Let me paint the picture …
Need to do a long walk to really help the preparation for Peru; search online and I find a lovely 15km round route in Garrigal National Park starting and finishing at Roseville Bridge; choose it as its very sentimental as I used to walk in the bush there as a child. Have lots to do on Sunday, but decide if I set off after lunch I'll have plenty of time. Tell Julie I'm walking around Roseville Bridge, print out a Google map. Race around doing stuff in the morning … running late … get the car washed … running later … get to the bridge at 2.30. Phone battery half flat but I'm sure I'll be able to keep up my 5km/h average and get around no worries. Set off on a beautiful afternoon, enjoying the sunshine.
First km goes well, pass a few people, feeling good about the pace. Second km easy. Third not bad, accidentally take a track offshoot that slows me down a bit, but convinced I'll be able to make it up. Fourth bloody slow … hmm, will this work out OK?
Umm, why is the nice wide track turning into a barely marked trail? Uhh, I thought this was nice and flat following the water but now I'm bush-bashing up and down sandstone outcrops. Oops, took the wrong turn again. Realise as I scramble through some scrub that it probably would have been a good idea to bring a first aid kit just in case.
Now about 8km in, on the return track … but its now almost 5pm and its getting dark. Realise my phone battery is almost dead ... pressing on as fast as I can and starting to think I should have put a bit more planning in to this.
9km and its getting very dark - and now the track turns inland. Am I going the right way? I can't check with my phone as I want to save the battery in case I need to call Julie. It's almost pitch black and I think to myself - wouldn't be funny if I trip and break a leg … really should have told Julie exactly where I was walking …
Crap, its pitch black now, can barely see the ground, going as slow as a … well I don't know, but bloody slow. Try to call Julie to tell her I'm still alive but I discover my phone has died completely.
Now 6.30pm and have no idea how far to go, thinking my wife will not be pleased (you'll understand if you know Julie).
Finally reach the western side of Roseville Bridge at about 7pm. Out at last! But I can't see the track up to the bridge as its so dark - have to continue on. I feel so depressed as the Bridge fades away in the darkness behind me.
Continue walking and finally get to a road … that leads to another road … that leads to another - but at last one I know, up in Roseville … finally follow the road to the bridge and across back to the car: I can charge the phone and call Julie!
Oooh - it's almost 8 and she expected me back at 5.30 … but at last the phone works and I call home. Julie answers ... we 'chat' … we 'chat' some more … and some more. I discover that:
- she has filed a missing person's report with the police
- there are aspects to my ancestry I hadn't heard of before
- only idiots … and tourists … and me … head off into the bush totally unprepared and don't tell anyone about it
