February | 2013 | Rob and Linds

Somehow Linds and I were convinced to do a triathlon with a group of friends even though neither of us own a bike and NEVER swim. Unfortunately these two issues were not addressed in the slightest during our “training”. We ended up only being able to borrow one bike so it was decided that I would use it and Linds would sit this one out (never seen Linds so relieved).

The swim was 750 meters (furthest I have ever swam), cycle was 20km (furthest I have cycled in probably 10 years), and a 5km run. I was pretty much last out of the water on the swim (75% sure I saw a shark, not kidding), almost last after the cycle (I was on a woman’s bike and could not figure out how to change gears or raise the seat) and finished in the bottom 5 in my age group overall. Very impressive…. Regardless we had a great weekend in Jervis Bay and I learned a valuable lesson, if you are going to do a triathlon you need to swim and cycle before the race…

Well since Linds and I lugged all our camping gear half way around the world we decided we better use it at least once. After a recommendation from a colleague, we decided on Bouddi National Park on the Central Coast (about 2 hrs north of Sydney). Our campsite was hike in/hike out and took our little civic on a dirt road that was almost more than she could handle. After about a 30 minute hike we found ourselves all alone on our own private beach.

After a restless nights sleep I was up for the sunrise and took a few pretty good photos. While being alone on our own beach was amazing, without any amenities we slowly ran out of things to do. It was also a very hot day and we had limited shade so after a few long hikes and a swim, we packed up and headed back a day early.