#8: Climb the highest mountain in the ACT and have a shot at the top

It was time to get started on one of the more "longer term" bucket list items. Being the only multi-part item on the list, #8 - climbing the highest mountain in each State/Territory of Australia really needed to get started sooner rather than later. So it was with that in mind that Kunnal and I decided to climb Mt Bimberi, the highest mountain in the ACT.

Mt Bimberi was an appropriate first mountain, given that we live in the ACT. Also, given that Kunnal had some budget constraints this year, we thought it would be a good day-trip one to tick off as we wouldn't have to do much travelling. Little did we know that our "day-trip" was going to be epic.

Not only is Mt Bimberi the third-highest of the climbs we have to do (at 1912m), but it's not exactly accessible from the ACT. We did the calculations and we would have to wake up at 5am in order to even get to the start point of our walk and have enough time to complete the 22km trek before daylight hours end. It was going to be a long day.

Setting off walking at 9am

So to get to Mt Bimberi from Canberra you have to drive down to Cooma, then up round the western edge of the ACT on the NSW side. There was then a dirt road for around 100km before getting to a gate that signifies the start of the walk up to Mt Bimberi.

We set off at a brisk pace, but after about a km or so, we encountered our first slope... and it was steep. We plodded our way up, pondering whether or not we should have trained more or something. As we crested the hill we were greeted by our first view of Mt Bimberi:

Mt Bimberi looming in the distance

"Remote area navigation"? We had a compass... Does that count as prepared?

 The next hour or so passed by uneventfully. I was very much enjoying getting out for a bushwalk as it had been quite a while since last I'd done one.

Posing at Murrays Gap. It might not look like it, but that grass
behind us is growing out of what is basically a big puddle

It was when we got to Murrays Gap - the gap between Mt Bimberi and its "next door neighbour" Mt Murray, that things got a little more interesting.

The border between NSW and ACT is defined by the ridge of mountains we would be following. So Murrays Gap was actually the first point during the walk we actually encountered the ACT. We would then be following the border up to the peak. We found walking the state line interesting enough, but what was worrying us was that Murrays Gap was pretty much a swamp after recent rains.

As you can tell from our attire in the photos, we were well prepared for walking through a swamp. Sneakers handle that without any problem. *cough* Our socks were soaked.

Kunnal walking past some navigation stones.
Or "pans" as we were corrected into saying by fellow hikers.

This also marked the point from which there was no longer a marked path. We would be bush-bashing from here on in as we followed the ridge up to the top.

The reality wasn't that bad. While there wasn't actually a path, many hikers had done the same route and had left little piles of rocks to show the way (in case "keep going up" was too confusing a navigation technique). I think this spoiled the mood a little as it no longer felt we were going into unexplored territory. That mood was spoiled further when we encountered a group heading down who had been to the top already (we also met another group on the way down - guess that's what happens on a long weekend!). It didn't matter, the walk was still great.

It was steep going, but eventually it levelled out and we leapt up onto a pile of rocks wondering if we'd made it or not... Then we spotted the actual peak half a km away...

Oh. THERE it is!

 The last section was a very easy walk and we gleefully leapt up to the summit and plopped ourselves down to enjoy the view.

Looking out of the ACT

Mt Bimberi's poor "twin" Mt Murray.
Only 60m shorter, but who wants to climb the second tallest???

 We spent about an hour at the top. We ate lunch, took photos, checked out the view...












Did shots of absinthe...

Planked...

... but eventually it was time to head back down.

Chilling out at Oldfields Hut

We relied a lot more heavily on the piles of rocks on the way down, as no longer could we navigate by just heading upwards - every direction was downwards! It took us quite a bit of backtrackking and second guessing ourselves when encountering thick bush, but eventually we got back down to Murrays Gap; and after Kunnal had recovered from a brief shock after nearly stepping on a snake in our least favourite swamp, we were heading back to the car.



The view from Oldfields Hut

It had been about eight and a half hours of trekking by the time we got to Oldfields Hut (from where we'd taken our first photos of Mt Bimberi), so we just had to sit ourselves down for a rest. And a banana. There were foldaway chairs in the hut so that made it extra comfortable...

It felt like we spent about 5 mins at Oldfields Hut, but when we checked our watches, it turned out we'd been there for more like 20. We didn't care.

We stumbled up over the last hill and down the slope we'd found so steep to begin with. The last few km felt so long after they had passed so quickly earlier in the day, but eventually we got back into the car... Ready for our 4 hour drive back home.

I'm really looking forward to climbing the other mountains. Mt Bimberi was tough, but it was an incredible day, and this bucket list item is certainly shaping up to be one of my favourites. Thanks Kunnal!

#30: A beer drinking, bonfire building, cod fishing, quad bike riding, 4wd boozin', tinnie-boat cruising, river swimming, rope swinging, bow shooting, yabby racing weekend on Karl's farm

Karl contacted me a couple of weeks ago saying that he was organising a trip to his parents' farm and that I should come along to tick his item off the list. Great! Someone being proactive about their list item! That really helps!

I, of course, responded positively and revisited the list of things we'd have to try and get done while I was down there. It was going to be fun!

