“Don't you ever worry about doing
this sort of thing with me?” my 80 year old, osteoporotic, spinal
column stuck together with glue, can't feel her feet mother asked me
as we cautiously picked our way down a bush track in Heathcote
National Park today. In truth, I had under-estimated the difficulty
of our days bush-walk as I had been busy with other things when
planning the trip and had only briefly glanced at the trail
description. “Mostly on fire-roads” was all I could remember,
and, my mother does relatively well on fire-roads. The 60 vertical
metre descent down a rough, steep bush track to access the fire-road
had either slipped from my consciousness or never been there in the
first place.
“I try not to think about it” I
flippantly replied. In truth, the only thing I ever did think about
on these occasions – and, perhaps regretfully, there have been a
few of them – was “what will Search and Rescue think if I my
mother falls over here and I have to call them to haul her out of
here?” If Australia's Search and Rescue teams are anything like
Canadian Search and Rescue teams, their condemnation seems
guaranteed. I can certainly remember quite a few call-outs with
Nelson Search and Rescue where, however unspoken it might have been,
the disapproval of various team members hung heavily in the air.
But, if we can laud disabled climbers
tackling Everest, El Capitan, Kilimanjaro, and other big name
mountains, why can we not similarly celebrate an 80 year old
grandmother going for a hike in the woods? Strength, after all, does
not come from doing what comes easily, but from trying that which is
hard.
Eucalpyt reflected in pool, Heathcote National Park
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