'Walking between the raindrops’

Approaching trailhead by car

Good Day All,

January 12th

“It’s never going to stop raining in Australia,” we predicted. Of course, it’s a dumb statement. However, we’ve be known to make a fair share of such outbursts. Although we are grateful that we have shelter and are very fortunate and blessed, we think one gets a better perspective of a country from outside one’s apartment. With the persistent rain on this continent, it is proving difficult. There is so much we are missing. “Let’s go take another look at Wooloomooloo,” we suggested to our editor. “What’s the point?” she wanted to know. “How can one resist visiting such a place? What a name. We count eight ‘o’s in the word alone,” we mentioned. It is the part of Sydney where we made our first wrong turn. (One of many). “The rain must be rusting your brain,” our heartless editor retorted.
My Squaw--Sittingedge

Move back a little for the picture, pl....

“How about we return to New Zealand,” we suggested seriously. At first, our editor scorned us but later we thought it might be a great idea. In fact, if you did not get the impression before, we have a soft spot for that country. We did some deep thinking, the intellectuals that we are, and after research and guesswork, we decided that our editor was the more sensible of the team. This, of course, is not something we did not know in the first place. However, sometimes one has to go through the motions to put things to rest. In the meantime, we look out the window and we see the color grey, heavy rain, winds and realize we are most fortunate. Many people in this part of the world have had their lives affected adversely by the weather, others in the United States are killed and maimed for no reason and all we can’t do, is hike and explore Hashem’s beautiful world. Sometimes we embarrass ourselves when we whine.
Morning mist over waterfall

We’ll say this: Should there be a break in the weather today, we’re out of here. In fact, if necessary, we will ‘walk between the raindrops’.
Grand Canyon? I think not

Eight hours later:

Coming out the gorge, upwards we go

What an incredible day. It rained until we reached the trailhead, stopped while we were on trail and then continued as we opened the front door of our apartment. Wow! We set off for Blackheath, another town in the Blue Mountains area. We hiked along the rim for a while until reaching Govetts’ Leap and then joined the Grand Canyon trail which took us deep into the Gorge. The hike had many components including an initial mist, waterfalls, boulders to scramble, creeks to cross and edges and ledges—features we enjoy immensely. The distance was in excess of 6 miles, rough ups and downs, muddy paths (big surprise), an abundance of trees, birds always and spectacular views. It’s not New Zealand nor the wonderful Western United States but nevertheless, it is and was terrific. We were most fortunate to get a day like this after thirty-six hours of rain.
Gorge(ous)

Finally, co-existence with nature and its other creatures is vital. We came across an eastern brown snake. It is rated dangerously venomous. We are happy to step far away from it and its friends. We would like it to offer us the same courtesy. We can hope, can’t we?

A venomous killer.
Pondering on the edge

Cheers,

Jenni and Jeffrey