Namadgi Hike Day 4: Back to the beginning

We woke up on Day 4 thinking of long showers, coca cola,  the latest Game of Thrones episode and all the comforts of hunan civilisation. By 8:15am, we were off, eagerly powering through Mount Tennent, drawn towards the direction of home as if pulled by some magnetic force. 

To our home surprise, we ended up back at the Namadgi Visitors Centre by noon. And on queue as we stepped under a roof for the first time in 4 days, it started to rain.

We whooped at our good fortune, and congratulated ourselves on not killing each other in the past four days. 

Inside the visitors centre, we recounted our tales of adventure and exhaustion to the park ranger who had helped us in the planning of this trip. Somewhat distractingly, Marianne - the resident pet python of the Namadgi Visitors' Centre - was shamelessly stripping off her skin while we chatted. What a hussy, that one!

This trip has been the most physically exhausting 4 days of my life, but despite the exhaustion, I’ve learned so much about the region of Canberra we live in, about myself and my own physical limits.

Walking from Point A to B is one of the most fundamental human drives. We’ve been doing this on a day to day basis from the beginning of time. But hiking, particularly through mountainous terrain, has a funny way of challenging the things in life we take for granted.

Just when you think you’ve finally reached your limits, just when you convince yourself that you are simply not capable of taking another step forward, you look up around the bend at a view that takes your breath away and makes you forget about all your physical pain. 

I can’t say I’ll ever find this enjoyable, or do it on a regular basis, but I do find myself understanding why people hike voluntarily. There is something both humbling oddly life-affirming about putting yourself so directly through a landscape and depending on yourself so utterly for survival. 

And so it’s back to work for another week before we set off on our second hike for the Duke of Ed Awards. This time, we’re doing the Six Foot Track through the Blue Mountains, and the real adventure is just about to begin. 

xx doots