Solitary Walk

18^th Dec 2007 / 3.38pm

This is the part old lady was talking about in earlier post. We have trekked for about 2-3 hours from the village to Hooker Valley’s first swinging bridge.

Instead of normal trek or using the road, I chose to walk the unbeaten path, cutting across the pampas plains and 2 shallow streams.

Walking alone, without the noises of people talking, sound of automobiles, frequent requests of this and that from the kids, orders from old lady, the long deeply buried solitary instinct was awaken.

There were only clouds, mountains, grass, cool fresh air, occasional sights of wild rabbits and rustles from my footsteps - only nature and me-self. That was almost the best 30min of my life.

Then I began to miss the yakety yaks again, and the urgency to get the car was beginning to press harder. The last thing I want is to have 3 voices calling out together “What took you so long?!!”

When I got the car, I gave the 4WD a test run, to see what this baby is made of. For a moment, I felt like a world rally champ, high speed and sharp turns on the unpaved road, sending up high trails of dusts. Showing off me Pajero’s diesel power to others… Then I reached Hooker Valley car park just like that, and asked myself why did I drive so fast for??? Back to reality…

Btw, Nell, Liz & Old Lady were still taking some pics by the stream… Judging from the absence of horse faces (long & black), I must say they haven’t felt that the wait was too long… Phew!