Ever heard that Sydney is a great city for walkers? Here we are today....My first ever experience to do bush walking has made me realise how important your shoes are....This really comes with my pain in that 5 and a half hours....(Y's speaking here...)
Again, let's see how T feels about his first time...
Bush walking from Ku-ring-gai to Berowra
To be honest, I haven't done any bushwalking in my life for now til today. Given that chance to experience such a new thing with har har, I decided to take the challenge. Yes, the expert CY was the one leading us to bushwalking....
Today was almost the hottest day in this summer. It really was. Just from how much I started to regret this decision I've made once I headed off from home, I thought I wouldn't survive in this heat...Definitely, such a hot weather would only add more challenge for us. Doing the bad, but no good. But still, the outcome was what we care the most....
Time flies, as I arrived at Central, I checked which platform I should go, then letting har har (Y) know via text. Luckily CY arrived on time or else we could have waited for another one hour...This guy hasn't changed a bit though I haven't seen him for several weeks. Three of us then started to talk about our recent lives along the journey.
An hour later, destination reached. First thing in our sight was the bridge connecting both sides. The side on the other end was where the beginning of bushwalking is. In the very beginning, I was thinking this challenge should be easy as the road was less bumpy, along with some man-made stairs built for walkers'convenience. Until then, we started to feel our mission become harder and harder as we walked further. There was once where I fell from the rock, leaving my left foot hurt so badly...I swear to god, that falling was lucky. It would have made my ankle fracture if the foot was bending at an angle.
Fortunately, I could still walk as normal but with a little bit pain from that injury. It is true to say to defeat what stops you from going forward is the first step close to success. The willingness to overcome the problem determines where you at, or where you will be heading to...
2 hours since we started off, at around 1, we found a cool place where we gave it a cool name as 'checkpoint' for some rest. CY took out his food and shared them with us. Though his bread was actually not that type of food I would prefer in such a harsh condition, it left me with no choice to reject eating it because I had nothing in my bag...The only thing would make the bread easier to swallow is the water...
Lunch finished, time to resume our journey. Halfway through, har har (Y) got bitten by a huge wild ant by accident. Both of us could tell how painful the bite was from her loud scream. Evidence from her swelling toe and staggering down the road, she then has become much more careful to the point where her paranoia grew for little insects would fall on her as she walked through the forest..When some ants crept around her barefoot, she became anxious that flicked them away. After that, this smart ass made herself more comfortable by picking up a wooden stick to support herself throughout our way.
The fact is, we had been walking for nearly 5 hours, almost reaching our limit to walk even further. Both har har and I felt too tired to even move a bit, so we requested to rest more than we expected. While our limbs were sore, throat was dry, CY seemed like as if he was walking on the street in the city...
We kept asking him how far we still were towards our destination, yet everytime received almost the same answer. 1km would always be 1km. 500m would just never change. Like, half an hour almost passed, he still said it was 500m. We were just wondering whether we were climbing on a loop, or just the illusion we had for not being able to recognize what the truth was. It turned out that he lied to us for the purpose of encouragement, which we then were told later. It was such a beautiful lie. Nope...I think it was even worse because it made us keep hoping, while keep disappointing...I bet that I would never trust his response anymore hehe...
That 5 hours and a half was a miracle. The only thing that kept me proceeding was the coca cola in the vending machine at the train station I bet...It was just way too much for us to try in our first time, so that immediate lying on the grass as we reached the goal wasn't surprised. We talked for a while there, waiting for har har to finish her phone call with her mum at the same time. The journey from Ku-ring-gai to Berowra has been tired, tired and more tired. But we made it anyway, so what's not possible?
After all, our first bushwalking experience was impressive regardless the injuries and fatigue that we had. Thanks for CY's invite, we won't know how challenging bushwalking really is without trying. And we ain't saying no to it, there would be definitely a second time some day really soon...
Next, Y is here to tell her version of story during this trip:
It's Y again here. As I said in the very beginning of this post, bushwalking has made me feel how important footwear is...Today I was with my sandals. SANDALS? (seriously) SANDALES....to go bushwalking....As crazy as it sounds, I still walked to the final checkpoint, well and safe...
