www.kowp.com.au

As author and mountaineer, Jon Krakauer, said in his book, Into Thin Air, “attempting to climb Everest is an intrinsically irrational act—a triumph of desire over sensibility.”

This is very concerning! I thought ingrown toenails were slide to start at the end of the nail. I have no clue what I’ve done to this but it has 5weeks to heal. Doctors tomorrow for sure!

I spent the day with a sponsor – Oakvale Wines helping to pick and make their 2012 Sparkling Chardonnay. Had a great time with some wonderful people. Next time your in the Hunter Valley visit this family owned winery who specialise in making small parcels of premium handcrafted wine.

Photos are of the lab (where magic happens), some other shiraz grapes, the brand spankin new winery (everything is state of the art). They had an ozone machine, this machine that creates lightning in a box, infuses the extra oxygen molecule to water which is used to sanitise their equipment.

Oh, and a tractor… i got to drive the tractor, i love tractors!

It was suggested to me that id have to present photos etc upon my return so I should join toastmasters. I was reluctant but surprisingly enjoyed it. Will be back next time for sure.

Combank was converting at 0.994. These guys got me 1.0272… easy way to save myself $380.

This is all becoming very serious now!

My best friend!

My Saturday consisted of waking up at 530am, packing the canyon gear and ready by 6. Headed to Mt Wilson to do a canyon called whungee whungee. Abseiling waterfalls, duck unders, swim throughs, slippery slides and glow worms. By far my fav canyon and some real good training.

Got home at 5pm on the dot then drove up to Newcastle for a mates 30th.

All in all I estimate 15 mms pack would have been 12 kgs at its heaviest. Here are few photos.

The last one wore my hip bones off once I loaded it up. I walked the new one home from Crosslands Reserve.

17kms with 25kgs
Took around 4hours.

The first photo is at the top of the “character building” hill which climbs out of Galston Gorge.
The second is part of “stair 251″ with Cleo leading the way. (maybe next time I’ll weigh her down too).

3.5 months till i leave for Nepal, time to ramp up the training and blogging!

Ok, i had always thought my training would take me to the bush stairs at the end of Quarry road in Hornsby.

Rumoured to be 251 steps in total, i needed to try them out.

Results in:

Walk down (30kg weighted) 4.45minutes

run up (unweighted) 2.45 mins

Walk up (30kg weighted) 5.55mins

Certainly hurt, heart rate spiked real bad towards the end.