Urban Crag Your Kangaroo Point Cliffs Rock Climbing specialists
Kokoda Challenge
Welcome Back Wayne
Today Wayne returned for the first time since our Border Track outing. He’s been busy jet setting around the world for both work and pleasure, although apparently he’s yet to master the art of the junket and actually did work while in India and the US. Wayne show true commitment to Team Insanity (and a [...]
Mount Stupid
Our first training run for the Queens Birthday long weekend was a trek up Mount Barney via Logan’s Ridge. Nicole, Brock and Shane where joined by Dennis who was dubbed expedition leader (as he had the directions, map & GPS) and temporarily insane … so he fitted in quite nicely. The day began at [...]
Back in the day
Been a while since the last Urban Crag write up. Here are some memorable highlights since then: Fraser takes a whipper while leading Kiwi. At the crux, before Fraser could warn Shane (his belayer), he slipped and fell an impressive 4 metres. Meanwhile, Shane although caught off guard with no warning of the fall was [...]
All Hills, All The Way
Hellfire Pass and Polly’s Hill Practice There are four truly big hills on the Kokoda Challenge course: in Mudgeeraba Forest, Fairview Mountain, "Polly’s" hill, and the hill at Beechmont (up through Black Shoot and down via the Hellfire Pass). So what did Team Insanity do on the weekend? Tackle two of them. The KC [...]
Nerang State Forest And Mt Nathan
Team Insanity headed to the Gold Coast and onto the KC course for the second time to practice the Nerang State Forest sections (the last 17.5 kilometres of the course) and we’d picked an excellent weekend to opt for a later start (8.45 am as opposed to anything closer to dawn) given the crisp [...]
And They Call This A Lookout?
Team Insanity’s training session last weekend was just a short, local one. Wayne was off on another work trip (some people have interesting sounding jobs… ) so Brock, Shane and I meet at the Mt Gravatt Outlook on Sunday morning with a map and a rough plan of walking for a few hours. All in [...]
How Many Times Do We Have To Cross This Creek?
It’s 11 weeks out from the 2008 Kokoda Challenge and Team Insanity has finally had a training session with all four members present! Our plan for the Labour Day Monday was to walk to Border Track between Lamington National Park and Binna Burra in the morning, then proceed over to the KC course to tackle [...]
That Big Hill Is My Buddy
Section 1: Mudgeeraba to Hinterland Leisure Trail, 3.5km (Cumulative Distance = 3.5km) It was rather ‘fresh’ outside early on Saturday morning, but the nearly 700 people present were all fairly upbeat about the mammoth task ahead of them. Luckily the first 3.5km were fairly flat and consisted mostly paved footpath. We also had a police [...]
A Band Apart
The following story joins Team Vodka at the checkpoint 6 site of the Numinbah Environmental Centre. After 43.5 kms we were at the the Enviro centre and our spirits were high. We had reached the make or break section that the organisers had warned us about. We were nearly half way and with the second [...]
The Glasshouse Dash
After the Story Bridge climb Team Vodka assembled at 9am to do one final outdoor training session. We ventured up to the Glasshouse Mountains again but with the aim of climbing the smaller mountains. The aim of this weekend was to pull back on the training to give the body enough rest before race day. [...]
Once in a blue moonwalk
Team Vodka practised on part of the actual Kokoda Challenge course. On race day we anticipate walking in the dark from Polly’s Country Kitchen and so planned a 17km walk from Polly’s at sunset on Saturday. The course we were practising in the dark heads West from Polly’s to the Numinbah Environmental Centre. From the [...]
Suck it Up! Sunshine Coast Great Walk
Team Vodka plus Support Crew member Monny headed north to the Sunshine Coast on Sunday 17th July, 2007. Their training today was on first section of the Sunshine Coast Great Walk. This section starts from Baroon Pocket Dam and ends at Flaxton Walkers Camp, 16.5kms away. Our aim today was to do the return trip [...]
Peasants Ridge – Mount Barney
Known as one of the hardest hikes and a mecca for bushwalkers in South East Queensland, Team Vodka and the Fantastic Four ascended one of the highest peaks in the region: Mount Barney (1365m?). A carefully planned itinerary was laid out and executed almost flawlessly – the Bruiser and Troy Boy encountered a locked gate [...]
Mini Kokoda race
Team Vodka arrived at the Nerang Girl’s Guide club bright and early at 5:30am. A large gathering had already arrived and in the end over 300 competitors for the Mini Kokoda race (25km) and a dozen or so more for the Tamborine Trek solo and relay races (both 62km). Although it was quite cool in [...]
Dave’s Circuit, Binna Burra: Attack of the Leeches
Team Vodka went to Binna Burra and did the 12km Dave’s Circuit within 2 hours and 28 minutes. Living up to its rainforest name, Lamington National Park was wet despite it not raining today. This to our dismay, brought out the nasties, in particular blood sucking leeches. A comedy of errors cursed me all day [...]
Mini Kokoda trail
As part of Team Vodka’s Kokoda Challenge training, we will be entering in the Tamborine Trek Mini Kokoda competition. On Sunday 13th May, 2007 we did the 27km hike through the Nerang State Forest to practice the actual course of the Mini Kokoda hike. The track is along 4WD gravel roads, but was mostly uneven [...]
Grimm’s Stairytales
Unfortunately the lights were out last night in the area we had setup top rope on: Move Over Brussel Sprout (20), Far Out Brussel Sprout (20!), Blue Veined Custard Shooter (20), Arrow (19), Lost In Space (17). Despite this, the crew showed up in full force: Prince Charming (the Grasshopper), Little Red Riding Hood (Red), [...]
Mount Tibrogargan: Assault of the Climbateers
As part of Team Vodka’s Kokoda Challenge training program, we embarked on a hike up Mount Tibrogargan. Team Vodka (The Bruiser, The Giggler, The Grasshopper and Nice) met Team Faz (The Teacher, his brother Ben and two Canadian teachers) on their descent. Team Faz had left Brisbane by 6am and had a 2 hour [...]