Baxter Creek waterfall

Went for a short hike on Sunday, in the Blackall Ranges, west of the Sunshine Coast. This one was about half an hour down a steep hill with switchbacks, over a small suspension bridge, another 100m to a waterfall. If you look really carefully, you can see Shane in the picture! It was a very enjoyable walk, except the water at the bottom was very murky and brown, I certainly wouldn't recommend drinking it!

Inline skating at Lake Kawana

We just discovered that a new area on the Sunshine Coast, Lake Kawana, (it used to be swampland and now is a big lake where rowing regattas are held,) has some wonderful wide tracks along the water: perfect for inline skating. It's great to be on skates again!

Swimming pool on a beach?

Went for a run this morning at the beach, in a swimming pool. This is the new pool right on Kings Beach, it is saltwater and fantastic - the beach is in the background.

As my introduction to running 7 weeks ago resulted in agonising, long-lasting painful shin splints, I am now running in the pool. Much more gentle.

Mitchell in play mode !

Mitchell's favorite pose on the beach.... ready for anything.

Climbing Mount Beerwah

Picture a beautiful sunny day. Imagine very high humidity and around 30C+ degrees. 7 of us decided to hike up Mount Beerwah, a 556m high member of the Glass House Mountains on the Sunshine Coast. Shane and I, Lee (our personal trainer), his girlfriend Laurie, Sal (fellow bootcamp participant) and her husband Cam, and Nat (fellow bootcamp-ee and upcoming NZ ski trip buddy for me!) embarked on this very scary journey. Well, very scary for the girls, the guys enjoyed it mostly.

We began around 7am, bushwalking up a stone step track for about 700m and coming to quite a sheer rock face, which we had to climb. Nat clambered up with no problem, followed by Shane and Lee. Then, me, Laurie and Sal. It was a struggle, hanging on by my bare fingertips, cramps in my calves....couldn't come back down, had to keep perservering up. It was terrifying - I slipped - and almost knocked Laurie down. I was wearing clunky hiking boots (sneakers would have served me better) and couldn't find any toe holds or feel the rock with my toes. There was nowhere to have a break. I was stuck! Lee and Shane couldn't help, as they had no place to secure themselves and give me hand up. My adrenaline was really kicking in - and fear.

Along came a friendly stranger, Dennis, a guy in his 50's, he instilled calm and confidence in me and helped me up a bit. (he does this track 3-4 times a week). He was like a mountain goat, and he saved me! Everyone said, this was the hardest part. Guess what, it wasn't. It continued for another 200 metres. The crevices were slippery and moist from recent rain, unfortunately they were also the best places to climb up! Looking back now, I know that had I kept my momentum going, it would have been heaps easier. As it was I got about 3/4 way up and was so fatigued I had to stop there. All I could think about was, I have to come down at some point!! I found a spot of shade and jammed my feet into some rocks and just hung out there for about an hour - I sent the others on, they perservered and got to the summit.

The way down was MUCH easier but still quite difficult, especially near the very end, we really had a team effort to help us get down. The exposed rocks were on fire -burning hot, almost blistering my palms. It was almost 12noon. A quick visit to the pub in Beerwah for a drink (me: water, Shane: beer, Lee: soft drink - does that tell you something??) and off home to lick my wounds - cuts and scrapes on my hands, bruises and cuts on my knees and legs. At least I wasn't sunburnt - next weekend let's go somewhere a bit tamer.

And after all that, I barely took any photos....Next time.