Doing the TGO Challenge has been an absolute blast from start to finish. All the planning and preparation paid off and I found I was able to complete the walk as planned with no major hiccups. It was tough, yes, and some of the terrain was difficult but not unfamiliar to me having done an amount of off-track walking in Tasmania. There were surprises, the biggest being the mild weather. It would have been a lot harder if the weather from last year had repeated this year.

Full report and photos coming soon!

Looking Back towards Glen Strathfarrar on day 3 of the Challenge:

Just had dinner – Pasta Bolognese and will head for bed soon. Camped next to the river, see photo.

Less said the better. No problems with any of the connections or volcanic ash. Had a decent meal on Tuesday night then passed out and had a great sleep in the B&B – the dinner before that was on Sunday night (not counting airline food)

The A380 from Singapore was very good, a bit smoother than the 747, and it has a tail webcam you can access from the inseat entertainment unit. Great for watching dawn over Russia at 12000 metres, I recomend it!

Today was cool and wet. Great training weather for the TGO. Only a few days now, and I’m on my way!

Cool overnight and we awoke to the patter of light rain on the window. Didn’t get away as early as I had planned, but still got some decent kilometres in. This route is on trails from home, and does a circuit of the Cleland wildlife park perimeter track and has some decent steep slopes to ascend and descend. The sun popped out from behind the clouds after about an hour and I was walking in a light thermal top for most of the hike. When the (cool) wind blew it was very pleasant, but otherwise a bit warm and sunny for Challenge training. Leaving in a couple of weeks, still hoping for some cold wet weather!

Now that I have my final route submitted and vetted, I have sent the GPX off to SatMap for a custom trail map to be built around it. Turnaround is about a week, so no problems there I hope.

Less hopeful is my aspiration to use an Aarn Mountain Magic Pack. Originally, stock was due in March, then delayed until early April, now they are expected late April. I just can’t wait until then, there is only a weeks gap between the expected date of arrival and my departure for the challenge, and I don’t have another suitable pack to fall back on. Sadly, I’m going to have to cancel my order and find something else at short notice. Currently looking at a larger Osprey Exos. I looked seriously at the Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus but they too are out of stock in my size, and shipping to Australia would be a couple of weeks in any case, making it all a bit tight. The Exos is at least sold in Australia and I already have the 34L version, so I am familiar with the pack and know that it’s a good fit for me.

My food order is in with Outdoors Grub and will be shipped a week or so before the Challenge start to three pickup points on my route. The PHD Minimus down Jacket has arrived at last. Very happy with that. My tent is seam-sealed, packed and ready to roll.

Footwear remains undecided. I have been training a lot in trail shoes, but the expectations of cold and wet conditions after a long and heavy winter in the UK is causing me considerable doubt. I may land up taking both boots and trail shoes, leaving the crocs behind.

Other minor preparations and training continue… Right now, I just wish I was at the start.

This was a good solid walk. There is a long downhill section on the appropriately named ‘Long Ridge Track’ at the end of which I turned around and walked back up almost to the top and turned of on the Bartril Spur Track which winds its way through the valley and out to the road not far from the start.

It got a bit warmer than ideal, but this was delightful walking through beautiful late summer scenery. There was constant birdcall, several Koalas, the Echidna and plenty of busy ants and the odd skink to observe along the way.

I ordered the camera mount from PacerPole UK to provide a lightweight stability aid for my camera on the TGO Challenge. When it arrived I realised that although it was light weight, attaching and removing the camera from it involved screwing it into the 1/4″ tripod thread on the base of the camera and tightening the locking ring. Too fiddly by far if you intend on regular use. Additionally, the locking ring did not sit flat on the GF1’s base as the tripod mount sits fractionally proud of it, thereby leaving a small contact area. Not really ideal. Having the 1/4″ thread is a bonus, because a lot of quick-connect fittings can use that thread.

After having a good look around the web and at my existing tripod setups, I settled on a couple of items from Kirk Enterprises: The PZ-130 Camera Plate for the GF1 (plates are available for most cameras), and the QRC-1 1″ Quick Release Clamp

The plate fits to the tripod mount of the camera and stays there – it’s small and light and allows all normal access to battery and SD card etc.

The Pole-end components:

The Clamp has a standard 1/4″ thread so it will mount on the threaded post of the PacerPole camera mount. As luck would have it, the length of the thread is exactly right, and after removing the locking ring from the camera mount, it sits down nice and tight and almost aligned N/S with the pole grip.

Mounting the camera mount onto the PacerPole involves removing a little filler plug and pushing the bayonet firmly into the exposed socket:

And the completed mount with camera attached:

Weight of the completed mount is 58g and there’s another 20g in the camera plate. I don’t expect to leave the mount on the pole all the time, but it’s certainly light enough to do so if required.

Its a bit of a learning curve, but I managed to not spread silicone all over the place using just the nozzle on the permatex. Once the main seams were done I got to work on the ridge vents. The angle seam must be hard for the factory as it looks a little crinkly, but it took the silicone well. I made sure to cover the threads in a few places where the sewing over-ran the edge of the vent opening.

I also sealed both outside faces of the centre pole sleeve – you can just see a bit of reflection in the photo above.

Next it was time to do all the crossing pole and guy attachment points. These I gave a generous coating on the outside, as well as the inside – like Sectionhiker, I think these are the most likely areas for leaks as it would be possible for water to find it’s way under the pad and then find an unprotected stitch underneath.

I didn’t do the lower ground level vents on each end. I figure that if water ingress is an issue there, it will be the least of my problems!

I also applied some ‘dots’ to the floor of the tent in an attempt to slow down the sleeping pad creep of the tent. I’m not sure if I should apply some to the NeoAir as well. Thanks to Franco Darioli for the suggestion.

My walking has included a 6kg backpack for a couple of weeks, and the plan is to gradually increase the distances as the weather cools and the time until the challenge reduces, culminating closer to my departure date with a couple of 2-3 day jaunts with tent.

I’ve also added a pair of Pacer Poles to my walking equipment and have found them to be quite excellent at involving my upper body in the walking. I’m not sure that they reduce the work, but they do spread it around.