Apple Tree Bay

By mid week, the 9 to 5 had lost its lustre and the teams were planning to walk again. The the mid range weather forecast looked pretty pleasant so 'The Waverton Ones' (TWO) and 'Walk this Way' (WTW) again called for volunteers to put one their boots and take on the track. This week the full complement of 'TWO' were able to take part, WTW lost a member to oversease travel, but still managed to field a strong half team.

With last weeks success still front of mind the teams chose to revist CP1 - CP2 (Cowan to Berowra) and continue on to compete CP2 - CP3 (Berowra to Apple Tree Bay), this would ensure almost all the team members had experience on the toughest section of the track (CP1 - CP2, Grade 5) and give the returning walkers a new section to consider.
First, the logistics. CP3 is in the heart of Ku-Ring-Gai national park and is subject to openeing and closing times. With track work planned for the North Shore Line easy public transport was out, so the team planned to travel by road. Bobbin head (the main section of the park adjacent to Apple Tree Bay) is advertised as opening at 6am and closing at 5:30pm so the timings needed to fit around this 11.5 hour window. The plan was to drop a car at Apple Tree Bay ($11 for a day ticket) then drive the team to Cowan station, walk back and transfer back to Cowan by car.

We met up at 6:30am, similar to last week, three cars this time headind to CP1.

CP1 - CP2 3.5hrs 1900cals (men); 2000cals (women)
As this was a re-cap from last weeks walk most of the detail is the same. Worth noting is that the weather was very similar and so was the calorie count. The observant will notice that the girls burnt more than the boys this week. This is due to loading up the team gazelle with all the water bottles in an attempt to slow her down a bit, the result? - same speed, higher calorie burn due to the extra weight! (next week we'll try concrete!)
Also worth noting is that we tackled this section of the walk 30 mins faster than the first time, knowing the trail helped with planning the rest stops and the walking tempo.

Imagine, 30 mins off per section is 4 hours off the total time! (I don't think we'll realistically get a 4 hour advantage for having walked the track before the event, but there is clearly some benfit).We stoped at cafe Boccelli in Berowra (Berowra Waters Road, near Pacific Highway) for a spot of lunch (great lasagne and bacon and egg rolls!), and, of course, a cup of tea.

CP2 – CP3 4hrs 1500cals (men); 1800cals (women)

The first part of this section is on tarmac roads, quickly dropping you back down to a service trail that leads down into Berowra Valley Regional Park. We were refreshed and full of warm food so made quick progress following the track back to the turn off for ‘crosslands

’. We dropped down to the water and began to make our way alongside the mangroves and the gorgeous waterways – the track is fairly flat and easily managed.

This section really comes into its own once you reach the ‘meadow’ a wide flat expanse of reeds at the head 

of the creek. A boardwalk cuts through here leaving you with a feeling of being suspended above the veget

ation and making a great contrast of straight lines and sharp angles with the curves of the landscape. At the end of the walkway an interesting looking bridge is suspended above one creek, inviting exploration but alas! the trailwalker track heads off in another direction.
Lyrebird gully is the nicest section of the trail we have found so far. The track stays close to the stream, crossing it in numerous places (watch out for the hash marks cut into the rocks to give you a firm footing) and precariously hugs the stream banks offering a short but exciting slip into chilly water for the unwary!There were a few nervous comments about ‘doing this bit in the dark!’ and we replanned our strategy for illuminating the night time sections yet again.
Lyrebird Gully allows you to forget your blisters for a moment – whilst the walking requires concentration it is not steep, and the team wondered aloud just why this section is graded a ‘4’.

The climb out of the gully is, in short, a complete bastard. No amount of hot sweet tea is going to make this look nice. The road is tarmac, which should help but doesn’t, and it goes up at an insane angle, forever.

Once you’ve conquered it, a quick hop over the footbridge takes you across the freeway and railway – then onto some sealed paths through suburbia for 20 mins or so and you are back into the national park.

The descent to Apple tree bay is lovely (not as nice as Lyrebird Gully, but a lot nicer than that bloody hill). Before you know it you are in CP3

Summary

These 2 sections were about 27km we completed the walk in 7.5hrs which left us 90mins in case there were gates that were locked at Bobbin Head (we didn’t see any but they may well hide during the day time).

We burned between 3400 and 3800 calories (depending on how much water you were carrying!).

Many team members used walking poles (1 each, we haven’t experimented with 2 yet!) and they really help – particularly for those with sore knees. A couple of us also tried gloves (fingerless cycle gloves worked well) these were of some use in the day, but could prove important in the dark when grabbing for hand holds you can’t see.