Beyond the Hawkesbury

!0th April :

Walking Stats : Steps : 16743
Est. Dist. : 10.8 km
Est. Cal. : 761
Time : 2.29 hr.min
Newcastle-Charleston

Letter 11th April

I wrote some days ago now. It's becoming difficult to spare the daylight hours with the sun plummeting from the sky so early. When I crossed the Hawkesbury I lost the Great North Walk trails and took up the Old Pacific Highway. It wound its way quietly through some peaceful forest towards Gosford. A bloke offered me a place to stay the night as the sky returned to darkness. It's that time of year when the afternoon is cut short and people admit to themselves that turning the clock forwards/back is just lying to one's self. It was great to have company and we chatted until the wee hours.

The next night I'd reached Gosford. It has a relaxed holiday feel on the waters edge, but the place is littered with the presence of multi-story car parks. It drizzled that night as I walked into town and a local showed me to a homeless shelter. It seemed like too much fuss to place me in a room on such a busy night and such a late hour, but it was bliss to eat a warm meal and be offered cakes! 'Perhaps they'd over-catered?' I thought to myself as they seemed so happy to have another mouth to feed.

When I found a patch of lawn behind a boat shed, it was a wet one, under a spooky flickering light, listening to my innards converting the homeless kitchen food into 'ahem' gas. The next morning was slow to begin with as I watched the rain clearing, from my warm covered picnic bench position. I wrote the plot of a novel I intend to write when I reach Brisbane, and met a passing religious woman who told me how she'd rediscovered God. It's nice to talk with people who are passionate about what they're doing.

I've figured out the step counter now. It counts every step, every stumble sideways, every time I sit heavily, every sneeze, cough, hiccup and every time my bum is pinched. When it calculates distances walked, calories spent and sandwiches I should eat, I take it with a grain of salt, but it's an interesting trinket to toy with. Now I can post some daily step counts for comparison.

There were three nights when I ended up in a wet swag. One in Gosford, one at Crackneck Lookout (locals look at you in a sideways confused way if you call it 'Breakneck' - the official swaggies' name), and one just south of Swansea. I've heard that sleeping with wet blankets can be frustrating. I can sleep my swag blankets dry in a few hours but it rained in the early morning hours, clearing by dawn making me wonder if it had really happened. But for the wet blankets and heavy swag it wasn't obvious.

From Swansea, a place which changed its name from Pelican Flats to Swansea when a clan war left the 'sea of swans' as animal rulers of the land. This is the honest truth because I read it on the public toilets mural, next to a sign saying that littering swaggies get hanged there. I didn't stick around there for very long.

Walked into Newcastle along beaches, through coastal bushland, along cliffs and around wave lashed headlands. I met up with some mates who filled me with booze and showed me the Friday nightlife (and the early-morning-life). Yesterday I visited some more mates and stayed at their's for a much quieter evening. I'll be helping with some house work as they've been busy getting into the routine of having a baby for the last few weeks. Tomorrow I'll head north once again, finding a way that inspires me with a new day - a new town I hope. I'm enjoying myself.

Swaggie

STEPS : 3700 Estimated Distance : 2.4km

Estimated Calories : 168 Time : 0.40 minutes Charleston- rest day