Wednesday 31 July 2019
Photos by Donna & Helen
Six intrepid walkers joined Donna on a lovely winter day imploring her to take them on a magical journey into the Deua, as they were all desperate. Not desperate to see a waterfall, not desperate to see an ocean, not even desperate to see native wildlife. No, they were all desperate to climb some hills! The rookie, wet-behind-the-ears walk leader assured them that they had all come to the right place, excited that there were six other likeminded souls who loved nothing better than slogging up and down hills for fifteen kilometres. Our mission, which was accepted, was to reach the Coondella Trig for lunch, of course without any casualties. Although there is an accepted ten percent attrition rate, with only seven participants the walk leader hoped that this would not occur.
Whilst this did not occur, a fate almost as bad did occur. The dreaded question ‘Donna, what tree is that?’ was asked on more than one occasion. The walk leader frantically scrambled together some names she had heard on previous walks. ‘Well, that would be either a Spotted Gum, Blackwood, Pinkwood, Blackbutt or even an Angophora.’ Hoping that she had somehow jagged the right answer and hoping not to look too silly, Donna hurried the group up, changing the subject whilst muttering ‘where’s Ian when you need him.’
An otherwise uneventful walk to the trig continued with an ascent of over seven hundred metres gained. We had lunch with some lovely filtered views of Moruya to the north and the Deua mountain ranges to the west. After lunch it was all downhill to the cars. Apart from Rodney’s purported close encounter with a leech, all participants completed the walk in one piece, begging for some more hills in the not too distant future.
Donna