something about the end of the world

Welllll, look at us here. It’s the middle of a sixth lockdown in Melbourne, and this one feels like it could go on forever… it’s hard to find the energy to do anything and I’m lost in the flow of time. Sometimes I can’t remember what day of the week it is which is very unusual for me. But when you have nowhere you have to be at all besides inside your house, all sense of reality really just flies out the window. Here are some pictures from walks I’ve taken over the past… year ?

Realistically though, there’s been way more of this than that:

loose ends pt. ii

then the australian garden at cranbourne botanic gardens several days later

it turns out the cranbourne botanic gardens are in the middle of nowhere and they have no expectation that anyone is going to try to walk there… like that’s gonna stop me.  it’s the first time google maps walking directions time estimate has been less than the time it actually took for me to get there. i went back a different way.

loose ends pt. i

what is there to do when you have no plans for your days off other than go wandering in places you haven’t been before…

presenting: south melbourne beach, port melbourne, westgate park on the first day of spring

lost in a cultural wasteland

(Not my words)

Today I learned something new.  My entire life I thought that Brisbane was inland.  I was positive that it was away from the coast.  Convinced.  Somehow I’ve visited four or five times and not ever discovered any different.  I was there last weekend.

So here are some places I went that aren’t the beach:

Next time I’m going to the beach.  Consider yourself warned.

pinnacles / barnacles

Wednesday.  Our bodies still tired from six hours of hiking the day before, suckers for punishment that we are we returned the next morning for another challenge.  Climbing Mt Oberon to take in the view.

Clouds clung to the tops of the mountains, and winds buffeted the heights as I stood and looked over the edge.

Then down from the mountain we came and headed for the beach.

Sandstone and granite.  Turquoise, aquamarine and lapis.  Pure white sand, scorched blue sky.  Colours too elusive to capture.

Thousands of tiny barnacles, clusters of baby mussels coat the rocks near the tideline.

Clamber, climb, slip through rocky clefts into nature’s stone cathedrals.

Finally, hungry and tired and with a touch of sun finding the gaps in the sunscreen, our trip is over and the drive back to the city has to begin.

Thanks for coming on the journey.

six-two-one

I don’t know whose idea it was.  I guess one of us must have suggested it first.  To get away from the city, see some of the countryside.  We’d make a trip of it.  Go mid-week and take some days off work.  How wonderful it sounded to us then.  Get away.  See the countryside.  None of us could have foreseen what would meet us at our destination.

It had been six years since I moved to Melbourne to the day, and after work the six of us met up and made our way south.  To Wilsons Prom.

We slept the night in our farmhouse getaway, then made our way to the National Park the next morning.

It was a three hour hike to our beach of choice.  We wanted to get away from where all the people were.  Our path lead us through a burnt forest, over the side of several mountains, across a swamp, and finally… we were there.  Sealers Cove.  I use the term we fairly loosely.  A three hour hike with six people of varying levels of both stamina and patience meant that we didn’t all arrive at the same time.

The first of us to arrive left a note written in the sand for the rest straggling along behind and continued along to the north end of the beach.  We took enough time to eat some of the food we had carried with us and have a rest before the next challenge.  Climbing across the rocks and along the cliffs to the end of the point.

As you may know, I was born part mountain goat and feel the need to stand on the top of every huge rock I see.  Sometimes the choice is between smashing myself on the side of the rock and falling into the sea or climbing a decidedly inhospitable overgrown and boulder-strewn cliff to see if there’s another way.  Sadly in this case neither option was truly viable, and my exploring companion was considerably less goat-like and more than ready to return to the rest of the group.  My defeat was complete.  We made our way back across the field of vast granite and sandstone boulders to where the others rested on the sand, then retraced our steps to where the cars were parked.

It often seems like the way back is much quicker than the original journey.  The same cannot be said for three hours of hiking through mountainous terrain.  We felt every step, but it was worth it.

RIP my legs.

flashback to 2007

So I’ve been living here for a year now, so I figure I should probably show you around a lil bit.  Here’s my place.  That’s it.  That’s the whole thing (only joking there’s a bedroom and bathroom as well, obvs.).

On a side note: shaving your own head is really not easy.

(2007 was the year Britney Spears had a breakdown and shaved all her hair off, just in case you were wondering).

sunset at the end of hope st

and moonrise on the way back

Yesterday (was it yesterday or the day before ?) I went for a walk for about an hour just to take a picture of the sunset.

I moved to Brunswick in November.  I live in a very small apartment by myself.  Am I a real grown up now ?

Ha !  No.

I am still alive though.

a long walk along a lonely beach

or From Sandringham to Black Rock and Back Again

I had an unexpected day off work, so even though it was threatening to rain the entire time I caught the train down to Sandringham and walked along to Black Rock and back.  I saw virtually no one in the couple of hours I spent down there, which suited me just fine.  It’s nice to get out of my usual little bubble and get some air up in me, both literally and metaphorically.

thirty-seven-twenty-two

i’m sorry i’m like this