It was the second to last day of my Christmas holiday period and I was missing the summer time fun of going to the river to have a good time. Oh what the hell!! I thought, and packed my rucksack to go camping. But in the mountains in Okutama it gets well below freezing! Probably it won't have the same feeling as summer ; )
After hitting a few trails with my bike I realized the sun was settling down for the night and I needed to find a place quickly otherwise it would be difficult to find wood for the fire to keep me warm. I'd packed some meat, frying pan, knife and chopsticks, had picked up some vegetables at a local shop then cooked up a delicious pork stir fry. But man it was cold!!
Something touched my cheek. It felt like that feeling when a stray rain drop lands on your skin. I looked up into the sky but only saw the beauty of the all the stars above me. Mmmm .... strange!
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| This is one of the trees that my hammock was attached to. The tree seems to have picked up some sort of ... err ... something! ;) Hope it's not contagious. Better get my hammock checked out by the doctor! |
Later, about 15 minutes after scoffing elegantly in front of the fire it happened again. This time I saw what it was. It was bloody snowing!! The wind had picked up slightly and was blowing the snow through the valley. Mountains surround me on both sides. Up to my right, along the ridge of the mountains came a huge blanket of clouds!! Uh-Oh!! The snow was falling a fair bit now and I frantically started packing everything up except my hammock and sleeping bag, they would be the last. I looked up again to the clouds on the ridge and they hadn't come any closer ... mmm!! I waited for a while and watched them hover just a few hundred meters from me. Half of the valley was cloudy and the other half was clear with the stars in the sky, kind of like a stand off. I threw some more wood on the fire and settled down to watch what would happen in my hammock.
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| Sunrise by the river ; ) It was bleedin' freezing!! Cooked up mushrooms on toast for breakfast. |
The clouds drifted away. Phew, I was saved. It would have been a hassle to move to another site. In fact it would have been a nightmare really to have to find some shelter.
A couple of rock climbers that I'd seen earlier set up a camp about 500 meters down the river from me but they didn't have a fire! Crazy! How did they keep warm? Must have just jumped straight into their sleeping bags and crashed.
Later in the morning it was time to head off and find some trails. Followed the river a fair way down and then I found this unusual looking tree below. Looks like the bridge is growing from the tree.
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| Saw this by the bridge. Really fitting for the ambiance of the river |
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| Dam!! Can't be real that I have to go back to work in the next 24 hours!! |
Craig, somehow, hearing you describe something touch your cheek - something unknown - just brings back memories of when we drove up to the Flinders Ranges, and stayed out in the bush in the trusty hammock, and during that long night,felt and heard the invisible but definite presence of various animals!!Hee hee! Do you remember the EMU????Remember it sticking it`s emu beak in the car in the morning, as I attempted to change?? Hee hee!.....just 1 of those unforgettable moments - well, for me anyway! xxxes!!
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