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Sounds interesting, seeing as I work just up the road I will probably pop in and check it out at lunch.
Rather than 'apply' a cream or similar, I'd look to be fixing it internally with an antihistamine if it gets really bad and won't go away. As Eve says, it can probably be put down to increased blood flow at that particular hour of the morning and will likely ease as your body clock adjusts. I'd definitely be taking some antihistamines with you to Kokoda though, you may react badly to the humidity if you are having this reaction in the relative dry of Aus.
As Eve says above, you need to be very much up front with yourself and your Doctor and ask them to give you the brutal, honest truth.
As someone who has been diagnosed myself, I know the process that one must go through in order to determine specific degrees of asthma. If you have medium to severe asthma, I would suggest you forget about embarking on something like this unless you book a special trip and take a lot longer to do it. If it is mild to medium, adequate training and a good understanding of your limits (along with meds!) may help you make the trek.
Remember though, you will be climbing in foreign conditions. Mountain air is thin, so your lung capacity must be much higher than the average non-asthmatic, not just 'good considering you're asthmatic'. On top of this, the air will be very humid, especially at the lower altitudes and this can make it harder for your lungs to extract the required oxygen for aerobic exercise. Once again, the focus here must be higher than average lung capacity.
I don't want to be the bearer of bad news here, but it is better that you hear the truth than suffer on the track, or worse.
Don't go to a GP to have your asthma levels diagnosed, go to a lung specialist who has expertise in the area of asthma (this is not cheap). If you don't you will not understand how severe your asthma is. GP's are almost never equipped with the right expertise or equipment to make a judgement call in this area.
Don't take this lightly, it really can be a case of life or death.
I just read about it here.
So sad. Condolences to the family.
Sounds like a nice, cruisy training walk! I'm going to get out and go for a few walks for training also, but it looks like my first 'walk' is a three day circuit from Perrys to Lockleys and back!
A quick note about carrying stuff on the outside of your packs (poles, sandals etc) is that anything that swings can make your life a little harder when you walk as the inertia tends to mean you over-rotate when walking. This doesn't sound like a lot when walking a short distance or over flat ground etc, but when you are at the point of exhaustion you will probably feel differently. With that said, an occy strap or just clever use of the straps on your day packs to keep everything in tight and secure will make short work of that.
Wow
You're at the opposite end of the spectrum to my trekking partner and I – we travel light. Meaning we'll be doing Kokoda with a grand total of around 12kg of gear each including water!
With that said though, there is no 'wrong' way of doing things, we just like to rough it. No sleeping mats or deodorant and very minimal spares of anything. We have mostly pro-gear in order to minimise gear failure so extra bootlaces etc are a waste in our eyes. You guys should have no troubles if anything is sprung on you though, and everything you're packing looks perfectly sensible and practical. I guess you're both taking porters seeing as you have day packs factored in above?
But if it was me, I'd leave the iPod, Sudoko book and playing cards at home (or at the hotel if you want to use them on the plane) as they are 'unnecessary' extra weight and I dare say you won't have time to use them on the track.
I'm thinking of doing it with my girlfriend for kicks. 25k's isn't that long. Will most likely head off from Milson's Point I'd say due to it being the closest one to where we live.
Hi all,
Just wanted to respond and say that we did the trek last weekend. My partner and I overloaded our packs (mine by two and a half times!) to 20kg and 25kg and managed to walk it without too much of an issue, although the uphill at Perry's at the end of the day was a fair struggle for me (all those damn stairs!) and took me about half an hour longer than I would have liked.
All in all though, this is a HARD trek, but well worth it. The views from Lockley's Pylon back over Blue Gum Forest towards Perry's Lookdown are spectacular and the sense of achievement at having finished a trek of that size and difficulty was phenomenal. Although I haven't made it as far as Kokoda yet, I can imagine that the difficulty we faced in making this trek with such heavily loaded packs should be close to the mark.
One point worth noting though, is that NSW Parks and Wildlife have confirmed for me that you may stay at the 'single night only' campsites for longer than one night if each day you clear all of your gear off the campsite and set it up again later in the day to allow other campers to use the site instead.
Cheers,
Mark
If it was me, I'd be doing longer but less intensive training in the mean time. So go for a long walk as opposed to doing a run. Those little muscles will fix themselves, and so long as you haven't done yourself any lasting damage it will heal up on its own. With regards to pulled muscles, you should ease off on the stretching of the affected muscle and continue with the heat therapy. Go to a physio if you can and get them to massage the damage out (although this is not always possible).
You will be fine! It takes alot longer than 4.5 weeks to lose significant levels of fitness. Keep eating well, maintain a high level of protein intake (this will help repair the muscle if it is damaged) and keep it relaxed but mobile.
In time it will heal, and you will be thankful that you let it!
Re smarttraveller.org, register whenever is convenient for you. I've made plenty of OS trips and they really only want to know the dates that you will be out of the country and which country/countries you will be travelling to so that they can find you in case of an emergency. So you can register 12 months out, or the day before. Whatever works for you.
Also, big fan of the glucose jelly beans. They're a great pick me up when you hit a low and when eaten in hot / humid conditions they become a lot easier to chew. Unlike Skittles, which I can't stress enough are a bad idea to take as they will make your jaw sore if you need a fair few of them to get you through the day!
Tom – Yeah I know that it is a single night only camp site, but often those places are fine with multiple consecutive nights so long as each day you pack up and move off the site itself, thus allowing anyone else who comes along to take your spot. I'll give the Park a call and check with them before we go though.
Peter – I think we'll go with our own water tank based on there only being an old tank as you say.
Thanks for the confirmation guys, the only down side is the lack of fresh water at the campsite. I'm currently thinking that I'll get a water tank, fill it with fresh water (probably about 40L worth?) and stick it in the back of the car which I can park near the camp site. That way we have a source to refill each night and a place to ditch food. Its crude, but should do the trick for three days. We'll be doing a one day trial run before then though just to scope out the area and gauge our fitness.
Has anyone camped at Perry's? What is it like? Does it get busy?
Fluppy – You're more than welcome to come down during the long weekend in October and run through it with us!
