Check out the professional pics like http://www.walk4charity.com/vic/images/gallery2010-set2/photos/content/DSC_5318_large.html

For those who are interested, we are going to meet at the playground area of the steps at 6pm, (leaving 6pm sharp to beat the dark) this Tuesday night, for those of us who want to continue with a fitness regime..anyone is welcome to join us...see you there..

A reminder to any of our team who have not yet collected their minimum pledge that we have until 30 June to submit money for our walk. I certainly want to ensure that someone pays handsomely for my efforts because I know how difficult the event was. If we walk without raising funds then what is the point? We can still make number one fundraising team, let's go guys!

Hi Guys! Absolutely Awesome Job on completing the walk...and even participating to change to lives of children we may never meet...congratulations!
So the consensus is to catch up as a team to debrief and tell wild stories of our trek. We are meeting at Doongalla for a picnic/BBQ on Sunday 16th of May after church..about 1pm-ish. if you could all make it, it would be fantastic.
I suppose just bring whatever you feel like eating on the day..and bring the families and significant others as well...they all played an enormous part in making the day run smoothly.
Once again Well Done team HILLS TRIBE!!! We rocked it!!!!!

Good morning chosen people. Time to see if all our training paid off. See you at Jells Park and again at Ferny Creek. Go team. !

We decided on Sunday morning to add another little training session before we taper down so Bjarne, Kevin, Isaac and I tested out the legs once more on the Bayswater to Doongarra section and return. At 1400 the skies opened over Upper Ferntree Gully but by the time we met just after 1500 at Bayswater the track was quite dry and the dust settled. We completed the 18 km's in 3 hours but unfortunately didn't get back in time for Kevin to witness his magpies thrashing Essendon. We also found a new role for support crew Sally, who forwarded SMS match reports at the end of each quarter.

Hi Guys! Hope you are resting up and eating lots of carbs before the big event. We thought it would be a good idea to have a final meeting straight after doing the steps on Tuesday night. So if you can;t make it to the steps at 6, we are meeting at FTG Mc Donalds around 7-7.30pm. We will discuss who will be walking with who on the day; who needs a lift to and from the event and collect our team shirts which should be back from the printer by then! We have had a few people kindly volunteer to pick up and drop off people at the start and finish of the walk. Please come along, it would be good to get together and pray and talk before the big day. I will post the carpool details after the meeting.

great times!

PLaying Taboo - Girls won of course!!!

We had such a great night last night playing games and had plenty of laughs and discovered new words!!!

Hi All!

I am organising a games night for next Friday 22nd April. It will cost $5 entry and all proceeds will go towards raising money for the 50km walk I will be doing on May 1st with my team.

Time: 7.30pm
What to Bring: a Snack or drink
Date: 22nd April
Cost: $5
RSVP: Thurs April 21st
Games: You'll find out on the night!

Whe...re: 8a California Cresent
Ferntree Gully

There is an outside area that we can use for a outside fire.

For more details on what I am doing, please go to www.walk4charity.com then go to myWalk and you will find Hills Tribe.

PLease invite anyone along... just a get together and a fun nite.
Thanks,

BevSee more
Go the Extra Mile 50km Endurance Walks & Fun Runs
www.walk4charity.com

The last official training session yesterday helped iron out a few bugs for May Day. Our awesome support team provided a great spread for our lunch. Thanks Peter, Clint and Heather. Weather was again ideal and we all completed the section, albeit one of the six finishing on one leg, one dehydrated and one sleeping through from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning. We are hoping to have a "blessing of the fleet" at Hills Church during next Sunday's service and would like to invite the members who don't normally worship with us to our morning service at 10.30.

This will be our teams biggest training session yet and we have had two kind young men offer to cook us a BBQ upon our arrival at the 1000 steps. Clint and Peter (Louise's husband) will be there around 12.30 onwards to feed those who dare walk this grueling trail (lol). See you all at 0730 at the 1000 steps to carpool to Bayswater Oval.

I have had a meeting with the manager of Boronia Metro Cinema regarding a fundraising film. We have little time to organise this before the walk and we are also in a period with few suitable new release films.The opening day for a number of new releases is Thursday 24th June. This is the day before end of term. We are guaranteed an evening time slot which will probably be some time between 6 and 6.45.She has suggested Toy Story 3, fifteen years after the release of Toy Story 1. Both previous films have been popular. There is also a release for Shrek 4, but she felt that box office steadily dropped from Shrek 1 to Shrek 3 and perhaps the Shrek star may be fading. As long as we can get 20 people, we are eligible for the group booking price of $7. We would print our own fundraising tickets to a pre determined number,(we can't physically over subscribe to the available space which is around 120, 10 less than capacity). I would suggest we sell the tickets @ $10 and we need to pay the cinema their proportion two days prior to the booking. ie close off sales.We need to be aware that they are supporting us through a reduced margin and would appreciate if most confectionary and drink sales were made through the cinema rather than prior to entry.If we think we can get 50 people and manage less, I was assured that we won't be charged for the shortfall.Do we book the date for around 50? Thoughts......

Just to clarify about the T-shirts: sunday 18th (hills church go-ers) or saturday 17th for all others is the absolute last day to get your order in for the T shirts as these need to be purchased and sent off to the printer to get our team logo printed on them. Please bring the money with you on the day or you will miss out! Only $20 which is an absolute bargain!

