A walk in the countryside.

As proud Kiwis we tend to think that no where else in the world can possess the same clean, green image as we do in NZ.. well at least that's what I used to think anyway..

Sarah and I walked downstairs to the restaurant this morning and took our place at our table. All the tables have name tags, mine belongs to "Mr Scanlan" a name I usually only drag out for the Doctor and the Taxman.
I was plowing my way through yet another bowl of cornflakes, when something caught my eye outside the window. There in a large pine tree not five meters from where we sat was a little red squirrel.
He ran up and down the branches at a frenetic pace. Doing what ever it is squirrels do. I'm guessing he wasn't gathering nuts in a pine tree. He then took off running along the concrete balustrade that encompasses the patio directly outside the window. Very cute! Why do we only have pesky possums in our trees.. hardly seems fair really.

After getting through the mornings yukky bits, needles, IV's and infusions I was free to do what ever I liked for the day. Dr K suggested we get out for a walk in the countryside.
So as soon as lunch had settled, Sarah and I put on our sneakers and sunnies and headed off down the walking track that starts just a few hundreds metres from the Kliniks front door.

The tracks are somewhere in between a very narrow road or a very generous footpath. A mixture of walkers, bikers, tractors and cars all traverse the same narrow ribbons of winding roadway. After passing through luscious green pastures, musically accompanied by the constant clanging of a hundred cow bells, we headed on up into a forest area. The trees grow arrow-straight, probably Cedar or Fir. The scenery is straight off a chocolate box lid. I half expected to see Hansel and Gretal skipping along, breadcrumbs trailing behind.

(The one thing you do notice by their absence are birds. Between Sarah and I, we have seen two crows, a pair of largish pigeon looking specimens, a couple of Finches and one blackbird. And that's since Tuesday. The dawn chorus in Bad Heilbrun as far as I can tell, consists of the feeble twitters of a couple of dozen, yet to be seen Finches.)

From what as I can make out, all the rural areas are linked by these narrow roads. I guess they were once medieval highways and byways that would have connected all the villages and towns. Now they are glorified walking tracks, maintained by necessity for the farmers, and for tourism on the less traveled sections. I've found myself a map and we shall explore as many as we can now that I have the strength to get past the Kliniks front gate.

Today we managed to walk about five Km's. That really surprised me. To have regained so much energy in such a short time is just incredible. Three days ago I struggled to climb the stairs!.
Mind you I did stop a lot to rest. There are park benches every few hundred metres or so, ..would have been such a shame not to put them to good use!

It was while sitting at one such bench admiring the rolling green hills that lead up towards the woods and forests above, that I saw a wild cat, motionless in the grass, that almost, but not quite concealed it. Ginger in colour, it appeared to be stalking something. Probably a field mouse.
It moved one paw then another, creeping along slowly towards it's prey, body flattened towards the ground to minimise it's profile. Whether is was successful in catching it's afternoon tea, I do not know. We continued on our walk.

We strolled by green pastures with nothing in them, and wooded areas where timber had been cut and stacked for gathering. Once again stopping for a rest in a small clearing that contained a pair of horses, heads down, pulling clumps of grass from the ground, making that familiar crunching sound as the blades are torn from their roots.

Yup, It was a beautiful day for a walk.

..Ron




Chocolate Box scenery..

Past rolling green pastures..

Cat center of picture.


Sharing the path..