Week 20 & 21
Once I got through Mungo Brush I walked to Seal Rocks which was another beautiful 20+km walk through the National Park. I saw a gorgeous green tree python on the path, I think it may have been injured while basking on the path because he was pretty dormant and had damage to one eye. I’m guessing it may have been caused by being swooped by a bird that had struck it square on the head.
I thought of the irony in snakes being something that we, as humans, fear being killed by, and birds being something that humans take little notice of, and out of those two creatures on this occasion, the bird was more lethal. This made me question whether we fear things because of the actual level of danger attached to them or because of what we have been conditioned to be fearful of. My classic example is that coconuts kill more people annually than sharks but we never see a horror movie with the killer coconut!
I stayed at Seal Rocks for the evening at an old favourite camping spot at Treachery campground. It was raining which had been a bit consistent over the last couple of weeks. The following day I made my way along Seal Rocks road and admired the beautifully coloured and decorated paintings that cover the stretch of tar along there. It’s wonderful to see something so mundane being transformed into something so beautiful. I’m sure it is up-kept by locals because I remember it being there years ago and it still looks great. It was beautiful to see, especially being a rainy day. The bright paints really did lift my mood!
I continued walking around Smiths Lake on low tide which was questionable (to say the least) but I didn’t want to go along the narrow roads and S-bends in the wet weather because it was just too dangerous for me to even try. I walked along the edge of the lake, sometimes wading in knee-deep mud that smelt of rotting flora and sludge.
Other sections were gravel, rocks, reeds, and gravelly sand. I did see a big brief of lovely pelicans.
There were fish jumping in and out of the water and I also saw some blockades from WW2 that I didn’t realise were there.
It was quite a surreal landscape with really low clouds hugging the hills surrounding Smith Lakes and it had an ominous feel to it and so I played some slow, calming music. The combination of the scenery, music, and environment that I was in, made it quite a peaceful day. Slow, because of constant problem-solving with creeks running out and many different elements to contend with but calming as well.
I continued on toward Blueys Beach through the local National Park past Danger Point. Blueys Beach is absolutely stunning with gorgeous mountains behind it and a beautiful secluded cove.
The next couple of days incorporated hiking along Boomerang Beach, Elizabeth Beach, and Shelly Beach into Booti Booti National Park which was a favorable stretch for me.
I got to see a lot of whales which was very exciting! I hadn’t seen any for a long time and it was such a peaceful time in Booti Booti National Park.
I must confess though when I was climbing one of the mountains in Booti Booti, I proceeded to vomit profusely as I was climbing a steep incline (I was so exhausted and dehydrated). At the time that I started to feel sick, a group of tourists came down behind me and I thought “hold it in”. I could feel it behind my teeth and I kept saying to myself “hold it in, hold it in” and trying to swallow it down but it just came up! I didn’t know if it was food poisoning, water, or something else but the reality is it could be anything. It’s one of the hardest things sometimes trying to pinpoint and figure out what’s wrong with me because there are so many things that I expose myself to on a day-to-day basis that can make me quite crook! But…. it was like something out of a horror film. I vomited, there were kids with them and they screamed. I was trying to tell them I was OK, but I don’t think they spoke English. ……it would have been a bit of an unexpected and wild scene for them to look at.
Progressing on, I camped at Teona Caravan Park at Teona Beach. When I finally arrived, I faced setting up my tent for the first time, with only about 30 minutes left of daylight left in the day! It was kind of like when your parents tell you “take a jumper, you’ll be cold” and you don’t, and it’s cold, and you instantly regret it! ….. well look… people had been telling me to unseal my new tent for ages and have a go at setting it up and have a look at how it goes and… I didn’t! I was very sure it was going to go poorly but to my relief, it actually didn’t and worked out relatively well!
I enjoyed the sunset over Wallace Lake opposite Teona and it was stunning!
Kids were out playing on their canoes and families were just having a wholesome time with each other. Even though I wasn’t with any of the families, it felt really nice being around happy people just enjoying life!
The next morning when I woke up and I was packing up my gear, I kept getting a feeling that I was being watched. I looked up, to see this beautiful little 2 to 3-year-old Philippino girl, wearing the cutest little koala beanie you’ve ever seen in your life, standing there and just staring at me. There was no one else around. I knew she was from the campsite next door because I had seen her briefly the night before. I introduced myself to her and gave her a smile. Her mum later came over and said “my little girl has been watching you since you arrived yesterday and kept asking me if she could come and see you and I kept telling her ‘no’. She asked me again this morning, and so I said she could come over and see you. I hope that was OK?”. Her beautiful mum then invited me to join them for some breakfast and a coffee. The mum was a nurse in Newcastle and the little girl was smitten with me and kept checking behind her as we made our way to her campsite, that I was definitely following her. If I slowed down at all, she would circle back to catch me up. I spent the morning with these really wonderful people before heading off to walk across to 7 Mile Beach and then into Forster.
