RAAF Base Richmond Loop (24km)

Notes:
Okay so you might be thinking that repeating this same route over and over again must be getting boring. Well I won’t lie, I would certainly like a scene change but as previously discussed I’m waiting for the Blue Mountains to dry out before heading up there. Perhaps I’ll start looking at some other areas surrounding Sydney in the meantime. But still, I can’t say these hot laps of the base are boring, ’cause each time I’m either trialling some new gear, wearing in the older stuff, or just encountering “problems” that could quite easily happen on the real adventure. Discovering these “problems” now allows me to learn and adjust my hiking methodologies before “game day”.

In fact, today I didn’t start the 24km until late in the afternoon and basically walked the last 8km in the dark – and I mean DARK. Runway lights tend to light up – well – the runway and whoever planned the runway lighting certainly wasn’t thinking some clown would be out trotting around the airfield in the dark. That’s what Base Security, our Air Defence Guards and our Dog Handlers and their angry canines are for after all.

The lessons learnt today day though were the three B’s. Batteries, Bugs & Blindness. Mostly encountered in that last 8km, but let me explain.

So if you look at the Heart Rate graph above you might be forgiven for thinking I arrested and flatlined (for an hour and a half) at the 1hr 33min mark. Well no, that didn’t happen, but at that point my Suunto Fitness watch advised me that it had 5% battery remaining. Of course I didn’t want to lose my tracking data so I stopped for a second (the black line) to bust out my watch charger and my 30000mAh powerbank. This was going to be a good test of recharging the watch while still walking and hoping that it would continue the tracking during that time even though it wasn’t attached to my wrist. And no contact with wrist = no Heart Rate detected = flatline. But on the upside, my watch continued to track my progress while I nursed it out in front of my body for about 9km. Lesson learnt: Ensure my watch is charged before setting out, just as importantly, even if it isn’t fully charged life can go on by utilising my powerbank.

And that wasn’t the only Battery incident today. To set the scene… It’s dark (I think I mentioned that). I’m thinking “Hey this would be a great opportunity to utilise my LED Headlamp” because mobile phone torches just don’t cut it when hiking and I’d rather utilise the phone battery to listen to music anyway. “So where is it?”. I’m thinkin’ it’s probably at the bottom of my pack somewhere and I suspect it’d probably work better with batteries inserted. Lesson learnt: If I know I’ll be walking in the dark, pack the head lamp in an easy to reach pouch on the pack and remember to bring the Batteries too.

So if I continue to paint the scene (I’m using a lot of black in this painting) – it’s still dark. Bugs. Apparently bugs love to come out at night and, being an open-mouth breather, I get to enjoy the local delicacy. Ha ha. You know I should use that Buff (Neck Gaiter) I bought in the “cover ya face” configuration – if only I knew where in the pack it was. Doh! In reality when I’m walking the Camino day or night I expect it will be around my neck or wrist but tonight… Lesson learnt: See last lesson – pack the thing in an easily accessible pouch on the pack.

And finally, Blindness. I know I said it was black (more than once) but what’s worse is when you have the constant flow of vehicle headlights coming towards you as you walk alongside the external road portions of the airfield. My poor little rods and cones in my eyeballs were all over the place and my rods in particular never had the opportunity to settle and enhance my low-light vision. Instead, I might as well have been blind. I couldn’t see the track in front of me! Luckily I’ve done it a few times now and sort of know my way blindfolded, and luckily the snakes weren’t out warming their cold-blooded nastiness on the asphalt track. Wait, they probably were I just couldn’t see them. Anyway, not much I can do about the ol’ rods and cones debacle while the lights are constant but… Lesson learnt (and this one probably goes for all the above): Wherever possible, I think I’ll be trying to limit my night walking. Ya can’t see the scenery at night anyway.

Wow, that was a long blog entry, so if you made it this far “Well done and thank-you”. ‘Til next time…

---

Distance walked today: 24km

Weight of Pack and Contents: 10.6kg

Surface: Asphalt

Weather: Overcast but remained dry.

Total Distance Walked for Training thus far: 176km

---