Water week

It’s a strange period right now, caught between continuous attempts to prolong the holiday period and knuckling down and doing some bloody work for a change! At the moment there is a bit of both, a full week back at work interrupted by more summer cricket, evening ambles and one or two BBQs. And then of course there is the oddness of this summer in particular, witnessed across the east as rains pound and waters rage, while in the west, the bushfires sizzle. La Nina is to blame, and apparently this is the worst one recorded in a long time. Even Garth the BBQ doesn’t know what is going on.

While things are as always relatively tame in Canberra, it has meant the usual scorching 35 degree days are yet to materialise and perhaps never will. The week was mostly cloudy and showery and remarkably humid, the showers easing off enough for the Prime Minister’s XI to lose to England on Monday, and the sun coming out enough to give me a red triangle between my neck and chest. The remaining days drifted as all eyes were often focused north of the border, the weekend arriving and signalling some light at the end of the tunnel.

Humidity of Cairns proportions, along with requisite biting insects, was the theme for Saturday as I headed down to Namadgi National Park for a morning bushwalk. Assuming it would be the coolest part of the day, it was like hiking through the Amazon rainforest on a walk part way up Mount Tennant. I was intending to go the whole way, but even Bear Grylls would’ve struggled (though plenty of insect nourishment for him).



The rare sound of gurgling brooks, reminding me of Dartmoor, accompanied my walk up to the Lone Pine Lookout where the view was not really much like Dartmoor, but offered a sign of increasing blue skies and summerness. It may have been the down part, but going back down felt a lot less humid and things were returning to the dry heat more akin to this time of year. In fact, what was a couple of hours ago a clammy mosquito infested Panamanian jungle was a delightful summer scene of grassy meadows and vibrant plants. The giant ants were now out in force though.







A sign of how things have changed over the past year from drought to too much water is indicated by the dam levels in Canberra which are mostly full to brimming. Evidence of this was clear at Gibraltar Falls, a dip in a usually small creek fed by Corin Dam, now powering wide and full and noisily, the spray a welcome coolant following the sweaty walking earlier in the day.







With summer back, at least temporarily, and the mercury hovering just above 30C it was definitely without a shadow of a doubt BBQ weather; alas, Garth has decided enough is enough and failed to ignite. He may be fixable, but I may equally end up blowing up the neighbourhood if I try to fix him. Anyway, steak in a griddle pan it was, walked off with something else which has been a rarity, a sedate dusk walk alongside a calm, tranquil lake.

Who knows what the next week holds. Sadly, a full week of work and I suspect it could be ramping up a little. Hopefully though more dusk walks by a calm, tranquil lake. And that balance between holidays and real life remains on a quavering horizontal knife edge, as Melbourne tennis, food and Australia Day celebrations await.