Forster was a milestone place I had always been looking forward to reaching and it was also a place where I caught up with my mother and Uncle (mum’s brother) from Greece. It was so good to see him. It’s rare that we get to catch up, so for him to make time while he was in Australia on his visit to come up and see me in Forster and say hello to me was super special.
I’m very lucky to have been blessed with the family that I have and the support that I have around me. The next few days I was able to refuel and recoup with mum and Brad and also get some more resources before bidding farewell to them and continuing on my way to Tuncurry.
In Tuncurry, I caught up with some locals while I was in the area. A gentleman at a Motor Lodge, donated a couple of nights’ accommodation to me which was absolutely fantastic. He was such a beautiful soul, and I was so grateful for his generosity and kindness because it allowed me to do some planning for the upcoming weeks, and I was able to rest my body and recover because it was here that I had acquired some pretty gnarly bruises on my shoulders from carrying my pack from the previous days. My shoulders were so sore!
The hardest thing about wearing the pack is, it hurts, and normally in life when things hurt you can avoid them, stop them, take them off, or move them a bit. This pack however, no matter what I do, I have to keep it on, because every time I take it off, I only prolong my days walking, and then eventually I just have to put it back on again. This is a real mental struggle with continuing to walk and trying to manage pain. The bruises were pretty bad and quite uncomfortable and the donated accommodation allowed a few needed days off.
I left Tuncurry with the intention of reaching Diamond Beach by the evening and staying with gorgeous family friends. I was about 6 km out of Tuncurry and I was walking near a road having an ABC radio interview. Being around traffic massively unsettles me and it was really hard talking in the interview and managing my stress from being on the road at the same time. I was then faced with having to cross a double-lane two-direction highway with cars going 100+kms/hr whilst carrying an 18kg pack. I didn’t get hit, but I did really quite close to a car that gave me a big beep and it rattled me big time. It really unsettled me, so I got onto a walking track on the telegraph side of the highway and I could feel ‘IT’ building in my chest as I was walking along. I had been feeling angst building and I was trying to condense my day by the route I had chosen to walk but also wanted to get as far as I could in the day. Unfortunately, the road I’d taken, led onto a bridge where there wasn’t any room for me. It was a two-lane bridge with no pedestrian allowance and the trucks that were crossing were barely fitting it. I started to walk backward on myself and suddenly felt as if someone had punched me in the throat. I couldn’t breathe and started to hyperventilate! I’ve had panic attacks before but they have previously occurred in comfortable places like a car, a bathroom, etc. I found myself on the side of a highway, curled around my bag in the fetal position, crying hysterically and hyperventilating where I stayed for what felt like forever.
I tried to continue my walk and managed another kilometre before having another panic attack and then decided I couldn’t keep moving forward that day when I was so emotionally distressed and vulnerable. I was lucky I had support in the area and so reached out for that because I was completely gone! I went back to Tuncurry and took refuge for another night a the Motor Lodge.
The next day was an internal battle with myself because I didn’t want to walk, I didn’t want to go anywhere, because the day prior I had been lying in the tall grass wrapped around my pack with blaring cars passing me and I didn’t want the same thing to happen. At the same time, however, I knew that staying inside would just increase my anxiety and I was fearful that it would possibly get even harder to get going again the next day if I didn’t make an attempt. So I did a small part. It was only 6kms which is nothing compared to what I usually do in a day’s walk, but it was enough to ease me back in without me falling apart again. I was lucky that I had my friend Sean with me for support. He didn’t make me feel guilty or judged, and he didn’t baby or pity me. He just supported and helped in any way he could. Sometimes that help is, gently pushing our loved ones to keep going, because we know that they are capable of it.
Another contributing factor to my anxiety was the giant meandering Manning River which had been creating a lot of problems for me as far as water crossings and trying to organise my day’s plans. I’d have to walk 15 km inland at any given point to get around the river because it branches in so many different ways it created large land islands around that area including Old Bar, Mitchell’s Island, and a crossing at Mannings Point. The difficulty I have found organising water crossings is it can have a ripple effect (no pun intended). If one water crossing goes wrong, then anything that has been arranged for the proceeding crossings goes wrong as well because you can’t get there on time. Crossings then have to be rescheduled or if someone is not there or doesn’t show up you can be stuck! There is a lot of anxiety and time pressure around these crossings. Luckily Sean had recognised this was a sketchy area for me to try to navigate by myself and so he had stuck around. He bought an inflatable stand-up paddle board and got me across numerous waterways. Around Mitchell’s Island where there are small one-way bridges Sean got in his car and crawled behind me with his hazard lights flashing at 5 km/hr while I jogged across these narrow bridges.
I probably pissed off a large portion of the island community, but hey….. you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do sometimes and I made it across Mannings Point bound for Harrington.