Hi Gaynor yes we know that you recently crossed the Canning we spoke previously. I will try to do my best to give the short version of how we are going to achieve the walking trek of the
Canning Stock Route unassisted. My husband and I are going to walk the whole trek unassisted by carrying large back packs and towing hiking trolley's, two back packs and two trolley's. 12 months of planning has gone into getting every last detail correct the most important is fitness to be able to carry the weight and on our endurance. The second consideration was the weight we would be carrying needed to be kept to a strict guideline.
So we have liaised with many people including survival experts from the army in regards to what we could use to keep all our necessities to a lighter weight. The we approached sponsors to provide us with items that we needed and this is what we have got.
HTI (Hydration Technology Innovation) have provided us with our
water desalination and filtration needs. They are used in the army and have been used around the world for natural disasters including Hurricane, earthquake disaster areas. They system works on reverse osmosis and get rid of 99.9% of all bacteria, and even filters ocean
water to
drinking water, to give you a rough idea I will be towing two of their 20L containers that filters the
water as I walk, It is quite involved and incredible the way it works, it is so perfect for what we need visit their website to see more about it. So our
water needs is covered, we still need to use the wells but the plan is which I won't go into all the details is I am carrying all the food and
water and hubby is carrying all the other supplies.
The second most important factor is food, we have been sponsored by many organisations with food resources. Including Survival Storehouse, Carmans,
Billabong Jerky, Our Organics, Uncle Ben's and Solar Fruit also donated was the
services of Inspired Nutrition and Dietics a highly respected nutritionist who worked out our dietry requirement not only for the trek but for now leading up to it with our training. I won't go into all the specifics as it is quite involved however with her guidance and with the help of the army, we have all our food worked out. It has consisted of dehydrated meals that are individually packed in vacuumm sealed bags. Each meal is proportion correctly for our weight consideration in carrying the whole lot and for our nutritional needs. And all the other sponsors listed above who have donated all our snack items has also been sorted into the weight consideration that we need to carry. All items have been taken out of their packaging and also vacuumed sealed to minimise the weight we are carrying.
Also as far as everything else all of which has been donated; we have a satellite phone,
first aid kit, clothing, tent, sleeping bags, collapsible buckets, trekking poles, cooking equipment. All extremely light weigh specialised equipment which I will list here every item has been taken into consideration for it weight. Tent (motor bike type 1.2kg) sleeping bags x 2 for -10 degrees 800gms each,
first aid 1.3kg, cooking equipment (Kelly Kettle no gas etc. needed) 1kg, collapsible buckets 150gm each x 2, clothing from Gondwana Clothing 2 x sets of clothing each 4.6 kg total, toiletries and miscellaneous items (plates etc.) 5.1kg.
Every item we are taking has ben meticulously thought out and sourced. Our sponsors have been amazing in knowing our weight restriction and have donated the best of their light weight equipment.
As far as what we can carry our training began last year in June where we were training for 2 hours a day (Mon-Fri) and 4 hours a day (Sat and Sun) for our 5000 km bicycle ride we did this year in April/May throughout WA for the same cause Suicide Awareness. Since completing the bicycle ride we new last year we were also going to do the
Canning Stock Route so our trainer has changed our work out routine to accommodate our fitness requirement for the trek. To give everyone an idea we tie car tyres to a rope and secure around our waist and drag them up and down
sand dunes, we also do a 1/12 hour gym work out every day to work on our muscles and we also have a work out routine we do at
the beach after the tyre pull every day, including carrying our back packs and towing our hiking trolleys fully weighed to what we are actually carrying on the trek. Now that it is getting hotter we work out in the morning between 5-6 then again at night for our outdoor work out between 6-8. A personal trainer has donated her time to help us get on top condition for the trek, she is also a qualified physiotherapist and sports trainer.
So in 7 months time we will be in perfect condition to undertake our task, the goal which we have achieved now is me carrying 40kg in my back pack and towing 50kg, I am currently doing that over our massive
sand dunes here in our fantastic coastal town of
Geraldton, and my husband is carrying 50kg and towing 60kg. Since we are able to achieve that now as part of our training we are continuing to train with those weights so we can maintain our fitness for the trek.
So that is how we are going to do it in a nutshell Gaynor, it is a lot more involved than I have stated but I have given you the short version of what we are doing in preparation and how we are going to achieve it. We are doing the trek unassisted, our film crew are just there to film/photograph our journey they will NOT be assisting us in any way what so ever, they won't be warning on coming cars, they can not give us food or
water, or assist in any form. We also have a film crew from Sunrise Channel 7 who will be coming to film us then airing our trek on their show, which is a fantastic opportunity for us to get our message across about suicide awareness. They too can not assist in anyway.
To see everything about our journey visit our website www.suicideawareness.simplesite and see how all of this is possible with our amazing sponsors all 35 of them, without their help in resourcing light weight equipment for us and also for donations to the film crew none of this would have been possible and we thank them all for their generosity.