The adventure, she says, far exceeded her expectations. It was harder than she had anticipated, particularly negotiating the often swampy conditions where, until she got used to them, she was spending more time on her backside than standing up. But the beauty of the rain forests and the waterfalls more than made up for the swamps.
All her preparatory exercise paid off and with a will to succeed she found the journey exhilarating. It took eight days and involved stopovers at a number of villages along the way where she enjoyed meeting the locals, particularly the children.
She took with her 36 tennis balls and another 36 bouncy balls which she distributed to the children. “They just loved them,” she says.
There were nine in her team, two of them women, and everyone made the grade - even the teenage couple from England who had never been camping before, let alone on a decent and arduous hike.
Dawn is full of praise for the porters who accompanied them and those who were responsible for organising their daily food.
There was only one hiccup - when her air mattress became damaged and she was forced to sleep on the ground. “You certainly felt it when you rolled over in your sleep,” she says.
Plenty to drink
Dawn says she consumed as much as six litres of fluid a day, which proved to be a significant help along the trail.
She only lost a kilo in weight during the trip which, she says, ”was a shade disappointing, but then again I didn’t do it just to lose weight.” And apart from a pain in her right knee every now and then Dawn returned unscathed from her adventure.
Her biggest challenge from the first day was scaling the 1000 stairs to the track proper, but once this had been achieved there was no stopping her.
And she did get to bathe in the river which was their main source of keeping clean, and yet not without its problems.
“You were in the river which was always flowing fast and you had to hang on to the embankment with one hand and wash yourself the best you could with the other,” she says.
Now that she’s home and back at work at her job with the Housing Department of NSW Dawn says she is still very energised and finds herself waking at about 4.30am, ready to get on with whatever the day holds. “I thought I’d be worn out, but it has had an energising affect on me and my body.”
And would she do it again? “Of course I would, but next time I’d take longer and spend more time in the villages.” | 
