In my last travel post, I bemoaned my boredom from the recent lack of adventure in my life. I’ve travelled perhaps every weekend to somewhere to do something since childhood, so spending months cooped up at home was starting to feel like imprisonment.
Perhaps a wiser man than I sometimes give him credit for, Michael read the miserable blog post, perhaps understood for the first time how truly restless I had become, and sought to remedy the situation as best he could.
Thus, when I least expected it, he offered to whisk me off on an unplanned hiking trip to Henderson Park. I consented to go even though:
- It was a work day.
- The weather forecast forewarned us of rain.
But there’s no adventure without some risk, right? And isn’t that what I wanted?
Judging a Book by Its Cover
We had never been to Henderson Park before, but Michael insisted that there was at least 6 miles of trails to explore and that we would have a blast. Yet, all I saw when we entered the park was a football field, and two families saying goodbye in the parking lot.
As we left the lot and ventured further into the park, I caught my first sign that this trip might yield a good time and great pictures, after all.
It was one of two entrances on our left, and to the right of both of those was a map. From prior experience venturing off on the first trails we see and missing out on the good stuff, we now know to look before we leap. So Michael went ahead to see what treasures we should go digging for first.
Ever the hunts-woman for good photos, I hung back to look around and to get some shots of the playground below.
Meeting the Ducks
While I explored the playground, Michael continued ahead and soon shouted back that he had found a lake. After a moment or two, he realised I hadn’t caught up with him yet and came peeking out of the bushes with Tyko to see what was taking me so long.
I’m not quite sure this was big enough to count as a lake, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We spotted a large fish that was too fast to be photographed, and a duck who wasn’t at all camera shy.
Deserted and Stalked
Noticing that Michael had gotten ahead again, I left the sandy shore for higher ground. Turns out Michael hadn’t wandered off too far, as evidenced by the fact that he then proceeded to stalk me with the camera.
While I stood on the bridge, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that I was not alone. The photogenic duck had returned to bask in the limelight once more.
Heading into the Wild
Having seen the general perks the park had to offer, it seemed only right that we did some real exploring, by venturing onto this alleged 6 miles of trails. We were not disappointed – nor were we forsaken by the ducks.
Before long, we came across mushrooms, which provided the perfect opportunity for me to work on my macro-photography.
The High-Point of the Trip
After that, we went through winding paths – uphill and downhill. We crossed streams, scrambled up and down riverbanks, and then finally ended up at a waterfall we had no idea existed. This was the highlight of our impromptu hiking trip, and by then sweat was practically washing us.
Michael was finally able to wash himself a little cleaner, so he smelled less like duck filth. Tyko enjoyed splashing in the water to cool down after a hot and humid hike. And I, more than anything else, love taking pictures of waterscapes, and sometimes, being the target.
Check out the last of our pictures from the trip below.
As some of you may have noticed, I’ve made some changes to my blog’s layout to make way for new content. As a result of all the questions I’ve gotten via comments and emails about freelancing, and blogging, I’ll start posting more articles on these topics to share advice with fellow writers and entrepreneurs.
I’ve also spent quite a bit of time working on my novel lately, so expect some spillovers of that in the form of short stories as I exercise my narrative muscles.
Thanks again for the amazing support you guys have shown me, especially within the past few months, and I hope you enjoyed this post.
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