1.
This year we have been married for 25 years.
It's like a miracle for me to keep my marriage normal and quite a happy one for such a long time like my daughter says.
I'm not suitable for the institution of marriage I have to admit.
Eddie planned a trip for two of us to celebrate it.
He even bought a tripod to take photos of us.
He was quite excited when he was planning it and every minutes of it too during the trip.
I don't remember about before but nowadays I don't feel too excited about upcoming events.
Once I am on it I start feeling it.
Everything was perfect.
All went smoothly according to the plan.
Weather was good except one morning which didn't affect us too much.
I couldn't believe our luck for this!
It was day 2 of Green Gully track and it started raining from early morning at 3am
and around 11am it stopped.
I was awake with this loud rain dropping on the galvanized tin roof of old stockman's hut.
We rather enjoyed walking in the light rain so much that morning.
Fresh air cooled my head.
It just stopped before my walking boots soaked in rain water completely.
We came back refreshed from this 18-day road trip.
We visited inland Australian beautiful rural towns which have had less or almost none of immigrants
and kept many old buildings with old life styles.
We hiked World Heritage enlisted rainforest mountains.
We had one night of experience with a real Australian B & B.
We finished our trip with a multi day hiking to Green Gully track(65km) in Oxley Wild Rivers National Park.
It was mainly a budget hiking trip.
Clean and modest accommodation with self contained kitchen would do.
I like cooking and during this trip I really enjoyed it too.
We had only one dinner at a restaurant because we didn't have a kitchen facility that day
and that was my birthday too.
On my birthday we walked 25km all day so by the time we arrived at the resort I was happily exhausted.
What a nice way to celebrate my birthday to walk rich rainforest areas to the fullest.
It's from Binna Burra to Green Mountains in Lamington National Park, Queensland.
Most of all I am happy with the fact that I share similar values on life and things with Eddie.
We are not materialistic.
We like a simple life.
We want to improve through our course of life.
Most importantly we both have passions for hiking.
That's how this trip was worked out for the important event.
We were travelling world heritage enlisted rainforest areas around north NSW and south Queensland.
I learned this area still keeps species from Gondwana which was our ancestral continent before Australia was
separated from others like South America, India, Africa and Antarctica around 80 or 90 millions years ago.
Mostly we went to places where only white Australians were seen which was a hindsight realization.
If you live in Sydney you're used to racial diversity.
Our trip was involved with mostly day hiking along numerous National Parks
and one 4-day hiking to Green Gully track in Oxley Wild Rivers National Park.
They were not tourist destinations.
One exception was Byron Bay.
Byron Bay looked like a smaller version of Bondi to me.
Many hippie looking young people were seen there.
I was glad we were not staying at down town there.
We were much better staying at a farm enjoying our own company.
We enjoyed tranquillity most of times.
We were free from daily busy life, crowds, cigarette smokes, any sort of noise and busy traffics.
Also free from news and SNS.
Free from everything.
Almost.
We were impressed by beautiful lush rainforests and waterfalls along with wildflowers.
I loved the feeling of every single vegetation full of life in those watery rainforest environments.
We had wonderful sunrises in different places.
We witnessed amazing sunsets in many places too.
It seemed like a wonder we could have an invaluable chance every morning
and every night for that if we want to.
Sunrise at the New England National park was amazing.
We were literally standing at a high mountain above clouds which made beautiful shades
and colours when the sun shivering and jumping out from clouds down.
What an anticipation when we were waiting!
When we saw the sun rise from the sea at Byron Bay I was amazed how the salty air there was so warm
and energetic with millions of excited people witnessing the most important event from all over the places.
2.
I often asked myself why I was hiking.
I believe this is just like the same question as why I live.
Why?
I asked this question to Eddie a couple of times.
I can guess the answer from him
but habitually I do which doesn't annoy him to my relief.
Probably our life is being devoted to seek this answer.
My answers could be.....
We just love nature to ourselves.
We like being in nature free from daily routines.
We are physically fit and lucky enough to do it.
Hiking makes us feel alive.
Also we feel our souls restful in those environments.
Hiking can purify our minds.
Eddie has pure free soul and most of the times he is living in the present moment.
Nothing much is bothering him.
For me, I feel there are still so many hurdles I have to get over.
I find many things and people bothering me many times unfortunately.
There are inconstant moments when I feel free from any sort of burdens in my mind.
Everything is in order, nothing is bothering me.
I am peaceful and happy as if you feel you know something deep and important.
That's what I aim for in life.
I want to be like that permanently or at least for a longer period of time and
I believe visiting nature by hiking helps this process.
3
I was scared of many things during the trip which was stopping us from enjoying the moments.
I was worried when we passed so many fords in Barrington Tops National Park which were overflowing from the rains.
I was worried if our 10 year old car could sustain this long road trip.
There were so many unsealed roads we had to drive.
I was uneasy when I realized we were far in a remote place.
I was scared if we got lost when we were hiking late afternoon on the rocky misty track at New England National Park.
I was bothered when bush turkeys were following me when we were at Dorrigo National Park picnic area.
I was scared when I got swooped by two aggressive magpies at Uralla.
I was panicky even though short time when I was sleeping in old stockman's hut on day one of Green Gully track.
I was nervous when I came across red bellied snakes three times on day 3 of Green Gully track.
I was not free from unnecessary daily life concerns from time to time during the walks.
I tried to concentrate on my movements of feet like the way of walking meditation
but more often than not I found myself thinking of unrelated and unimportant things.
4
Life goes on.
So is my inner pursuit.