Western Mudd Rush

A few weeks ago we finally got to do the Western Mudd Rush, after months of waiting and some last minute training, mostly on Jacobs ladder. We have Glynn to thank for getting us involved as he was in a team from work and asked if we wanted to join. So in my head the conversation went something like "a chance to run round in the mud and jump over lots of crazy obstacles", who wouldn't want to?" - so said Yes. Then I managed to convince Janice to do it with the help of a small misguided fact as I thought it was 5km, when in fact turned out to be 9km :)

So the big day came along (and happened to be the week before City to Surf, but that's another for another post). And luckily Sue, Marc and Claire were there with the kids to look after Logan for us as they were coming along to support (laugh at) us and take some photos.

So all decked up in our subtle yellow gear and we were ready for the off! We were in a team of 9 and most of us managed to stay together, which was part of the fun really.

Glynn and I failed the first test, getting the number tattoo to work. So we improvised...

Worked out well as we were they first wave to go off the weekend so got to the obstacles before they were smashed up by thousands of people going through. There were 26 in all and they ranged from crawling under barbed wire and heavy rope nets (with mud pools inches from your face), to climbing over huge hay and wooden/container constructions and definitely NOT the favourite, the ice plunge!

Wonder why it was cold?

And Yes we are screaming like girls in case you didn't see the video!

Was impressed with Janice's running as she hadn't run that distance in a long time. And we tried to keep together as a team so we could help each other out with some wall climbs and other interesting experiences. My favourite was the final obstacle as it was a run up the big wall and use a rope to get up the rest. And one of our team was a bit short of stature and struggled getting to the rope, so I had the excuse to head down and do it again to help her with Glynn at the top to get her over the edge - go team "2 Legit 2 Quit"!

So we started off all yellow, but definitely ended up a lovely shade of brown. Oh, and in case you're thinking it's all mud the event was held at the State Equestrian centre, so we smelled great at the end of it too! With the after event showers being basically a pathetic dribble of water so the outside hoses worked better...

More fun photos on the picasa album.

Check out my new ride

We had been looking to get Logan a bike trailer for a while so we can all start to go on some rides around the city and surrounds, and looking especially to get it before we go over to Rottnest Island in November for a few days.

After looking at some we decided on the Pacific model, which is a two seater (just more room for Logan!) and can be converted to a stroller/jogger as well as bike trailer.

All ready to go

Making sure Logan has his snacks for the ride, as he's like his parents

And of course as nothing is ever that simple, we had to get a bike carrier for the car too so we could get to some more interesting start locations. A bit awkward as most of the models over here are designed to go on a towbar which we don't have but found one that fits all models of cars and is actually pretty simple and sturdy and can take 3 bikes.

Checking that Dad has done it properly...

We headed off to Herdsman Lake which is close by and a 8km round trip to test it out, although had forgotten that a good chunk of it is a bit of a gravel track too, so got to test the suspension for Logan as well :)

Stopping for a drinks break

Officially a dadda

Was a momentous day on Friday as Logan decided that he could say "dadda" properly and made me a very happy Dad  :)

Flying trip to Exmouth

We had wanted to get up to Exmouth for some time and decided to take a flight up there as didn't facny subjecting Logan (and us) to the 2 day drive just to get there and back. If we had a few weeks and campervan then maybe a different story to stop off more and enjoy the journey, but not this time.

We had organised a "villa" as we wanted the flexibility of the house and more than one room in a hotel, as who actually sleeps in the same room as their kids, crazy idea :) And it turned out well, if not a bit stark as it is was a set of about 12 buildings newly built in a "compound" just outside of the town.

Logan and Janice having breakfast

Not sure what I expected as such after talking about going here for so long but was a bit odd to fly for 2 hours and still end up in a small town still in WA! Kind of felt like we had just popped up the road to Jurien Bay or somewhere much closer as although we were a good way north it wasn't tropical like Cairns or the east coast.

Anyway, that weird observation over with. And the holiday was very good, as we did some good exploring around the Cape as you have to drive up and over the top of it to get to the West side as Exmouth is actually on the east side of the cape (see the link above to maps if that's confusing...). And over on the west side are the better beaches with some great snorkel spots, with the most famous and the best we found was Turquoise bay.

Another lovely WA beach, but the good stuff was the fringing reef

I had booked one day out on a boat dive trip which actually turned out the be the grey day of the holiday, which was fine for diving as calm winds so good conditions. Did 2 good dives with some highlights being some very curious olive sea snakes, big rays hiding in the sand, several green turtles and a first for me was you could actually hear the whale song of the humpback whales during some moments of the first dive - pretty amazing!

It was snake vs ray and the ray did a runner!

Then the cape has a range of valleys and dried out (most of the year) river beds that you can do some good walks in and around. So armed with Logan's backpack we did a very pleasant wander through Mandu Mandu gorge, although decided not to do the scramble up the gorge part as didn't want to risk it with the little monster on my back! Was the perfect time of year to do it in approx 25 degrees, as would have been hard going in the 35-40 degrees of summer.

Then it wouldn't be a holiday without playing with my camera and the last night showed some good sunset and light reflections that begged for some slow shutter speed shots (trying same that 5 times...)

Lots more photos on the picasa album.