Karl's farm is a little bit outside of Forbes where Karl's family raises sheep and grows alfalfa. I hadn't been up there in eight years, but remembered it being extremely hot when I went before (for a couple of Karl's birthday parties).

I caught a lift up with Fergus and we headed off after work on Friday afternoon, arriving around 8:30 or so. The others had already set up camp and we quickly joined them tucking into a few beers (and thereby straight away achieving one of the goals for the weekend!). Soon we were out on the river in the boat, scanning the banks and logs in the dark for fishing lines the others had set up earlier in the day. Unfortunately, we were only able to spot a few of the lines and they had not yielded any catch. We "celebrated" with a few beers anyway. Then we had a few more.

Daybreak fishing trip

The next morning when I woke up Karl, Pang, Michelle, Dan and Age were already out on the boat checking the lines... No haul. :-( Despite it being 8am, we "celebrated" with some beers.

8am celebration (Karl holding bucket)

Age BBQs up brekky

We then headed up to Karl's parents' house where we BBQ'd breakfast. I was in a pretty sleepy early morning state, so I didn't know what was going on when some of the others got into their utes/bikes and started rounding up sheep. We headed down to the woolshed to see what was going on.

City boys show off herding skillz

To a symphony of "Maa"s, the gang was herding the sheep to separate the lambs.



The "hospital" at work

It was really quite interesting (if a little sad). Once the lambs had been separated, they needed to be injected with vaccinations, tagged on their ear and have little rubber bands put on their tails and balls (for the boy lambs). Plus a little cleaning squirt on the nether regions. Poor things looked extremely uncomfortable! Being male, I can imagine how "uncomfortable" the poor things were with rubber bands round their balls so tight they'd eventually fall off!

Dr Pang - Expert Interrogator (or Lamb Castrator) 

Age and Michelle land the fish

Hard work done, we headed back to the campsite to check the fishing lines. This time we were more successful as we caught a decent looking cod. It would be eaten later on with dinner, but for now it was time to "celebrate" (more beers)!

 After lunch, it was time to address a few more of the goals for the weekend. First up it was time for river swimmin' and rope swingin'. Karl and I got changed into our swimmers and headed out into the river and across to where the old rope swing was. It was quite pleasant in the water, but the current was pretty strong and therefore logs and things had been shifted around and may have been a danger using the rope swing. Karl kind of paddled about the area feeling for things, and when nothing was found we declared it safe for swingin' (or safe enough anyway).

 
We climbed up onto the bank and I took the rope first. Grabbing hold of the stick tied into it, I hollered "wee" and swung out when *snap* the old stick fell apart in my hands and I plopped directly into the water. It was hilarious, but unfortunately that was the end of the rope swingin'.

Totally not posing

Next on the agenda then was bow shootin'. Unfortunately, nobody had brought their bow! So Karl's Dad brought out his rifle and we took turns shooting at some jerry cans a hundred or so metres away.

Idiot

Personally, I'm not totally sure if I hit my first target, but I definitely got the second one I was aiming for, as the Coke can sitting on top of it leapt in the air after my shot. I know what else I hit too - my forehead with the gunscope! I'd had my eye too close to the rifle scope when I took the shot and the recoil smacked me in the head! Boy, did I feel stupid.

Unfortunately, the yabbies Karl had brought had died, so we couldn't race them. Instead we combined the yabbie racin' and the quad bike riding into "quad bike racing" (this may have also been due to a misreading by me of the list item). We were a little unsure of how to do quad bike racing when we only have one quad bike, but we came up with a plan. And, well, the following photo and video should tell the story...

On your marks...

All in all it was a great weekend and I was glad I finally got down for one of Karl's farm trips. Thanks for having me Karl! Next year we'll have to do the 4WD Boonzin' (whatever that is!)!

Oh, and yeah - we took the best planking photo yet!

#51: Drink Port 'Til You Spew

I wanted to get an item done, as it's been a little while since I've done one. Unfortunately, a lot require long term planning (I'm working on it!) or warmer weather (out of my control!); #51: Drink Port 'Til You Spew caught my eye not only because we could get it done in cold weather and on short notice, but also because it's trickier than the last couple.

Lucy was on board for ticking this one off, so we bought a bunch of port and started drinking. I wasn't really sure how to feel about the whole thing actually, it seemed like a really odd "objective" for an evening of fun - normally you DON'T want to be sick, but this time I *had* to or the night would be a failure!

The first bottle was quite nice, but a bit sweet.

First glass:

Second glass:

Third glass:

As we were polishing off the first bottle; Oren, Kieren and Naomi came round - Oren sporting a "knockout" port of his own. Seriously, it was called 'Knockout Port' on the label! We decided to leave the knockout port for a bit though, and got stuck into bottle number 2, which was less sweet than the first, but I didn't enjoy as much.

Once a few more people arrived (and a couple more glasses of port were consumed), it was time to crack open the knockout port. Here's some extracts from the label:
"... has a knockout punch that will leave you on the floor after one drop. You will feel dizzy & breathless... The taste sensation will paralyse your whole body and seduce your mind. Its intensity will leave you strugging for consiousness."

