Barb and the Mountain: Month one update

Week of 18 September 2023

Point to Pinnacle: One month in

My goal for the end of the first month of my Preparing for the Point to Pinnacle Program was to walk seven kilometres.

This is about a third of the distance of the Point to Pinnacle. My logic had been that by month one, I should be able to do that distance; by month two, two-thirds (14 km), and by the end of month three, the event would be here and I’d walk 21 km to the summit of kunanyi.

A couple of years ago, a seven km walk would have been a fairly standard Sunday morning for me. I’d regularly walk the ten km into the city for photo explorations and think nothing of it.

But many months out of practice, compounded by my recent injury and advice from my rehab team to not overdo it has meant that I’ve had to build up to this. So over the past month I’ve been aiming for a minimum two km walk every day, with some longer ones thrown in every couple of days.

My right foot is still a bit irritated for whatever reason. I was supposed to go to a physiotherapist who specialises in feet this week to get it checked out but they were unwell and the appointment got rescheduled so, in the absence of any advice to the contrary, I kept going with the plan.

Sunday arrived and I was ready for the walk. Seven km would take me about to Wrest Point Casino, and it would probably take me about an hour and a quarter. I had to be in town before 11.00 to meet up with some folks and go along to Kramstable’s drama class’s play. I decided, rather than go for an early walk, catch the bus back home and get another bus back into town, I’d walk the first seven km of the trip and catch the bus from there.

Or, if I felt okay, keep going all the way to town, which is about ten km.

(I secretly knew what I was going to do but I let myself believe I’d only be walking seven km.)

I’ve walked this route often. It’s fairly flat, more downhill than up and is a lot more bearable on a Sunday morning than on a weekday with peak hour traffic.

It was all good for about the first six km but then my foot started getting a bit aggravated, which is what I was worried about. This had been happening other times I’d done longer walks over the last few weeks, hence the appointment with the foot physio.

I got to the seven km point and could have stopped and waited for the bus. But I decided to keep going because, I’m not really sure why, other than it seemed like a shame to stop and ten km isn’t really that much further than seven.

Right?

And once I’d committed to that I had to keep going because the bus was due at any time and I was nowhere near a bus stop.

So, ten km it was, including reportedly the steepest street in Hobart. Brutal but necessary if I’m going to walk up the Mountain.

It took me an hour and 59 minutes, so pretty much my normal pace of five km/hour, and I had time for a coffee before the show.

And as soon as I stopped walking, my foot stopped hurting. I’ll be interested to hear what the foot physio has to say next week.

Week 4: tracking against the plan

• Monday (2 km): 2.04 km
• Tuesday (3 km): 4.07 km
• Wednesday (4 km): 3.20 km
• Thursday (2 km): 3.20 km
• Friday (2 km): 3.02 km
• Saturday (3 km): 3.57 km
• Sunday (7 km): 10.08 km

Week 38 summary

What was the best thing about this week?

There were several great things this week. One I’m not ready to write about, but I can say that seeing Kramstable’s show (twice) was wonderful.

He’s been with the O’Grady Drama Academy since 2012 and it’s been great seeing him move through the levels into the senior ensemble group, which performs a full-length production every year at the Peacock Theatre. It’s the most lovely little theatre, built into a quarry.

This year’s show was so much fun!

What did I notice this week?

The most terrifying thing, a scenario that I have long dreaded when I’m walking on the main road early in the morning. A wallaby hopped out onto the road in front of an oncoming car, giving the driver no warning at all. The car must have been milliseconds away from hitting the wallaby, which disappeared up a side street unharmed, completely freaking me and the driver of the car out.

We often get pademelons on this road, wallabies less often, and this one wasn’t small.

Fortunately, this driver was aware of the potential wildlife and wasn’t speeding as so many do—one reason I dislike walking early in the morning because I’m terrified I’m going to see an animal get hit.

Sadly, on Sunday morning, I saw a large wallaby lying dead on the side of the road and can only imagine it was the same one and it hadn’t been so lucky a second time.

It wasn’t a nice way to start my walk.

What did I learn this week?

I learned that historical painters used elevated perspectives for their paintings of buildings to eliminate foreground distraction and to give them better perspective control.

This also works in photography, where you can get better proportioned images of buildings from from a second or third floor, a ladder or a cherrypicker. None of which I generally have access to!

What I’m reading this week

• Fine on Acting: A Vision of the Craft by Howard Fine
• She Was Made for Me by Jen Morris
• Architectural Photography and Composition by Steven Brooke