Ed Survives Trip To Outback
09/01/2012 10:36:10
Ed Young has penned a third instalment of his exclusive series of articles describing life at the Darren Lehmann Academy in Australia.
As well as working on cricketing skills, the Gloucestershire all-rounder has been faced with a SAS type tests, including a trip to the outback, and is finding his winter in Perth an unforgettable experience.
Ed writes: After my huge cliff-hanger of a second instalment, I can now assure Gloucestershire supporters that I have in fact survived the outback trip, Christmas and the New Year!
The outback trip started at 5am on the 21st November 2011 with a four hour bus journey to the Flinders Ranges (North of Adelaide). It was the start of a couple of days that were both physically and mentally demanding.
We arrived and were straight away spilt into three colour teams. The day was filled with walking, walking, walking, water break and more walking. When we were at the peaks of the mountains it was very apparent that we were in the middle of nowhere.
At the same time it gave us the most amazing views and a great sense of tranquillity. We camped in a dried out creek bed in our swags. We lit a fire and it came very obvious that Leicestershire's Greg Smith was a pyromaniac!
Our supervisor, Peter O'Brien, who has served in both the English and Australian SAS and has supervised some of Australia's biggest criminals in prison, had us fascinated by his stories - especially about Chopper Reid and the gang fights within the prison walls.
When bedtime came around, talk moved onto the dangerous wildlife of the Australian outback, so many of the guys became very paranoid. This wasn't helped by fake spiders and rubber snakes being tactically placed in people’s swags!
The night sky in the outback was breathtaking and I could have looked up for hours. The clearest of skies was illuminated by millions of stars and was something that I had never really experienced properly before.
The next day was filled with more walking and a BBQ to wrap the trip up. It was truly a fantastic experience, one that tested us, and put us outside our comfort zones and allowed us to discover things out about ourselves. An experience that won't be forgotten and one that brought a group of lads much closer together.
After getting back into the usual training schedule, we came round to the recurring nightmare of "snakepit" time! It was a gruelling as ever and it did take some prisoners, but it was a great feeling conquering it again until the New Year.
Training ran on until 21st December and, with two and half months of intense work behind us, we thought we would have a nice chilled final week. Instead, we finished with a bang. with skinfold testing (a way of determining body fat composition) before a repeat sprint session topped off with eight sprints up eight flights of stairs to the top of the new stand that engulfs one side of the Adelaide Oval - a nice Christmas present from the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy coaches!
I flew over to Sydney to spend Christmas and New Year with friends. It was a lovely break and I spent most of my hours on the beach, in the ocean or watching KFC Big Bash on Foxtel.
I was lucky enough to spend New Year in Sydney centre, half a kilometre away from the Harbour Bridge in Circular Quay. The view was outstanding and the fireworks left me speechless.
I am now back into the swing of things with training and the first gym session back was interesting to say the least. Fitness testing consisting of skinfolds, yo-yo test and plank hold tests was a great way to start off 2012.
As you can imagine, some people had overindulged in the festive period and the excuse of "my mother's cooking" came out. But for most they accepted that their skinfolds had gone up and that only hard work will get them down.
I am now into the home stretch of my trip over here and it is a really exciting time, I am very much looking forward to working hard in the gym and with my cricket so that I can hit the ground running when I return in March.
I would like to wish all my website readers a Happy New Year and hope that 2012 brings you success and joy.
