Down here on the south coast, our birthday celebrations always involve some kind of outdoor activity. Sometimes, we get well and truly thrashed, one of my favourite activities, other times we just go out to have fun. With climbing out of the question again due to the incessant rain, we went out to have a bushwalk along the new Murramarang Coastal Track.
I have mixed feelings about the upgraded walk. While I love bushwalking and think the more people who bushwalk the better we’ll all be, there is always an element of environmental damage that occurs whenever something gets easier and concurrently more popular. A few years ago, I walked the route of the new track but, as there was no track, I either walked through the bush (easy as it is quite open) or followed the shoreline. I hardly saw anyone except at the road accessible areas and there was really no garbage. The first thing, however, Doug and I encounter on a new section of the track is a big fire-pit full of broken liquor bottles. We cleaned this up as best we could and cursed a certain segment of society that leaves detritus behind them.
The track is really nice. Well situated and with good views along the way. Both the coast and the forest are beautiful and it is particularly lovely to be walking through forest that did not burn in the catastrophic fires of 2019 and 2020. We only covered the southern half, so I will have to go back and see how work is progressing on the northern half. Soon after we turned about, the thunderheads that had been amassing decided to loose their load of rain and we walked back with the sound of thunder crashing around us, sparking lightening and heavy rain. But, a birthday is also a good time to be uncomfortable.
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