On the 15th of August 2016 I will be embarking on a solo hike from my home in Mt Perry to Toowoomba. The hike is 385km long and will take 28 days for me to complete. I will arrive in Toowoomba on the 14th of September. Each road is in honour of one of the friends I lost to brain cancer. I would not have had the opportunity to know these great people if it wasn’t for my own diagnosis of cancer. Their lives continue to touch my own every single day. This is the route I plan to take:
Road:Mount Perry Gayndah Road. Walking in honour of Rohan Kenny.
Mount Perry
Mingo
Byrnestown
Road:A3 Walking in honour of Garry Knuckles Lawton
Ban Ban Springs
Booubyjan
Tansey
Road:49 Walking in honour of Mike Gabriel
Goomeri via Manyung
Murgon via Flicks xing
Wondai
Charlestown
Tingoora
Wooroolin
Memerambi
Crawford
Road:96 Walking in honour of Mick Keane
Kingaroy
Coolaburnia
Hodgleigh
Barker Crk Flat
Road:A3 Walking in honour of Steve Harth
Nanango
Yarraman
Upper Yarraman
Cooyar
Wutul
Glenaven
Pinelands
Crows Nest
Hampton
Geham
Carbarlah
Highfield
Towoomba
Legs
Mount Perry – Ban Ban Springs = 4 days @ 17.5km → 70km
Ban Ban Springs – Booubyjan = 2 days @ 13km → 26km
Booubyjan – Tansey = 3 days @ 13.3km → 40km
Tansey – Goomeri = 1 day @ 18km → 18km
Goomeri – Murgon = 1 day @ 16.9km → 16.9km
Murgon – Wondai = 1 day @ 14.9km → 14.9km
Wondai – Wooroolin = 1 day @ 13.4km → 13.4km
Wooroolin – Kingaroy = 1 day @ 17km → 17km
Kingaroy – Nanango = 2 days @ 12.5km → 24km
Nanango – Yarraman = 2 days @ 10.5km → 21.1km
Yarraman – Upper Yarraman = 1 day @12.4km → 12.4km
Upper Yarraman – Cooyar = 1 day @ 15km → 15km
Cooyar – Glenaven = 2 days @ 15km → 30km
Glenaven – Pinelands =1 day @ 13.6km → 13.6km
Pinelands – Crows Nest = 1 day @ 8.1km → 8.1km
Crows Nest – Hampton = 1 day @ 11.8km → 11.8km
Hampton – Carbarlah = 1 day @ 12.9km → 12.9km
Carbarlah – Toowoomba = 2 days @ 10km → 20km
TOTAL 28 days 385.1km
481 375 steps
Food for the Hike
These are the food caches that took much organisation to prepare. I estimate it took at least 50 hours to get this right. Everything was checked, checked and rechecked. There are seven caches in total (I still need to get boxes for a few of them. I will leave these at pre-arranged locations so I can collect the contents for the next section of the hike. Generally they are around 4 days apart.
This is how the caches started out
The photo below is a typical provision pack for one day.
Breakfast is homemade muesli mixed with powdered milk, so all I have to do is ad water
Snacks are dried fruit, lollies, Carman’s muesli bar (it’s the most natural brand on the market) and soy chips
Lunch is 9 grain vita wheat with tuna and cheese
Dinner is pasta packet with dried vegetables.
The pasta packets and tins of baked beans are the only things that are a bit iffy in terms of nutritional quality, but I’ve only got 2 pasta packets over the entire journey and I think baked beans 3 times. I tried really hard to avoid too much processed stuff because I don’t like it and don’t want to spend the entire trip eating stuff I wouldn’t normally eat at home.
My Fowlers Vacola food dehydrator has been running overtime for a few weeks. I even cooked and dried my own spaghetti bolognaise! The next photo is the drier with some fruit ready to be taken out. I did around 20kg of it. The pineapple tastes amazing! The cores must be removed before drying because they go awfully hard and you can’t eat them. I blanched all the vegies prior to drying them. I actually won this drier in a raffle at my garden club years ago, so it only cost me $20. Bargain!
gbmsurvivor 