They were very useful for travelling from Clyde to Granville, although it was highly irritating when the footpath suddenly changed to a dirt path, forcing me to cross the rather wide road. Thankfully there's not much traffic in the darker hours before dawn, I suspect it would have been busy.
During the ride on the train, the sun started rising, resulting in the following bubbling to mind:
Lunar gleams bright as she faces the sunrise. Her dark face guides westward travellers, fleeing from the light as the skies await in suspended dawn hues.
I couldn't seem to get warm; later I found out that it was because I was bleeding. I was hoping I'd gotten away with not suffering it this month too.
Mum had very nicely photocopied two pages of a street directory for me, in colour. I'd been all "Oh I don't need those, it's a touristy sort of town there'll be signs everywhere for how to get to the walking tracks!"
Turns out there weren't.
One particular page came in handy countless times.
I arrived at Wentworth Falls shortly before 8am.
I followed a group of 4 to a park, where I took some very nice photos of the frost that was covering everything. Unfortunately I had to delete them later to make room for much niftier photos of nature, but I did leave this one:
The group of 4 then headed off into the bushland while I continued up the road, headed for a small hut/cafe thing. I would meet them again several hours later in the bush, walking in the opposite direction to me. I also found out later that the path I walked ends up back at that park, but I didn't know that at the time and spent quite a while getting to The Conservation Hut/cafe. Thankfully there were toilets there, which was how I found out about the bleeding early enough to take measures so that I wasn't trudging about with a massive stain in my clothing.
On the way there, I saw the following:
In case it's not really clear, that's a truck with its front wheels lifted off the ground.
Lingered at the Conservation Hut for about 20min until the place opened at 9am so I could take mum's advice about buying hot chocolate.
Ended up following a large group of American pilgrims along the National Pass, which took me into a valley, past some stunning waterfalls, then back towards town, travelling halfway up a cliffside that kept spattering water on me.
Here's a massive map that shows the route I took through the bush:
The walk resulted in many photos. Hopefully I'll never suffer a hard drive crash that causes catastrophic loss of data, but in case I do, here's a small, but variably sized selection, in chronological order (click to view larger versions):
Partway through all that walking, I began to feel cramps more keenly; however, it wasn't until I'd put up with it for several hours that I remembered that I kept painkillers in the small first-aid/toiletries kit I'd thrown into my bag the night before. I was walking back towards the park by then (refer to route map earlier, where I doubled back), and got sick of the view, which was mostly grass and burnt trees, so I took some steps that led up to a road.
There I sat by the side of the road, listening to a boy kick a football around, while I drank water and studied the map for how to get back to the train station, since I'd not had the foresight to pack much food but had noticed that all the shops were near the station. I did have an apple, but they are messy eating, and I felt a need to conserve my single bottle of water.
As I headed back to the shops lining the road, I noticed that I passed the park again, which was no longer frosty, but was still somewhat soggy when stepped upon.
Bought bread and lingered aimlessly in 'town' for a while before deciding that I'd head to Wentworth Lake, and the park attached to it. It was not a particularly remarkable lake, so I have no pictures of it; however, I did find a pile of charcoal, which I sat beside for a while because it was in the sun and the wind was picking up. By now, it was getting increasingly difficult to use the rollerblades, as they'd bruised my shins from all the walking/hill climbing I'd done getting to (and around) 'town', The Conservation Hut, and the lake.
Since I was here and not feeling like heading back home yet, I gave my brother a call with a lookup request. The reply ended up with me skating uphill-ish on the right hand side of the Great Western Highway like some tiny mad creature, staring at all the incoming vehicles. Had one veered towards me, I would have had nowhere to go; there was a metal banister along the side. It got too noisy very very quickly; I couldn't have spent more than a minute or five staring possible doom in the face before turning off into a much quieter side street.
It was about this time that I discovered that the maps mum had provided didn't actually show where I was. I ended up asking directions from a male who looked like he was cleaning his car, and smelled of recent cigarette smoke. He wished me luck.
After 45 minutes or so of dismally skating up hills and far too short sections of downhill, I eventually ended up in front of the following house:
I actually got there before I'd finished folding a paper rose, which I ended up leaving in what I hope was that house's letterbox. (It was green.) I didn't spend long there; the sun was truly looking like it was setting by that time. Having missed the train I'd intended to take, I then decided I'd see how far it actually was back to the train station. I didn't feel I could take the strain of skating back up all the hills on that road (although in hindsight it should have been more downhill on the way back), so I walked, counting my paces. After almost losing track several times, I pulled out a rope I'd brought with me for practicing knot tying; every hundred metres, I tied one, with some difficulty. Skates on a belt are very heavy when one needs to keep relying on one's mouth to keep them off the ground.
An hour and 50 knots later, I'd missed yet another train and the sun had well and truly set. I bought another two bread buns, eating one on the platform and the other on the train. A fellow bushwalker whom I'd passed on the trail earlier in the day showed up and chatted with me while we waited for the train. We didn't exchange names - what was the point? - but he was from Perth, moved here for work purposes, and was taking some well needed leave to enjoy several days of bushwalking in the Blue Mountains; he had plans to see the three sisters, and was planning to do some more bushwalking tomorrow.
Ate my apple while waiting for the train to leave Clyde. Had run out of water by then, so had to put up with sticky fingers. Was picked up by parents sometime after 8pm.
Well worth the fun.
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