East Jindabyne - Berridale
I was able to write this blog because it has been raining all morning and we were unable to resume our walk until the afternoon on 12 December 2022.
We wanted to leave Jindabyne early but could not because it was very windy in the morning. We also wanted to thank the park manager for her generosity and kindness and the office would open at 8:00 AM. We used the time to catch up with blog writing. I had fallen behind from the time when there was no access to internet or phone during the walk through the national park and rural wilderness. Australia may boast to be one of the most advanced economies of the world; however, it is equally true that many areas outside the capital cities (Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin, and Perth) have poor or no coverage for internet and/or mobile phone. I am sorry that I mentioned it but that is a fact that no one can deny.
I personally went to the park office to thank the manager, but unfortunately, she wasn’t there. I thanked her staff and requested our sincere thanks to be passed on to the manager. Thereafter I punched in the key code for the last time to lift the boom barrier. Shekhar and I drove to East Jindabyne and it took us about ten minutes to reach there. I got off, paid my respect to Mother Earth and started walking towards Berridale (Cooma, Canberra). As usual, Shekhar was driving the van. I would walk ahead while he would be parked with the engine running and hazard lights on. A few minutes later, Shekhar would drive past me and pull up, way ahead of me, where he could find a safe place to stop clear of the hwy. Then I would eventually catch up with him, we would either wave, show thumbs up or talk on the walkie talkie to ensure that both of us were ok. With all the pilots who helped us out before Shekhar, it was the same arrangement to check on each other. With all the banners and decorations, we kept the hazard lights on all the time during the walk. Once the day’s walk was over, and we were driving (e.g. to find a place to stay), the hazard lights would be turned off.
After two and a half hours walk in the coolish sun, we had a break. We had breakfast, and I went for a quick powernap to recharge my body. I am not sure if it happens with everyone, but as I get older, my body requires frequent rest periods to recoup. Otherwise, it begins to feel like I am dragging myself rather than enjoying the walk. After waking up, I feel like a refreshened person. Before I go to sleep, I keep chanting and always have a peaceful sound sleep. Strange as it may sound, when I wake up, the mantra chanting is always continuous as if it never stopped during the sleep state. Walking with mantra is like dancing to the tune of your favourite music. You enjoy the walk to the fullest. You don’t even remember that you have been walking for so many days or the distance you have covered. Mantra chanting helps you reach a state of mind when you are aware of what is happening around you, e.g. the traffic, the truckies or the bus drivers and car drivers waving to you and you do respond. The motor bike riders showing thumbs up or nodding their heads, and you automatically respond to each of them. However, the mantra chanting brings you closer to Mother Nature and you begin to appreciate everything that surrounds you like the little yellow, purple and orange flowers that the so-called weeds are bearing. This is the beauty of slowing down and walking. You stop and talk to them. You wish you could take a photo with each one of them. You appreciate the sound of small droplets of water dripping down. Otherwise going unnoticed, you take note of water streams coming together and forming small creeks and eventually merging to become one with rivers. Then rivers losing their identity and merging to become the ocean. Losing your own identity and becoming one with the Supreme is the ultimate experience….You listen to the frogs arguing. You enjoy Kookaburras’ musical notes and much more… when we rise above the self-imposed bounds.
All that goes unnoticed because we tend to live in a different state of mind. We are living a trend of fast life. A life of hurry, hurry, hurry. Always in a hurry to get from A to B. Always trying to drive at the highest possible speed without being booked. Always in a hurry to go somewhere else rather than enjoying the moment where we presently are. Always in a hurry to fill the stomach because it is breakfast, lunch or dinner time. Rather than enjoying the taste and taking time to chewing and grinding food into a powder form for the stomach to digest easily, we usually try to gulp it down in a hurry. We meet up with friends and soon after a message on our mobile changes it all. We say, “Oh, I am sorry, I got to go. I’ll call you.” We tend to believe that we don’t have time, yet we know that humans are living longer today than before. Life expectancy in most countries has increased by many years. It is time to slow down and step away from the fast lane. Perhaps it’s time to listen to our forefathers’ advice, drop out of the unwinnable rat race and realign our life closer to Mother Nature. I am sorry, I didn’t intend to enter a philosophical sphere that I know very little about. I am just sharing my own experience.
The highway runs straight through the Berridale town centre. At the corner is the Post Office followed by a set of shops, a real estate agent, café, the community centre and other services. Outside the community centre on the nicely paved footpath, a few benches provide a place to sit down and eat and have a chat. Shekhar and I parked the van outside the shops and walked towards the group of people seated on those benches. One of them, a man called out to us saying, “You are the walker, aren’t you? You are the walking doctor, I saw you on the TV. I saw you walking on the road.” Hearing this, a woman (Sam) sitting next to him announced, “You are having dinner with us. We would open shortly and close at 8:00 PM. Please come and join us anytime when you are ready. It would be an honour for us.” Shekhar and I agreed to go there for dinner.
The problem we faced in Berridale was that there was no caravan park. If there was, it was flooded. The man who had recognised us first, said, “Don’t worry, we will find a place for you guys to stay.” He walked over to the only pub/hotel/Inn in town and informed the owners about us. He came back and told us that though they were renovating and could not provide accommodation, they would however allow you access to shower. And that’s all we needed. A 24-hour access to public toilets was available on the council premises opposite the shops. We drove over to the Berridale Inn, had a shower and felt so fresh after a sweaty day.
We drove to the council park where the toilets were located but on the advice of our well-wishers, we moved the van to the car park outside the shops. We were honoured with a superb dinner, for me a vegetarian lasagne and Shekhar selected from the menu. Thanks very much for your kind support Sam. You are a champion. Thank you. While we were in Sam’s restaurant, a woman came over and introduced herself as Alex. She was the bar manager of the Cooma Bowling Club. She had invited us to a free dinner and stay at the club when we arrived there. She gave us the exact address of the bowling club and said that she would be waiting for us. Thank you so much for extending the invitation, Alex. You are a gem. A big thank you. Great and helpful people are everywhere. It is so unbelievable. If somebody had told me before the walk that this might happen to us at all these totally strange places, I would not have believed it. But it is so true and the world is full of so many great people and you find them everywhere. Thank you everyone for your act of kindness to make our walk so much easier. Thank you!
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