Adventures of the Home Run Swim Team: August 14th: A hike through Walyunga National Park

incredible carpet of green...

As a family, we hadn't been out for a good hike for a while and Sunday seemed like a good day to get out there. My ankle is slowly improving and I felt up to tramping around in some woods for a while. Tom and I looked through some books and brochures to find a hiking trail that would appeal to all of us. Since we would normally be on canoe trip this time of year, we decided on a trail that would take us past some rapids. We were soon heading north towards Walyunga National Park.

When we got there we headed off on the Kangaroo trail (5 km round trip) that would take us past Syd's Rapids. It was a beautiful trail - it had rained that morning and the colours were vibrant. The lush carpet of green on either side of us really struck me. It was such a contrast to the black and white starkness of the trees that pushed up out of it. Also the river that flowed by was a like chocolate milk and when we hit the rapids they frothed white foam.

Syd's Rapids

We crossed a stream along side the rapids and found a trail that took us to a perfect picnic area - a rocky perch at the top of the rapids. As we ate our sandwiches we talked about what we would be doing on canoe trip right now if we were back home.

checking out the rapids

Rein thrashing through the woods

beautiful contrasts

eating lunch

After we ate, we decided to go for a larger loop because we still had a fair bit of time. Well, we ended up walking longer than we expected and up and down very steep climbs. My ankle held out - in fact, probably did it some good - and the kids were troopers. Silka didn't complain the whole way. Rein found it a bit more challenging. He complained most of the way, kicked and threw rocks, sat down stumbled a few feet and sat down again. Tom and I took turns walking with him and doing what we could to encourage him. I decided to walk ahead of him for a bit and hid behind a tree to see how he was really doing. Well, it wasn't long before he came over the crest marching along with an big tree branch - marching with no effort. I called him on it. After that, he seemed to improve a bit but would complain a bit more and sit down a few more times. What i really felt like doing is kicking his butt all the way down the hill but I refrained. We got back to the car in about 3.5 hours total feeling that good tired after a day of exercise in the fresh air.