Now the gorge has become a mountain. We had to climb down it first to Blue Gum Flat to then join the Kingfisher Trail which took us nearly out to Hidden Camp. We followed a fire trail for a some distance, calling in to Kingfisher Flat for lunch where the animals talk to you. Their printed signs say things like “You eat your food and we’ll eat ours”, and “If you wash your clothes in our waterhole, it is like us washing our paws in your jug of drinking water”.
Starting at the top of a mountain is unusual throughout Australia and who knows, maybe the world. Every hill or mountain (except for this one), we began at the bottom, and obviously then climb up before going down again. You might thing this is what happens everywhere but it’s not. I read a book recently on the Blue Mountains, written by a friend of mine, and in it he explains that walks in these mountains start at the top. So the road to the BMs is built on a ridge line and most, or all, are on that ridge, so everyone visits from the top. This may be obvious to you all but it was Geography 101 for me.
We don’t usually like fire trails because they take away some of the romance from the ‘narrow track’. But we got used to it, spending time imagining it was a track, and then the bush started to look interesting again, and there’s a better chance to photograph an emu, whereas the two young deer were off the ‘cute track’ (earlier) in a second. There was hardly a flat section on this path as it undulated deeply through thick bush that spread out into the surrounding mountains. No-one was on the track today, so even though the track wasn’t intimate, our walk was, so to speak. But after the walk it was lovely to chat with a young french family and swap stories on our french walks.
So it is nearly time for our long walk to come to a close, two more days precisely, the penultimate being tomorrow. It’s been hard, but rewarding (good for the Dopamine), and fortunately we have had no injuries that have hampered our goals. And it has been very special to hear from you with your posts and emails and there are some who read the blog without comments, thanks for taking the time to read.
As far as the PD is concerned, I have been surprised how well I can walk pre meds before breakfast, but post meds has me switched on a little more and more alert. The bad news is that I trip quite a bit when I am not concentrating on lifting my feet and this is towards the end of the day, but the good news is that I always recover quickly to prevent a fall and I put this down to PDWarrior exercises. My walking stays strong however and walking is always at least brisk to fast walking to slow the symptoms down. My blog helps me as a cognitive exercise replacing my daily poem. Without meds I struggle a little with my fine motor skills mostly around putting a jacket on and buttering bread. I mumble a little and am a bit off at the end of the day, but with awareness I am able to improve that instantly. And Corrie – she just keeps walking!
We’re in Warnertown, a tiny village by an unused railway line, in a lovely spot by a small lake on Angela and Anthony’s small property.
See you tomorrow
