We seek freedom, but to get it, we must take responsibility.

Gardening – you take the responsibility of rearing your own food, put in a bit of hard yakka and in return you can stay home eating instead of shopping.

If you want the freedom to express things through music, take the responsibility of playing everyday until the facility grows.

If you want to breath freely, give up smoking.

If you want the freedom to look the world in the eye, make an effort to act with honesty and integrity.

If you want the freedom to live in a world without racism, or greed, or environmental catastrophe, then take on the responsibility to help make it happen.

You end up gaining two freedoms.

When you finally take action on what concerns you, it's more like expressing a freedom than taking on a responsibility.

We did it!

Jak just sent this to the SCU teams:

It's bloody over!!

I'm sure those of us who lined up on the weekend 
are feeling a mix of emotions (not to mention 
physical ailments).

Regardless of how you went, I think you should 
all be proud of your efforts as even attempting 
such an event is beyond most people.

I would particularly like to congratulate the 
Coffs Harbour team who really gutsed it out with 
Dianne, Ruben and Emma all making it to the finish 
line (despite Ruben dawdling the last 5K in three
hours!) Steve McFarlane also put in an exceptional
 effort, despite losing the rest of his team to 
illness and injury, to finish

In term's of my own team it was a fantastic effort
 all round with Val and Felicity again proving 
that men really are the weaker sex, while Rob 
Baglin never ceases to amaze me as a quite achiever 
(who likes traffic lights).

And thank you to the wonderful support crew who kept
 our spirits up and our bodies together as best they 
could.

So who's up for the 2009 Kokoda Challenge?

Mr Jak Carroll
Course Coordinator, Sport Management 
(Surfing Studies)**
Southern Cross University

I'm just a bit too knackered, will post something later ...
cheers
Ruben

Tomorrow Di, Emma, Lisa and I are heading up the coast to get prepared for The Race which starts on Saturday.
I have been magnifying every twinge and ache in my mind, getting paranoid that I am going to pop out a kneecap or pull a ligament. However my stupendous Captain Di has covered all possibilities and arranged for us to get taped up to prevent us rolling ankles or twisting knees. Thank You Chris!!

Emma and I will try and keep everyone up to date via the Live Kokoda Updates (see the feed on the left of this page). Our Twitter names are, tregeagle and diemma.
If you would like to get mangled groans via a text message in the middle of the night, subscribe and be my guest.

We'll be finished this time next week! Holy cow!
The emails are starting to fly around the uni is writing articles about us and we're getting space in the local paper. We are all frantically making lists of stuff to do before the start. For example:

1. Monday - Arg! that's tomorrow.
2. Tuesday - Put together kit, be amazed by the amount of donations pouring in!!
3. Wednesday - Make sure gear is packed
4. Thursday - See physio, get ankle taped
5. Friday - 9am Heading up the coast
6. Saturday - 5.30am race registration opens. 7am race starts
7. Sunday - hopefully will finish the walk in under 32 hours and go eat and sleep at the Zenith not before having a much needed rest in the spa though.

You can track my teams (Southern Cross University Wanderers, team 66) progress on KMLTracks
. Obviously it won't work yet, unless I have a tracking device hidden on me that I am unaware of. I have my doubts about how well it will work, these Brisvegas companies can be a bit shonky... :P

John is another year older, well beyond second puberty now. Remember the day he battled King Kong and a T-rex? As I remember it he had his arse kicked by the little blonde woman when he gave King Kong a black eye....

After stacking my bicycle, pulling a wheely after work, I found a physio who did a great job of taping up my ankle. I had to skip the mini-kokoda on Sunday (Sorry team!!) but went ahead and did the ride.

It definitely deserved the title, "Old Farts Cycle".

I stuck the photos over on flickr. Some of which I expect I'll be regretting ...

I stayed at Surfers and met Matt at Nerang. We cycled up to Beaudesert and stayed the night in the pub. The next day we weaved our way around the Lindsay Highway. Lots of backroads and at one stage we had to lift the bikes over a padlocked gate and through a couple of fields. The Farmer was OK about it, luckily (I'm pretty sure he'd closed off a public right of way). We received lots of local advice on the way from people in pubs, traffic sign holding people, cows, dogs, children and cafe workers. Nearly all the advice was useless.

