Thursday, July 29, 2010

Trekking Taz: Day 4; Heading Home



…The young man opened his eyes. It was still mostly dark. He grabbed the watch to check the time. In ten minutes it’d be six. In ten minutes he’d wake up his friends. He really wanted to catch sunrise. That would be something to see.


Ten minutes

Six o’clock


He woke up his friends and they immediately began to pack their things into their bags. The young man was the first to leave the tent. He had to fill up and prepare a bottle of water before they left. He grabbed his bottle, washed negal vaser, and went out to the stream. It was already beginning to get little light and he didn’t need to use his torch to navigate as much. The boat had left and the bay was empty and still asleep.


It was quite surreal


The young man listened to the crunch of the sand under his feet as he made his way to the river. He pulled out his camera to capture this dreamlike scene, but it was to dark for his device to handle. He looked at his little camera. He figured this was simply one of those moments that could only be saved in the storehouses of memory, and only a glimpse could be given over in the form of words. It didn’t matter he realized. Neither a picture nor a poem could ever portray the true nature of the moment. It could never give someone the emotion the young man felt standing in that white bowl. The white sand and water captured and gave off the little light that there was, making it look as if the sand itself glowed. At the same time the entire wineglass was surrounded by pure black. The contrast of shiny white against foreboding black, the emptiness, the overcast weather, it all seemed to say ‘you aren’t supposed to be here.’


He wondered if he was still asleep and dreaming


But the chilly air and breeze said otherwise. He was awake. This was no fabrication of his adventurous mind. He was actually living this moment and he thanked G-d for guiding him to this little island across the whole world.


Glup glup glup

Fresh water


He returned, set his water aside, and began taking things down and packing up. It didn’t take that long. In no time everything was back on their backs and they were ready to move. They descended to the sand and began the long annoying trek around the whole curve of the sand.


SHSHSSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSH


The young man was a little disappointed. It was too cloudy to see any sunrise. When they were opposite the neck he stopped to adjust his pack and fix his water into the bladder. He loved that water bladder. He was able to affix it right on the back of his pack and loop the mouth piece onto the front strap. He could sip water without any hassle the whole way through.


Squip squip squip


The sand soon became real annoying to walk on and they still had some way to go until the end. Worse, the young man looked ahead to the ridge they would have to climb over. All this and they were pressed for time. They had to daven above all and catch the bus as well. When they reached the end of the beach they didn’t know where to go next. With a little walking back and forth and sensible exploring though, the young man found the way.


A quarter of a chocolate bar


It was all the young man was running on. It was all he’d be running on as well. His eggs had finally gone bad, or at least smelt really strange, and they had no time to stop and open a can of tuna.


So up and up they went

Ugh…

UP


It wasn’t nearly as hard as climbing that mountain two days before hand. And the ridge itself wasn’t nearly as hard as it would have been had the young man not scaled that mountain. It was still a drag and their packs still weighed them down, but the three travelers glided up at a good pace.


We’re already here?


The top came as a surprise to the young man. He didn’t figure they’d make it so far so soon. The travelers took a slight detour to an overlook where they could gaze down with pride at the entire magnificent land they traversed, from one side to the other, over the mountain, through the forest, across the beaches, and up the very ridge which they stood.


“Yeeeeees!”


The echo was amazing. Its reverberation was a full second and bounced back crystal clear. The young man felt, in his words, pretty flipping awesome. He was so high up, the wind was blowing in his face, and the scenery was astonishing.


Time’s up


The began their descent down the other side of the ridge.


It was absolutely uneventful and not worth writing


The made it back to the car park, signed out so everyone would know they weren’t dead, and began the mind-numbing four kilometer walk back to the visitor center. This time there was no one to hitch hike with.


The most boring 4k of his whole life

He just wanted to get there already

After four days the bag was friggin’ heavy

This sucks


They arrived at the visitor center

O

M

G

What a relief


First thing the young man did was get out of his clothes. He put on fresh (in a way) everything. Button down shirt, a grey vest that made him feel very 1930’s, and fresh underwear made him feel swell. Now he could finally daven.


Teffilin

Siddur

Oo! A bird!


They dragged their stuff to the front. The van bus thing moved in to pick them up. It was the same lady as before. She got out and helped them w/ their bags as the young man told her that he really saw a whale just like she said.


Vrrrroom


She dropped them off at a crossroad to wait for the next bus. It was a super classic situation in the young man’s eyes. They were sitting at the crossroads in some distant land across the sea, waiting for a ride. It didn’t take long before it came.


Once again they were off


He pulled put his pamphlet and started learning. He looked out his window. He had gotten a good seat. The road went along the coast and he watched the waves crashing all along the rocks and beaches they passed. They wizzed passed trees and huge patches of land filled with sheep. After a while he was able to look at their very peninsula from across the sea. It was bigger than he thought. He could just make out Hazards beach with the mountain range behind it.


He was so proud.

They had done all that.


The young man was also tired. He looked at the scenery from the window, learned from his pamphlet, and yawned. Brown grass and eucalyptus trees sailed passed him. He leaned back a bit. No, he wasn’t going to sleep, he was learning, but that’s all just a nice idea. He blinked more and more slowly. As they drove down the road back to Hobart, as the radio quietly played “We Are the Champions”, as he rested his head against the chair, as the adventures and thrills of the past four days finally caught up with him,



His eyes closed…


…And the young American man fell asleep.



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