Intrepid hiking

Tuesday:

Spent the weekend recovering from whatever germs attacked me this time, all better now. I went to the Arboretum this morning and started with a walk in search of the eagle's nest sculpture. The one where I scoffed that it could possibly take half an hour for 850 metres (half a mile).  The first bit was on a path past the wedding/events pavilion, then a sign appeared to point me straight up a steep, uneven grassy hill between the young trees. That couldn't be right, could it? But there didn't seem to be any other way to go, and I could see the lookout way up at the top, so I started on up. Even if it wasn't the right path, it would get me there in an intrepid sort of way.

After a fairly short distance I came to a signpost stuck amongst the trees. Seems this was the path, un-path-like though it might seem. I could see another signpost further on, and sure enough they eventually led me to the top. Gasping for air, calves burning.

I make no claim to fitness, but anyone less fit than me might not have been able to do it at all. I no longer scoff at the suggested timing. It took me 20 mins, pushing reasonably hard. Lovely view though.

You can see why Canberra is called "the bush capital"! It looks like I'm out in the country rather than 10 minutes from the centre of the city, which is more or less in the direction the camera is pointing, around the lake.

 

I hiked back down, at about the same speed as I went up because I was being careful of my ankles on the lumpy ground. I got my laptop from the car and sat in the café with my pot of tea and suddenly slumped with exhaustion. It seem to have this rapid-onset fatigue thing going on. I could literally hardly keep my eyes open. I had my tea and played with my iPhone a bit but it took me half an hour before I was ready to get to work.

 

Had a really good writing session until lunchtime when the café started to get a bit busy and noisy and it was time to go. Actually I was interrupted several times today - does that mean I looked more friendly and open than usual? Normally no one speaks to me when I'm typing away. First an older gentleman came over and commented on what a lovely place I had chosen to work and we had a short chat about the amazing view and he told me a couple of other places he also liked to go. Then a bit later a man with quite a strong accent (German I think) brought his phone over and asked if I would listen to a message someone had left for him and tell him what was said as he couldn't decipher it. Neither could I! I listened to it twice and it was definitely an Australian accent (so you'd think it would be easy for me) but I could only pick out a few words here and there. The best I could do was tell him the other person asked him to call them back, but I couldn't even get a name or any idea of what it was about. A bit embarrassing really. Both of those were quite nice encounters, but finally a large group of toddlers moved to a couch nearby (with a couple of carers) and one of them was the exploring, friendly kind. He liked to stand very close and stare at me, and seemed to have a fascination for sugar pots. Several times he was rescued in the nick of time from being covered in sugar as he liberated a pot from someone's table and tried to upend it over his curly head. It was time to go by then so I finished up.

 

Stopped off at the library on my way home. I love the library. Free books and magazines!