My usual early morning walk, but a dark start as our destinations become further and further away. 

Anstey Hill is a range of hills that offer numerous walking options, though simpler facilities than the others. By coincidence, the walks we’ve done have gone from having toilets, and an array of amenities including paying for parking, to no facilities at all, and parking over the gutter.

The first path we walked today was towards the ridge. It was a two kilometre challenging ‘Swiss-like climb’ that wound its rather wide gravel path up to a lesser challenge as we walked along the ridge top path. We climb every day at home so we don’t hear too many complaints from our bodies, but groin and glutes suffering a little, quietly.

Too hard to resist was more of a sharp ‘Himalayan climb’ but without ropes, called ‘Torture Hill’. Because the other walkers look at us and think – ‘what are they doing here’ my retiring ego needs to respond. It was especially rewarding when our audience gasped: ‘you’re not coming down as well, are you? I missed an opportunity with my PD sign but it was ‘finger-hurting cold’, and next time it will go over my jumper.

We get to meet lots of walkers because we use them when we are in trouble, and greet others if they’re not pretending they didn’t see us, and we greet lots of dogs. On the way home from our ‘free of any amenities conservation park’ (a good thing), we even pulled off a busy highway to ask a man carrying a cup of coffee where we could get a good coffee. He thought this very funny, and of course it had to be the best brew in town.

Reflecting on coffee venues, we just heard that a popular coffee haunt had recently been frequented by a Covid carrying person. A day or two before, we had been there, so glad we missed greeting that guy.