I'm trying not to say the phrase 'training walk' with Sandi (because she hates them), but the road to Melbourne (see I have a dream...) is going to have many in store for me as I tweak my gear, diet and generally just get back into the swing of things (after this walk it's obvious that I am very much not in the swing of things at the moment).
The Six Foot Track is another iconic walk in our beautiful Blue Mountains (they even run it as a marathon each Autumn), and we've walked it many, many times – and still love it; although it's not an easy walk by any means. There are many ways to walk it:
- from Katoomba to Jenolan
- from Jenolan to Katoomba (which we think is slightly easier)
- one way (either way – there's a bus to and from Jenolan that we've used before)
- or, there and back (which we've done once)
The height profile does look somewhat scary drawn like this, but it does show that it's not an easy walk
This time we walked:
- Day 1: Walk from our house, caught the train to Katoomba, then walked to the Explorers' Tree (which is about the start of the Track) and then down to Alum Creek (that was about 26km).
- Day 2: Walked from Alum, lunching at Black Range Campsite and pottering off to Kiaora Hill, just above Jenolan for the second night (which was just over 20km).
- Day 3: Involved a long sleep in and a slow wander down the hill to Jenolan Caves (just under 4km).
One of our sons brought our car and his family down to meet us so we could take them through one of the caves (which we never cease to be amazed at)… so all in all a weekend filled with lots of beauty.
The Track
The aims for this walk included:
- Test the Sawyer Mini Filter. I'm hoping to reduce the amount of water we carry by drinking from water sources as we come upon them. It worked pretty well, but it involves getting into better habits.
- First multi-day walk on my Keto diet, which I think worked pretty good although it wasn't pure Keto as Sandi is still a carboholic, so the evening meal had way too many carbohydrates.
- Try out my Scarpa hiking shoes (instead of boots), which I didn't really like. They were comfortable enough, but it just felt funny not being in boots.