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| Tidbinbilla River |
I was stoked to be able to join a bushwalk with the Canberra Bushwalking Club. The walk I joined was to an old European homestead near Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Nil Desperandum. It was only 12 km long, a walk I could usually do easily, but I've lost so much fitness with everything that's gone on.
The
walk started from the Tidbinbilla Visitors Centre, the usual launching
pad for the fabulous Gibraltar Peak walk. The path is well marked and
took us up and across the Tidbinbilla River, a very pleasant part of the
reserve. It was great that the river was flowing well after the recent
heatwave broke (thank goodness!).
From there, the walk followed fire trails over a ridge to go around the Tidbinbilla Station (private property), before arriving at Nil Desperandum. The homestead was quite badly damaged by the 2003 bushfires but a great job has been done restoring the building.
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| Nil Desperandum |
From there, we re-traced our steps back to the cars. We finished by 1pm, a 12.8km walk with just under 400 metres in climbing.
Nil Desperandum just one of the pleasant walks in Tidbinbilla (guide here) and I'm sure we'll be back here with bub to do some walks and check out the kangaroos, emus and other residents there.
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Nil Desperandum apparently means 'never despair' in Latin, and I think is pretty apt. I wasn't really sure I could handle the walk, but it wasn't a problem.
Not sure when my next bushwalk will be, but I'm enjoying walking around town with my wife, bub, and puppies, and taking the chance to practice photography.
And this week, I get back to the gym :)
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| Autumn sunset |
It's been another five weeks since I posted anything here - really need to be a bit more regular at posting here, but so much has happened. I seemed to have crammed more big life events in the last two months than I've done in the last five years.
In addition to the car accident I had in early January, I changed jobs and just over a week later, became a Dad. My wife was hospitalised the Monday before bub was born, so priorities became supporting her and getting started at my new job. Very little else mattered since then, including diet and exercise.
My wife sent me a link (language warning) suggesting to dad's "if you're a fitness fanatic, kiss that [stuff] goodbye for at least two months. You have neither the time, nor the energy to work out, or eat well."
These don't seem that important compared to looking after my wife and son. As an aside, it's so good to have my son asleep in my arms (though I imagine every parent says that!).
Family and friends have given us cooked meals to freeze,
for which we are deeply grateful. Because of this, we've eaten a lot
better than we otherwise could have.
Working out is a different story. I'd like to get back to bushwalking, even if the walk is very short. The walks I've looked at doing since bub was born I've pulled out of because, to be blunt, I'm stuffed, and it's been more important to be home. I'm looking forward to sharing bushwalking with my son, and have an infant carrier on order to take him bushwalking when he's old enough.
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What does this mean for 40 by 40? On the one hand, it's gone off the rails in a big way. On the other, it's more important than ever. I'm not just looking after myself, but also need to set an example for my son.
I need to focus on other things to deal with stress, tiredness or a generally hectic life - being a Dad, walking, photography (particularly of storms), footy...I might even have to learn to cook (healthy stuff, of course!).
