Australia Day 6 and 7

Saturday was a very chilled day! We had a late start followed by a very large breakfast of toast, avocado, bacon, scrambled eggs and halloumi. We then headed to Chatswood which is the next town so Dan could buy some things for his Tough Mudder experience on Sunday. I took the opportunity to quickly get my nails done in the local Westfield's mall. We then set off for the long drive ahead down South to Bundanoon where we had booked to stay in a little hotel. It was a very quiet but cute little village and amazingly the hotel was actually very English! The outside was a mock Tudor design and the inside had these dark wooden beams everywhere, red carpets and vintage bedrooms, it very much had the characteristics of a little cottage. As there wasn't much to do in Bundanoon we ventured to Bowral, the next town, to grab a bite to eat where the boys could watch the rugby. We headed back for an early night ready for an early start on Sunday, after having a quick ping ping tournament in the games room of course! 

On Sunday we were up and ready to leave the hotel by 7.30am ready for the check in at Tough Mudder at 8. Even watching everyone getting pumped up by the MCs to the sound of Eminem made me want to join in!! After seeing all the obstacles the runners had to face, not too much!  

To make it clear, Tough Mudder is a worldwide event which stems over 20KMs made up of running/jogging and assault courses. By assault courses I mean HELL!! Including crawling through muddy waters unable to stand up as barbed wire is hanging above you, climbing over slippery mud hills into muddy waters, swinging through hoops and falling into dirty water below, pulling yourself through tiny muddy tunnels, jumping from a plank into waters below, sliding down a water flume (yes sounds fun!) but there's fire at the bottom that you slide through, running up a mud ridden slide to cling helplessly to the top and pull yourself and team mates over and finally run through some electric cables!! I know that sounds horrific but the team work, success and ultimate enjoyment that you see when the competitors cross the finish line made me smile from eat to ear! 

My favourite obstacle was 'Everest' - a very steep slope covered in water and mud which required the teams to sprint and run up to the top, cling on, pull up and arrive at the top ready to assist the rest of the team and pull them to the top! 

I was so surprised and moved by the help and support the mudders gave each other! It really was touching to see everyone helping one another rather than selfishly ploughing through the obstacles, it's sad that we feel this is now a rare occasion! Nice that Tough Mudder recognises team work rather than fastest times. Well done to Dan, Anisa and their team for taking part, absolutely amazing!!! 

After the prize giving we headed back to Bowral, had a bite to eat and drove to the Hunter Valley ready for our wine tasting day!! Woooo!! 

Lexie 

xxx