Nil Desperandum

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.

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.

******************
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 :)

Autumn sunset