Look, I honestly wasn’t going to bombard you with blog posts every day of my holidays but I’ve just had the most fun adventure and I really had to share it with you all.
This holidays, one of my big goals is to walk for an hour every day. This morning was a little windy, and being surrounded by gum trees that tend to throw things at one when one is out in the wind, I decided to put the walk off. I drove around and performed a couple of errands and came home for a coffee and a piece of cake and read a book for a bit. Aren’t holidays wonderful?!
When the wind died down I decided the time was ripe for my walk. The coffee had given me a boost, the cake needed working off, and I was ready.
As I walked out the door I had two thoughts. I asked myself, ‘should I take the keys up with me so that I can empty the mailbox?’ and I replied, ‘nah, we emptied it on Friday, there won’t be any mail.’ Wrong! Turns out the mailbox was full. I’ll have to head up again later.
The other thought, as I felt a few drops of rain land on my face, was, ‘do I need an umbrella?’ to which I replied, ‘nah, the BOM* website said there would only be a couple of millilitres and besides, the wind will make the umbrella nearly useless.’ Wrong!
The rain came, and it kept on coming. There was virtually no wind, just a light breeze at times, but there was plenty of wet. Quite a bit of rain. My glasses came off and were put in my pocket (raindrops on glasses are a nuisance) and I kept on walking. The walked changed from a walk to an adventure and I determined to find joy in the moment. And there was a lot of joy!
On the beach, the water was so still that I could see the patterns the raindrops made. The rain blocked out the view of the eastern shore of the river, and I had the whole beach to myself; I ignored the cars and felt like I was the only person in the world. It was delightful.
I saw gulls fishing: pulling themselves higher and higher in the air, then diving to the water below with a splash!
Towards the dog beach end of the beach (Kingston Beach, on the Derwent river, has a special dog friendly section at one end) I met up with a few people. Raincoat clad people who had been dragged out in the rain by rambunctious dogs or children. We shared ‘aren’t we crazy?’ smiles and commented on the lovely weather.
As I turned to walk along Browns River the heavy rain slowed and the sun came out through the lighter drops. I looked back towards the beach and saw a rainbow. A full arc in front of the grey clouds. Just beautiful.
Then, as I walked up Beach Rd, the rain dried up almost completely, and suddenly the air was filled with birds. Cockatoos, lorikeets, galahs, plovers, magpies, and even four ducks flying in formation. Their honking sounded just like a toddler calling ‘Mum! Muumuum!’. All the birds were calling, making a racket. I don’t know where they had been hiding but they were about as thrilled as I was that the rain had stopped.
The other fun thing on Beach Rd was the bright green of the grass on the side being reflected in the water on the road. And I was very grateful that there was room on the footpath for me to avoid the spray that came up when the big truck drove past.
I kept on, and made it home, soaked through in patches but still warm at the core, and totally satisfied. I am now sitting in the sunshine (yes, the rain has totally stopped), under the heater, in a warm jumper, getting myself dry. There are a few wet patches yet, but wet never hurt anyone, and the adventure was worth it!
*bureau of meteorology