I was going to brag about how much force added to bushwalking for my bad selection of shoes yet I still made it to the end. Guess what? HA....yes...I still am bragging about it. Seriously, even I felt sorry for myself being such a douche bag. But an awesome douche bag...
In the beginning of the trip, we three went on talking about the sunny day feels. T was the one bringing up his cool surname WANG, and telling us its tricky meaning behind in Eng. It totally changed my way to see this surname from that second. I mean, how the heck WANG is connected to that kind of thing...
Funny enough, WANG has been a good joke for the day. Almost the best gag adding a bit of fun to the walk. Like later when I picked up the stick to support myself in the middle of the journey, where I called it my WANG; and when T stepped on my stick, I then asked him not to step on my WANG...
Anyhow, my point is.....BUSHWALKING is awesomely tiring....Especially my shoes were the culprit that had gotten me an even worse walking experience....The start-off sandy road was enjoyable. 10 minutes later, the road started to get so much harder for me to watch my every step. Because I wouldn't know from which second my step would make me fall. The irregular pattern of rocks scattering here and there, small and big. The roughness of the surface was also unpredictable. It wasn't really a good time to walk around while taking pictures. All I focused was the way to walk past this path, hoping that the next turning would be a less bumpy one...
Apparently, I had been the last one, following these two guys behind. T would always look back where I was, just incase I had trouble. And I really was, regretting how that I shall have brought another pair of shoes. Might that be much easier to not get myself this consciously anxious...
Anyhow, the scenery was ok-ish. I already tried to capture the most beautiful views as I could. The following pictures are just right at the spot to show the essence of nature....
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T showed me this mountain of ants nest....Imagine if I had a kick at this thing, I would probably be drowned in a pool of ants haha
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Le beautiful me here....I really like how my shadow is cast as the background to complement the little flower in the middle
Referring to T's post above, the weather was exceptionally hot. Even under the trees covered most of the time, we were still feeling the heat. Our sweat was dripping from the head to toes, like literally.
Sometimes I looked down the cliff in awe, carefully moving my feet to cross the edge was my most difficult time to against my own fear. But as what was said, this is what bushwalking is meant to be. It's simply not about walking, but overcoming what you can't do.
Even I was left behind, I still tried my way to catch up and become more mindful to the walking path. Or not even a walking path. It was closely climbing at some points, where support was needed. After all, I still am a girl, with her pair of inappropriate shoes to go hiking. Surprisingly I didn't fall, only had a bit of scratch on my knee, and a small bite from a giant ant. The pain lasted for almost half an hour. That tingling sensation has even made me wonder whether it would be poisonous...But I got my WANG from where the bunch of branches piled up.
We went through a lot more than what it be. Each time the checkpoint was like more than a signifier for us to feel in a way that the goal is closer. My camera had witness the entire walking as though also recording my emotion and physical strength throughout. What this really means to me is how much I've come across from the mountain, lake and cliff. And this is really an experience should be kept. I just felt good for protecting myself once. Mum would have been asking me careful of this and that in the first place if I did tell her where I go today....
Anyways, T injured his leg as well. CY was helping him to massage at our first checkpoint. T then walked slower the rest of the trip due to that...
The last one hour was to literally climb up, or you call it walking up. The hill was even steeper, with larger rocks on the way which I had to be more aware of my steps.....
(Nice view below...) Lastly....these are all that achieved by a great walk. Images might not be the best, but to the fact of the significance of memorabilia in such a trip along with my version of experience, will create some difference to my life at some degree....
Of course we know we would make it, but just didn't know for how long. Now we knew it. 5 and an half hour. Not that bad for the first time yeh?
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BTW, thanks again for CY's invitation, ^ this guy....(Due to the right of portrait, we are only here to show his back lol)
PS: Malay flavour is nice. His recommendation is good for fried rice!! Sorry for acting retarded though. My hyperactivity was out in nowhere, maybe because of the previous tummy-ache that made me stay in the toilet for so long, and caused my abnormality? Who knows....>3>