This sounded like the stuff to take us down!

Actually, the killer port was alright; and certainly didn't take anyone down. Sure, we were drinking pretty slowly, but that was because port is not that easy to drink a lot of, rather than us getting really wasted.
Still, we were drunk enough for uncoordinated planking!

Once the killer port was gone - it was time for drastic measures! Out came the port-in-a-box!

It tasted... Quite good. Actually, in my opinion it was probably the best of the sample we had during the night. Definitely not about to make us spew.
Unfortunately, Lucy was on to the water... Very disappointing:

It was probably about 1:30am by the time I realised something drastic had to be done. I *had* to make myself sick to cross this item off my list dammit! Faced with the task of actually WANTING to make myself vomit, I poured a pint of port with the intention of quaffing the lot in one go and, hopefully, having the desired nauseous effect.
It's hard to describe what a surreal experience it was, and I think the others felt it too, as I prepared to make myself ill. I took a breath, and started drinking:
 

Once I'd downed the lot, I grabbed the bucket I'd prepared in eager anticipation of losing my dinner and... Nothing. I felt awful, but I wasn't throwing up! Desperate, to get this done now that I'd started, I called for someone to grab me more port when.... it came up.
I do have a video of all this, which I will probably upload soon. It's pretty gross.
Afterwards I felt fine and sat down with the others to enjoy a celebratory beer. It really was a weird experience and I'm glad I did it. Wanting to force yourself to do something you know is stupid feels... different. I don't know how to describe it! It was fun though, and it really was an enjoyable night - so one moment of feeling bad was totally worth it for a night of fun (plus there was elation of feeling good about myself afterwards).

(Note: Lucy back on Port - Good work)

I'm also glad I got the opportunity to prove that I'm committed to completing this list properly.

Thanks Lucy. Next time I'm sure you'll have the "pleasure" of spewing yourself!

#40: Go to a Capoeira class

Next on the list was an item that required urgent attention: #40 Go to a Capoeira class. This had been suggested by Jodhi, who was about to head overseas to join a travelling circus (called Cirque de Soleil or something silly like that); so this item had to get addressed before it became too hard to get us both in the same place at the same time.

Unfortunately, the only day that we could both do it I had started to come down with a bit of a cold. Glad that after a pretty easy first item, I could prove that I meant business on this list, I sucked it up and headed down to the class anyway. Little did I know, things were going to get a LOT tougher!

For those that don't know, capoeira is a Brazilian martial arts dance style. Two people sort of dance together; doing spins, kicks, blocks and handstands; but not really making contact with each other.

Luckily, and very interestingly, the class started off with a jam of capoeira music using traditional instruments - nice touch!

We swapped instruments too, in this next photo I'm pretty sure I must be out of time - getting too distracted posing for a photo!

Next, we did a lot of warming up....



... Then got into some exercises. Here, fellow student Erin demonstrates one particular move/exercise:

Then I gave it a go... I actually look a lot better in this photo than I thought I would!

After that: The basic steps of capoeira: The "ginga". Note how quickly I picked it up - my hands are *cough* perfectly in line with everyone else's!

Finally, we spent a large portion of the class practising our kicks. Everybody split into groups of more or less equal skill level and got a little practise pole each. Naturally, I had a pole to myself seeing as I was way far below everyone else!

You would have thought having a pole to yourself would be a great thing, but it meant that I felt obligated to use it as much as possible - if I was just sitting there recovering, it wouldn't be fair on the others who had to wait to kick over their pole. I was already exhausted - exercising in a very new way and being quite sick and out of breath. I tried my best though, and Jodhi was kind enough to take me aside to teach me a few other moves. I think by the end of the class I was even starting to get a couple down!

At the very end of the class Erin and Jodhi gave a little demonstration. They assured me they were really tired after the class and therefore not doing very well, but I was impressed, as I'm sure you probably are looking at this photo and video!

The class poses for the mandatory "bucket" photo

Jodhi and I do a brief "play" to show what I'd learned. From the looks of this photo, it seems all I'd picked up was how to smile at a camera...

There was only one thing left to do... Capoeira planking!



At the end of the class, Jodhi told me the capoeira pants he'd given me for the class were mine to keep. Thank you Jodhi, it was a nice gesture, and I realised that I didn't mention in the previous post that Greg gave me a cover for my iPad. Not that giving me something should be a part of the list, but I thought it was a cool symmetry that both items I've done so far ended with the person giving me a related gift.

He also gave me something else: The news that the class I'd just done was the advanced class! Monday nights were the beginner classes! Made me feel a bit better for being so far behind everyone else, but that didn't make my body feel any better...

The next day, I woke up quite sick and with all my limbs aching. It was a weird pain too - not the normal muscles that hurt after an intense workout... These were muscles I didn't know existed! Took me ages to recover from the double whammy of sickness and exhaustion, but it was worth it - Thanks again Jodhi!

... I'm even considering going regularly. It was a good workout and a lot of fun and an interesting and different skill to have. I just have to wait until I have the time to do it.