful day, and in fact, one of the prettiest bush hiking trails of the three hikes I’ve completed in recent weeks. A special note for those who love a bit of mountain biking… Section 3 would be great if that were your thing.
Anyway, not so flat this time around, but I still managed to power through it at an average pace of 6km/hr.
Notes for Section 2/3/4 – Forde to Northern Border Campsite to One Tree Hill to Hall to Nicholls:
I really need to work on my battery management for my Fitness watch. I mostly use my watch for it’s GPS functionality to ensure I don’t stray from the pre-loaded route, and to record the exact route actually travelled BUT I find that with the GPS active I only get about 2-3 hrs out of the battery. Of course when the battery runs out, the route recording stops and even if I stand still and charge it some, it records it as two separate routes.
I also haven’t figured out what buttons I need to press to view the current “remaining battery” and then return to the map screen. So at the moment, the trick is to judge when the battery is about to run out and then get it on the Powerbank for 30 min or so. Therefore, given a 20km walk is taking me about 4hrs, I really need to do two things 1. read my watch manual, and 2. set myself some rules such as “charge watch for 30 min every 2.5 hours.
The only other item on my “must fix” list at the moment, is to adjust the straps on my pack. They loosen up somewhat towards the end of my last Camino and I keep neglecting to tighten them up. Of course, this means I’m getting niggles in the shoulders and neck from not wearing the pack correctly. Last Camino I had simply used electrical tape to tidy up the excess strapping and keep the strap position from slipping, but this time around I may look at putting a couple of removable stitches in the straps to hold them instead. If I get thinner (Ha ha) while on the walk, I can always remove the stitches, re-adjust, and then re-stitch to suit.
Anyway, with only a month before I head off and still about 90km to complete the Canberra Centenary Trail, I think I’ll have to up my “distance” game and the next three training hikes will have to be 30km each. Better buckle up. ‘Til then…
CCT Section 2/3/4 – Forde to Northern Border Campsite to One Tree Hill to Hall to Nicholls Pics
Distance walked today: 23km
Weight of Pack and Contents: 12.0kg
Surface: Mixed (dirt, sand, & rocks)
Weather: Dry.
Total Distance Walked for Camino-Portugues Training thus far: 67km
CCT Section 2/3/4 – Forde to Northern Border Campsite to One Tree Hill to Hall to Nicholls Video
As always, I recorded this hike with my chest-mounted GoPro Hero 10, and will upload it to the Walking with Strangers Youtube channel as soon as I can.
GoPro Recording Settings: TimeWarp mode with a Wide FOV at 10x speed.
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67km done.. that’s great Michael