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Martha
Rafaela, Lauren
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Blue Mountains 2008: Mat's Birthday
Nor think, to die dejects
my lofty Mind; All that I dread, is
leaving you behind! Rather than so,
ah let me still survive, And burn up
Cupid's Flames,-but burn alive. |
| Once again, Friday October 17 to 19,2008
it was time to head up to the Blue Mountains for a reunion
before the heat of summer would hit Sydney. Almost a yearly
ritual, this time our ostensible reason for getting a
couple of families together was Mat's birthday and of
course to simply have fun and do the 6foot track once
again. Will kindly arranged Caroline's place near Blackheath
as a venue and we all attempted to meet Friday for a long
weekend. |
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| This time five families, Crockers, Dagassans, Donalds,
Fumeauxs, Rosenbaums and Bryan and Nola gathered for a
record turn-out of 20 people including 10 children with
the biggest age-range yet (from new-born to the oldest
Max). Here are the kids in order of age: Gabriel (about
3months young), Martha, Noemi, Rafaela, Zoe, Luke, Chris,
Roman, Lauren, Max. And here are the Adults in order of
age - wait a second - : just kidding! There appears to
be no end in the production line....wondere who will be
next? |
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| People turned up gradually on Friday and by late afternoon
the house slowly started to fill with cheerful laughter.
Friday was a day to relax; spent mostly cooking Mat's
chicken soup and Louise's goulash. The kids had fun just
playing around the house and the weather was on its best
behavior with lots of sun. Louise had time for a quick
ride down to the Megalong Valley tea rooms and back up
again for a bit of stress relieve. The ten kilometer ride
took about one and a half hour for future references.
The plan was to leave early Saturday morning to complete
the 6foot track in time for lunch and then celebrate Mat's
birthday with a nice barbecue and some wild spirits. We
didn't really know how many riders would participate but
as it turned out a record number of 6 people (Bryan,Gary,
Mat, Patrick, Will and Roman) were keen as mustard to
attempt one of the fastest rides the valley had ever seen
- I think?. Gary's people mover - the (t)rusty old Tarago
- was put through its paces one more time and accommodated
an unprecedented crowd of 6 riders (Bryan, Gary, Mat,
Patrick, Roman and Will ) and 6 bikes. In order to accomplish
the impossible, Uts, with support from Lauren and Max,
kindly minded Noemi and Zoe (don't forget to pay them
the bonus pocket money Uts!) while Nola and Louise helped
to shepherd a total of 9 kids at the Blackheat playground.
Larissa was busy with Gabriel - the youngest edition to
our team. As a result we promised to be 'fast' with a
predicted ETA of 13:00 O’clock, but we knew we could
do better than that! |
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| Starting time for the ride was set at 6AM from the Jenolan
cave end, which meant we were trying to get six grown-ups
out of bed on the weekend at 4:30AM. The impossible happened
and we all managed to get up and ready, have bacon and
eggs, hit only one smallish kangaroo amongst the throngs
of marsupials lining the road (and only dent Gary's car
lightly!) in time to start the ride 5 minutes past 6AM
with the first rays of light touching the horizon in cold
but pleasant condition. The cool conditions were perfect
for the first 90 minutes which got us down from the heights
of the Jenolan caves to the valley below for the traditional
'lunch' break at the Cox River. We hardly stopped at this
first mainly downhill part of the 6foot track. After a
3 month break from active life in Greece, Bryan kept pace
nicely and when we looked at our watches near the Cox
River it was only 8 AM. The river was carrying a lot of
water compared to last year when it was completely dried
out. Crossing it was quite difficult this year but once
we picked our drenched bodies up at the other side the
single track was beckoning. This is what Mat and I had
been training for at Manly Dam for the past month and
we were going to do it in style this year. |
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| Since we were quite early and it was still relatively
cool when we hit the single trek, it appeared somewhat
easier then last year. At least until Gary decided to
fall of his bike on the wrong side of the single-trek
and tumble down the step side into the bushes. He punctured
- not his tube – but rather his leg which swelled
like a balloon. Luckily, Bryan had his first aid kid and
patched Gary's punctured leg so that he could continue.
Meanwhile, a longish red-belly snake was blocking traffic
further up the trail and we stopped to tell a few hikers
not to step on it. After this last natural obstacle we
flew past the gates in record time and hit the Megalong
valley road about 10:30AM. By this time Patrick and Mat
were going strong with Roman trying to keep up and Bryan,
Gary and Will bringing up the rear. The 8km to the tea
room dragged on a bit and as usual we were tempted to
call it a day with scons and tea. But not this time, just
a quick stop for a snack and then we were off, heading
towards the last hurdle - the big hill leading up to Blackheath.
