Finding myself in nature … again

July 1, 2016

Over the years I’ve had some amazing adventures … then life got busy with a child, full time work and study and my adventures stopped

I recently saw a pair of woolen socks like mine in the Launceston museum! But I’m getting ahead of myself, let me explain. I’ve just started getting back into bushwalking and kayaking after 15 years and have discovered as well as needing to get fit, I also need to update my equipment.

On a recent walk everyone had light weight trekking boots, trekking poles and camelback water bags.  I wore my old leather boots, which had been in the cupboard for 15 years, carried a real water bottle and didn’t have trekking poles. One woman even had special socks with individual toes.

Roz on one of her adventures
Roz on one of her adventures

I used to do a lot of bushwalking in Tasmania, and later in North Queensland when I moved there in the 1970s.  I started kayaking around Townsville after buying a $50 kayak with a large hole in it from a work colleague.  My friend patched up the hole with a fiberglass kit.

Life (and a child) interrupted my adventures

Over the years I’ve had some amazing adventures, climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya, getting altitude sickness, walking the 150 kilometre Annapurna circuit in Nepal, walking Hinchinbrook Island, Routeburn track in New Zealand and lots of great trips in Tasmania’s Central and South West. Then life got busy with a child, full time work and study and my adventures stopped.

I remember being very frustrated while camping in the Yorkshire Dales and Lakes District in England with a three-year-old.  There were some fabulous walking tracks but he was too big to carry and too small to walk far.

Now, I’m back on track … shame about the crocodiles!

A group of us used to kayak down the Herbert River at Ingham.  We didn’t worry about the crocodiles when we fell out in the rapids until we heard about cows being taken from the bank.

Since I finished work I’m starting to get back into those activities I love.  I joined a bushwalking club and have been on a few short walks; I dragged my kayak out from under the house, hosed it down and have been on five short paddles at Enoggera Dam at Walkabout Creek.

I was paddling up Enoggera Dam close to shore recently when I saw a huge crocodile head with its mouth wide open. I screamed but then remembered there were no crocodiles in Southern Queensland.  Someone had left a plastic head to scare people. I pity the poor overseas tourist who doesn’t realise crocs don’t live this far south.

Anyone want to join me?

I’m enjoying getting back into the great outdoors and will gradually build up my fitness and hopefully start doing some great adventurous treks again.

I may need to get with the times and buy some trekking poles, water bag and socks with individual toes.  I will probably also have to buy some new boots.  My old one started burning the soles of my feet after about six kilometres.

I’ve always wanted to walk the Kokoda track, so who knows …

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