I've been wondering if and when the magic would kick in on this walk - well it has. The campsite here at Johanna is awesome and I've got it all to myself at the moment.
It was the usual routine last night except it was cut short when some light rain began to fall, so I got into the tent a bit early. Read book again and slept well. 6:45 am rise (spitting still) and on the trail by 8:15. I added a bigger blister plaster to my right 4th toe but left the left foot alone. I'd felt something change there late on the walk yesterday - I think the fluid sac had burst and suddenly it was a lot less painful to walk on (sorry - too much information). I did remarkably well today - it was much less painful than yesterday, especially the first 3 hours - no problems at all really.
Leaving Aire River
It was a really great walk today. Ferocious seas, whipped by the strong winds, seething on the rocks below. I saw 4 wallabies along the track - cute! Last night at the campsite, there was an English-accented man with a daughter and son camped. There were awful, angry exchanges between them the whole evening then again this morning - the son sounded extremely petulant and annoying but the father was just making things worse. I only heard them but then encountered them on the trail this morning, minus the daughter. How do people end up interacting like that? Very sad. I chatted with them when I met them on the trail - the father's dream to do the whole walk as I was doing it, perhaps with his son, he said and looked at the 12-13-year-old hopefully. The boy just smiled non-committally.
Castle Cove
Johanna Beach
Castle Cove lookout and the Great Ocean Walk briefly touched the Great Ocean Road. Finally, Johanna Beach and a 2 1/2 km walk along the sands. Huge seas were coming way further up the beach than usual and I found out later I'd walked it at high tide. It made it all a bit hairy and I sped up big time. Took my boots off to cross Johanna River due to the incoming sea surge, not any outflow. I completed the rest of the walk bare-foot then in thongs (jandals/flip-flops). The last kilometre before the campsite, I thought I'd gone the wrong way along a crappy 4WD track but it turned out to be right.
I had a strange dream last night - something about the prayers of the "saints" (i.e. believers) underpinning the world - perhaps from something in Wolf Hall, I don't know. In my dream, I felt sadness at not having contributed, but that got me thinking whilst plodding along during the day today. If prayer is a form of petition, then one may as well do something more satisfying and throw a votive sword into a lake somewhere. I never liked the idea of an interventionist deity, even when I was much younger. But perhaps, an attitude of good-will to others and the universe is a deeper form of "prayer"? This sort of prayer is a manifestation or expression of love. The verse "pray without ceasing" and the passage about the Spirit's groans, beyond words, on our behalf. All of this is similar to the mindfulness idea, i.e. developing and maintaining a certain, constant state of mind and "being present" in each moment, for each encounter and interaction.
The forest was interesting today - grass trees thick underneath the eucalypts.
A couple have just turned up and taken a tent site just up and out of view from where I'm sitting.
I think about my PhD from time to time whilst walking - how awesome that I'm doing this for the next 3 years of my life. Fact is, I get my thrills from Old English stuff, but if that's not available (and it's not!), the Age of Revolutions is a pretty good next choice - an intriguing period in history and an area of expertise that will make me much more employable than OE.
Johanna Beach from campsite
I've just had a flashback to another campsite somewhere else, a long time ago. A couple camping there next to me called me over and asked me to join them in a bottle of wine. Actually, it was the attractive lady who walked over and asked me. French. But where? NZ, Canada, on the Celtic trail - not sure. But I'm leaning towards one of the Celtic countries - I think it was probably Scotland. What a great, poignant memory. Also remembered the girl I'd chatted to at a bus shelter once, half-way up Newfoundland. There are so many piercingly poignant memories. Perhaps this place will be a poignant memory one day. Right now I'm just so happy and at peace with the universe.
The couple are from Colorado and are doing the walk in 8 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment