I hiked on the weekend, typical for me as I hike four or five days a week. The weather was a perfect 19°C, the sky was vivid blue interspersed with white cloud and the birds seemed happy with my presence based on the way the called out as I went. I started out early and was immediately greeted by a kookaburra calling out - A very Australian thing to hear. I was out there for over two hours and went up and down the hills, little tracks and even blazed my own trail cross-country at one point, just for fun. It's pretty dry as we're coming out of a dry summer, usually by now it's quite green, but the effect hiking had on me was the same as always.
I go to this area a lot and while there's rarely people there I see a person now and again and sometimes even the same people. There's a super-sexy girl who wears the tightest active-wear pants and crop tops I've ever seen (and makes them look good) and it's always a pleasure to see her, stop for a chat and move on...with a glance or two over my shoulder, but she wasn't there on this day.
Multipurpose guy was though and I chatted with him for a bit as I normally do; he's a cool guy and I enjoy catching up with him.
Multipurpose guy
The fellow is quite a lot older than me, still fit though, and hikes in this region most days albeit at different times than I usually do. He does it for health reasons, enjoyment, because he loves nature, the peace and quiet, solitude and all the reasons I do it as well. He has some other reasons though, and I think it's really cool.
The area has a few different ruins from the mid-1800's, crumbling homesteads that once sustained families and a few single/dual-person gold mining sites. The former always make me feel sad and cause me to wonder about those people, the meagre living they scratched out of the earth and why they moved on. The latter, the gold mine sites, make me hopeful of picking up a chuck of gold as big as a coconut (hasn't happened yet - or has it) and also makes me think of the toil those chaps put in to find the precious metal and whether they made their fortunes. Deep shafts pose a danger of course, but it's still cool to explore a little.
Multipurpose guy's purpose
Anyway, multipurpose guy is spending time learning about the history of those sites, the mines and homesteads, documenting it, which is really cool; when we meet up there from time to time he fills me in on the latest research he's done and it's really great to see how he's progressing.
Further to that, he also collects discarded rubbish that fucken assholes throw on the ground when they hike or mountain bike up there. There's not a lot, most people are responsible, but he finds a dozen or so items each time and collects and bins them - I think that's a responsible thing to do and have told him so. He's a good sort is multipurpose guy.
We had a good chat and went our separate ways but I was left, as usual, with the thought that that could be me one day when time permits...wandering about in nature day after day staying healthy, keeping my mind occupied with research, helping nature and staying fit and healthy...it seems like a good use of time to me.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
Image(s) in this post are my own