1.Tuesday night @ 1800 at Base Camp(1000 steps)with some kind of lighting device as it will be dark coming down...unless we go REALLY hard.
2.Saturday morning: meet @ Base Camp at 0730 to car pool to Bayswater Oval to complete two sections, checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 3.
Also Important. If you want the ultra sexy Hills Tribe Team Shirt,(and who wouldn't?) please bring $20. Please note there are no refunds if you don't look as attractive in yours as I do in mine. Alternatively we may consider an extra charge for those who look better !

If any non walkers wanted to grab some mobile numbers and fix us up some hot lunch at 1000 steps bbq's that would probably be a winner too. The total distance will be 24 km including some fairly steep sections, so I suspect most of us would arrive between 1245 and 1345.Contact Bev 0419 100 102, Jennie 0401 587 320, Geoff 0425 717 382.

Training 10 April. Base Camp.In this picture Jennie, Louise, Beverley, Kevin and Geoff,(the good looking one).

Did anyone notice that our training photos depict more women than men, although the majority of our team is male? Hopefully our finely tuned male athletic bodies will be ok on the day... or we have a secret training regime. Come on guys...it's our turn to step up at training.

Another of the hot chicks in our team

Kevin finds a tree

Started walk today from base of 1000 steps and continued through to Ferny Creek Reserve.Another great day for walking with a mild day and rain holding off. Kevin and I went beyond the call off duty and added a few extra-curricula kilometres by going through a different gate! Finishing the walk at Ferny Creek we proved that our detour was really planned by also walking back along the tourist road to the steps.

Good to see that Bjarne is only listed once now. I thought he must have decided to walk back as well! Either that or he is taking the Biblical approach that...Ye must be Bjarne again!

Meeting at Ferny Creek Reserve 0730 saturday morning to travel to the steps and do the last leg of the walk. If you can make it would be good to get whole team together. Sleeping on Saturday morning is over rated!

In negotiation with a local cinema regarding a fundraising film. If it happens, it may be short notice to get all your friends, relatives and film-loving enemies along, so keep watching this space.

Dont forget to bring along a torch or a Headlamp. You can pick them up pretty cheap at Aussie Disposals, plus we get discount for doing the walk (Make sure you let them know before you buy it)!
We did the 1000 steps tonight but got causght out walking down the steps in the dark cause of daylight savings (forgot all about that)
So next week we will be prepared!

PLease bring $20 for our t-shirts on Tuesday night. $15 goes straight to this charity. $5 is for the logo to be put on. The sizes are very generous and in men's fittings; Small, Medium, Large, X-Large.

Tuesday night seems to be becoming a regular at the steps @ 1800. If you can make it, it would be fantastic to have entire team, or as close as possible for a group photo.Btw Mrs Martian, love your pics. Pretty sure the angle we went up was a bit steeper than that demonstrated by Terry!

doongala to the 1000 steps

after arriving at the top of a steep hill we all relished in what this sign was about

doongala to thousand steps

coming up to mountain hwy

doongala to 1000 steps

Our team combined with Breathing Not Talking to complete leg three of the course this morning. A good turn out and we were blessed with perfect weather.Team are optimistic of completing the challenge.

we were talking tonight about getting a fundraiser together. Let's talk about it Saturday morning on our walk (come along with ideas). Also thinking about getting whole team together for tea a night everyone is free. I was thinking Friday night after easter. Then we have 2 weeks left for the walk after that!!

Meeting at the 1000 steps (FTG national park) very bottom car park, before the gates at 0730 on saturday morning to drop cars and car pool to Doongala reserve to start walking stage three of the trail at 0800. Don't forget to bring energy foods: lollies, trail mix etc to replenish ur energy along the way. Note: this is one of the harder sections of the trail, so be prepared. Plenty of water, comfortable clothes, shoes etc...
Enjoying getting to know you all along the walks. Keep up the good work.
Jen xx

steps tuesday nite at 6pm...looking at possibly easter saturday for doing 14k from doongala to ftg steps. the one we were supposed to do yesterday...prob will start early..about 8am. finish a bout 12.30

Sorry team. Three of our team were cycling 145 km in The Great Ocean Road and Otways Classic on Saturday 27th and didn't make it back for the Sunday training walk.

I bought Hiking poles for my son, Isaac and I and tried them out over 15 km. Yes Ferntree Gully....WE KNOW THERE'S NO SNOW !. They do seem to take a bit of pressure off the shins and help to maintain a good pace but aren't much good if you plan to run. Ours are quite lightweight, however and can be tucked under an arm for short running sections.

Meet @ 1000 steps just before 1800 on 23 March for training walk. Doongalla to FTG picnic ground on Sunday 28 starting 1400 sharp. Contact Bev 0419 100 102 or Jennie 0401 587 320.

A number of us are undertaking training separately and some are forming small groups within our group to train together. Several have undertaken or are planning to undertake sections of the course while others have cycling commitments before walk training. The majority of our group attend Hills Church in Ferntree Gully which gives our team name and substantial practical support as volunteers etc. We also boast two bus drivers and a train driver so have experience mobilising large numbers of people !