We had just completed a fairly long day of 25kms, Corrie was at home looking after her unhealed elbow, sore back and painful toes, a bigger deal than she will let on. As I continued past an athletics field I saw this bent over woman (about our age) walking along using poles. From a non alarming distance I asked her if they were working for her to which she replied “sort of”.

After chatting a bit about Nordic walking she revealed to me that she had Parkinson’s. This was an entree for me to tell her my story. We began to discuss other things we do and I told her at one stage that I walk a marathon that I began for those with pd (varied distances), and I was the winner in the last 2 years.(ie those with pd). She said with no ego at all that she was the Norwegian women’s champion marathon runner for most of the 1980s.

We strolled for a way sharing stories one of which was about Nordic walking. A friend of mine Millie, I told her, was amongst many things a champion Nordic walker and she taught me the finer skills which you only see in professional nordic walkers and to name some are: to pretend your foot is a spring and bounce as you put your foot down and then up. Another is to leave your poles dragging on the ground and a third is to let your arm go fully straight as you reach out in front with one and behind with the other. Otherwise you may need to call it something else.

Both of us forgot about pd for a while as we walked and talked and enjoyed each others company. I hope she emails me one day.

I’ve heard many say ‘when you’ve seen someone with pd, you’ve seen them all.But this is not so, we are unique and this pertains also to waterfalls. In Oslo we saw some unique waterfalls on the river that sidles along the edge of the city now we are seeing others in villages but something asked us to slowdown or else we may miss some jewel, so we slowed. As we dropped the pace we saw something unusual, a floating body of shining ice with water underneath shooting out of a large pipe below.

The sun left us so we let go of our beauty to view the acrobatics of a steep river as it made its art in the air with the help of all shapes of rocks. We kept crossing the falls to and fro watching it from different angles. And I wonder what I was missing as I become more waterfall obsessed.

Another day arrives and the warmth of it enticed us on to the long snow. Wherever we looked there was snow. Our sun was still shining but the wind off the snow was making it very cold but the Nordic walkers had come to learn a special art, it’s one where you learn to breathe a bit. But for one, her collie type dog breathes differently. It was pulling her through the snow (supposed to) but also pulled her over in her enthusiasm (not supposed to).
And…..we met a dog we hadn’t seen before and with her Norwegian parents. I was intrigued, her dog was lovely so I wanted to know more about it, so I asked her what type it was. “An Australian Cobber”, came the answer. We told her we were also from that country and so were given a command performance. She jumped on me and licked what she could and then leant against Corrie looking up at her as if to say: I don’t mind cats either”.