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| The final stage of the 6foot track from the tea rooms
to the top of the Blue Mountain escarpment is just under
10km long with a continuous uphill section of about 6km
starting around about the Megalong campground on the way
up to Blackheath. Somewhat refreshed, Mat Patrick and
Roman pressed ahead to show the girls waiting with the
kids above that we could finish before lunch time as promised.
This was the big hill stage of our tour de Blue Mountains
and Patrick was crowned the Mountain king, as the first
one to top out of the valley. Mat decided that it was
time to test his chain and spend 30 minutes trying to
fix it without tools. It’s a technical mystery how
he gingerly managed to hold his chain together for last
cruel 5km of uphill struggle. |
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| Luckily, Patrick decided to take a wrong turn at the
end of the hill section and kept going to Blackheath until
he realized that the street numbers where heading in the
wrong direction. In short, we managed to clock back in
at 12:30 with a turn-around time of four and a half hours.
Not bad,considering that it was getting very hot on the
uphill section by lunch time. After a quick shower and
the save arrival of Mat and Patrick it was time to check
if there were any survivors. I hopped in the car and headed
down the mountain again to find that Gary had almost conquered
the hill with his busted leg: badge of valor goes to Gary!
Then I keep going further down the mountain until I ran
into what was left of Bryan; with Will as chaperone enjoying
his mate getting punished. “How far is it?”
where his first words, but I didn’t have the heart
to tell him the truth ! I could see the his mind briefly
ponder a lift to the top of the valley: "Should I
?" Will, made sure that he never really had a choice.
So off I went back up the mountain checking on them in
the rear view mirror; by that time the sun was merciless.... |
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| It was some time after 13:00 O’clock when
Will, with what was left of Bryan, finally arrived back
at the homestead; totally exhausted but very happy.
And the award for 'Best Effort' goes to: After 3 months
in Greece: Bryan !
The girls but in an equally stelar performance with
the kids at the playground and now it was our time to
look after the children. The Katoomba
Aquatic center was the perfect venue for soar limbs,
where the kids splashed about and we discovered an amazing
spa path that we need to visit more often. The day finally
closed with a barbecue and Uts scrumptious chocolate
cake. |
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| Sunday broke early again with Louise heading down
into the Megalong for a quick ride and Will taking Martha
for a spin to Blackheath. The final day was for horse
riding and after we backed up and cleaned the house
we headed down the mountains one more time to the Werrberri
stables. Catering for all age, the first group Zoe,
Noemi and Rafaela went for a quick 10 minute ride on
big horses. The big boys and girls: Lauren, Luke, Max,
Roman and Chris went for half an hour while Louise went
for an hour with a more experienced group. We all reassembled
back at the team rooms for scones and Devonshire tea
to round up the weekend.
The END.
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| Chocolate Raspberry Tart courtesy of Uts
Ingredients:
1/2 cup raspberry syrup (made by boiling raspberries
in a pan on the stove and just using the liquid)
1/2 cup pure icing sugar
1/2 cup ground walnuts
6 tbsp softened butter
1/3 cup cocoa
1 1/4 cup heavy thickened cream (lo cal of course) NOT!!!!
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups dark chocolate roughly chopped
Directions:
Crust: Please note I didn't use this
recipe in the mountains because of the questionable
oven but I have used this recipe and it's fab (ask Bryan
and Nola)
Preheat oven to 200 Celcius, Beat flour, icing sugar,
nuts , butter and cocoa in large mixing bowl until soft
dough forms. Press dogh into bottom and up side of an
ungreased 9 inch tart pan with removble bottom. Bake
for 12-14 minutes. Cool completely in pan.
Filling: Combine cream and granulated
sugar in medium saucepan and bring to boil, stirring
occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate and
raspberry syrup. Beat until smooth. Transfer to a small
mixing bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 45min-1hour.
Beat again for 20-30 secs. Spoon or pour into crust.
Refrigerate until firm (at least a couple of hours).
Remove from side of pan.
NOTE: works well if you make the day before or early
the day of.
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For Megalong
Horse Riding go here:
http://australianbluehorserides.com.au/
Katoomba
Aquatic Center:
Katoomba Sports and
Aquatic Centre
Phone: (02) 4780 5156
Fax: (02) 4782 5927
Email: leisurecentres@bmcc.nsw.gov.au
Roman
31 October 2008
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