50before50: #43 5 x hikes of >10km – 1/5

Today was forecast to be mild and sunny, so yesterday we dragged out our elderly version of Sydney’s Best Bush, Park and City Walks and planned a hike.

We chose Walk 30: gullies and creeks of Thornleigh. This is rated as a medium walk of 10.5km (6.5 miles) and was forecast to take 4 hours 30 minutes.

With the view that we should start the year as we mean to continue it, we were off very bright and early. I was pretty ill-prepared for this endeavour and realised as we were getting ready that I had no actual clothes suitable for hiking – so was compelled to wear my denim overalls.


fetching! i’ll be acquiring shorts for future outings

I was tracking our route with my phone, but then about 2/3 of the way in I ran out of phone-juice (fortunately I took a screenshot before it died):

For an allegedly medium level hike this was really pretty intense. There were lots and lots of quite high climbs and steep descents into valleys. It one point I had to use a kindly provided rope to climb up a very large rock!

And then there was this little gem, which we’d overlooked when reading about the route: “11. At the back of the park, a long flight of 230 sandstone steps – each one a bit of a slog when you thought the walk was almost done – heads uphill.” I jumped about Rocky-style when that bit was completed!

All up – wonderful and gorgeous day out, but Holy!Goodness! we’re completely knackered. But we’re already planning the next one.

We were very surprised to learn that our last wee hike was in March 2013, it seemed much more recent! Just as then I took a DSLR with manual lens, and just as then, I need way more camera practice.

Bad manual shots:


this was some sort of beautiful tiny orchid, the flowers were about the size of my thumb nail


splashy


more splashy


tiny water dragon poses for me


reflection of the trees in a pond

Slightly better iphone shots. The terrain was really quite diverse and changed quite a lot over the distance.

2 thoughts on “50before50: #43 5 x hikes of >10km – 1/5

    • Happy New Year, Carmela!

      It was really enjoyable, hopefully it is the first of many such outings in the year.

      I’ve really enjoyed reading your hiking posts in 2015, you live in such a lovely part of the world. I must say I think I’d be wanting to stay indoors at -13oC too!

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