1000 Steps

What happens when I am given a long weekend, with bright sunny weather and no prior commitments made? I feel the urge to do fun things because my feelings (read worry) that I am losing time and precious age seems to get stronger with every grey hair I spot on my head! I cannot quite work out how to not feel guilty on any given day. It comes so naturally to me, it stuns me! So I wouldn’t plan any activity just for myself. I will ridiculously plan things to suit my family, my friends, their pets, their neighbours  and anybody else I can think of. Hence comes the plan to check out the Dandenong Ranges National Park and climb the famous 1000 steps. Nice warm weather is a tick from the oldies. Picnic playground areas and other friends to play along with, is a tick from the kids. Picnic organising, planning, packing and delicious picnic food all catered for by the super moms is a tick from the dads. A good day out for parents, partner, progeny and pets is a tick for me. So, the only other tick I needed was to do something that interests me. Not so important for the others involved of course, but I get the sense that my mid life crisis ( yes, I keep telling myself I should turn into a ghost by age 65. Super moms possess super powers after all J) has ‘hormone’nised me to this enigmatic soul searching sphere where I cannot escape such rhetorical questions which unfortunately only I have to answer! 

 

So my master plan included this physical task of climbing the steps (which interests me not because I own a fitbit and if you see me you will agree I am not fit even a bit J)in the midst of tall tress and screaming cockatoos (this also interests me because I was keen to find out if screaming birds could out beat screaming kids and (silently)swearing parents). Also who said master plans needs details? That I knew nothing about the exact destination address for the GPS (technology can help you only so much),how long to reach the top, how come precisely only 1000 steps, how steep the steps are, how wide are the steps for the 4 kids to race each other, how magnificent the views are from the top, how many water taps on the climb, how many rubbish bins (any Indian will tell you how crucial bins are in their lives) in the park? Phew! Anyway, this master plan was a short drive (At least for us. Master plans can be clever sometimes) from home. Short drives are good drives. Ask any parent with experience of ‘belt’ing up more than one kid in a car and not feeding them junk, not surrendering to technology nanny and keeping them from fighting (If you think you can achieve all three in one drive, please realise and remember for next time that this does not fit into the concept of dreaming big). It might feel hilarious now when you look back, but trust me with each person sitting in the car spotting a free parking lot for the driver can indeed leave you holidaying just in the car park. There are certain simple things that many of us take for granted. Like parking the car, getting off and heading to the picnic spot. It is so simple (right?) that it is an involuntary action unless you have to let out so many people from the car you begin to wonder why your car doesn’t look like a bus, and all of them in one piece along with their beloved belongings and some excruciating decisions on what to leave behind in the car and what to carry and who will carry what. Poor super moms have only a couple of hands (that don’t shoot out sticky web whenever they wish). Families big or small, trips short or long, days hot or cold one should never ever forget the mantra, ‘Expect the Unexpected’ (when you are encouraged to ‘push’ your baby out during child birth and you push some other things out, this mantra is ingrained then and there. The very minute you become ‘super’ and a ‘mom’). The concept of distance mattered on this day because it only took around 15m of walking before the whole gang just took a U-turn back to the picnic area, of course huffing and puffing even before they had step ONE (of the 1000, mind you) anywhere near sight! Logically this could have been because the kids had no sense of direction. The ‘keep walking’ nudge literally meant they kept walking, but in any direction they fancied (how can you blame them if a bee just buzzed around them and set them off like the erratic spring pollen on a windy day). With every one backing out I was left wondering about the twist in my master plan. The former me would have walked back too with a heavy heart but thanks to mid-life crisis stratosphere that I feel I am in, I decided to proceed by myself and just 5m in to my solo quest I realised how absolutely delighted I was with this twist. I am so born to be a loner that I cherished every step. My thoughts dictating my pace, my sweat rate guiding my water breaks. Faster the heart rate, slower my racing mind.  I saw all sorts of people on the way – young and old, fit and not-so-fit, individuals, couples, families and groups. Some first timers (like me) and some regulars. The higher I went, the cooler I felt. There wasn’t a clear look out point as such at the top where I stopped. It is more about looking inside is what I have always felt. There were other trails to explore from there on but I resisted them by reminding myself about my silly goof up at Ruffey Lake Park the previous day. Can anyone get lost in a local park? Yes, I can. Did I already mention mid-life crisis? 

 

Ok, sometimes, “Expect the Unexpected” mantra unexpectedly slips my mind. I expected going down would be easy. I should have just thought it would be ‘faster’ rather than ‘easier’. Because I was going down fast and needed to act fast to go slow! How to apply breaks to my own speed? (My mid-life crisis had me pretty confident that my life was lacking speed!)Was it in my mind or my legs to do so? I did not have much time to analyse this part of my master plan because it was happening too fast. I had a moment of despair when despite my speed I could not see the last step back down. Well, eventually I reached back to where I started, feeling dizzy with my accomplishment and secretly planning to come back again next time (slightly confident with my master plans by now), of course by myself. No company is good company, sometimes. Here are some pictures from the climb.