Rathdowney pub had a great $9 steak, mind you at that stage road-kill would have tasted good. After crossing the border near Mt Lindsay we spent a freezing night at Woodenbong. Woodenbong pub is another story altogether, freaky little town - I loved it, we drank too much beer and the warm fire was paradise.

The next day we headed along Summerland Way and turned up Cox's Lane which was the beginning of the Tunumbar NP peak trail. It is an excellent quality dirt track all the way up to the top and along and then down to the wet and bedraggled 'Iron Pot Creek' campsite.

Matt's knee was starting to get pretty painful by this stage but my ankle was holding up fine as long as I kept it strapped up. We spent a dark night in the forest and ate like kings.

The next day I got diarrhea and Matt could barely pedal.

We bailed out and slunk off to Kyogle at the bottom of the hills. From there we caught a train to Grafton. The guard on the train went mental when I asked where to put my bicycle, "WE ONLY HAVE TWO MINUTES!!WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR BIKES!!". Luckily we had dismantled them and boxed them that morning and they had been booked so he could not find a way to stop us from ruining his efficient little world. So we eventually made it to Grafton and cycled up to Lawrence (42k north). Well actually I cycled but Matt hitched a lift on account of his knee being fragged.

Luckily Matt is an expert at taping up his knees ... not

So that is pretty much it. Matt and I separated on the ferry, he got a bloke in a ute to give him a lift to Maclean and I pedaled down the Pacific Highway where Jay and the boys met me 40km later. My arse is now fully recovered, thank you.

What a geek. Here I am, a night on the Razz at Cav Avenue on the Gold Coast without my family in tow... and what do I do? Go talk to my self on my blog, hello me.

After stacking my bicycle on Thursday night, like a fool (I'll let someone else share that story in the comments). I have been limping around like a pirate all weekend. I had to bunk off doing the Mini-Kokoda which really sucked. I feel like a limping piratical blob after having hung around all day.

Di, Emma and Lisa did the +30k walk like arctic explorers, they faced the hardships, conquered hills (despite grinding knee bones) all with a smile. Or possibly slightly insane grins... grimaces? Luckily nobody had to sacrifice themselves for the good of the expedition, unless you include me, but the girls just said it was because I was a wuss.

Di did offer to sacrifice herself, "You can go on without me you know". Hah bloody cheek, she inveigles us all into this crazy scheme and then offers to hop off the wagon just when it really starts rolling. SCU Wanderers sticks together. That's what it is all about folks!

Even if we have to crawl over the finish line dragging each other by the nostrils!!

Now there is a bunch of photos attached, see below. I can't be stuffed making little thumbnails and linky bits and stuff. I'm heading out to grab a stiff drink and then I'll go find somewhere to read the second half of, "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" written by Laurie Lee and first published the year I was born. Thanks Cheri, I'm loving re-reading it.

Today [18th June] is Download Day!

VS

The third version of Firefox has been released today.
Firefox is synonymous with: security, stability and ease of use. If you want to try it out... it is only a small download and installing is a cinch.

If not, well that's fine too. There are much more important things to do with your time :)

Chris took a pic of Emma, Di and me - after she had made us walk up every single mountain between Crossmaglen and Coffs. That was last week, this weekend we are all heading up to the Gold Coast hinterland to take part in the Mini Kokoda on Sunday. A 30km walk up and down the mountains. Then on Monday I am meeting Matt somewhere on the Goldcoast. We will then start cycling inland before heading down the dividing range (via pubs of course).

I'm a bit ditsy today so here is my checklist for everyone else to remind me....

1. er...
2. get a spare gear cable for bicycle
3. put together toolkit
4. post Galens' letter
5. Battery for bike computer
6. foot doctor@12
7. find out where to meet Matt
8. Where am I sleeping on Sunday night?
9. Talk to Matt re: "Tent" vs "Tarp & String"
10. cable ties, tape, string and bungee straps
11. ....erm ...

OK nearly there.....