Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me."
No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6
Our New Home
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When I saw this beautiful white duck in the peaceful Japanese Garden at Toowoomba's University,
I thought it was a statue!
I thought it was a statue!
The park is Australia's largest and most traditionally designed Japanese stroll-garden.
The Great Outdoors
Memories of England's Coast-to-Coast Walk Sunday 17th July, 2005
It was a great relief to buy walking poles today. When we relaxed eating treats from the baker by a delightful stream at Kirby Stephen, we had no idea of the challenge ahead! Dave did not realise that he was packing a 2 day hike into one day only!
Truly, it was a very hard day! I (Denise Robyn) took the responsibility of filling our water bottles at Kirby Stephen in a public toilet block, but because I felt pressured to hurry, with hubby wanting to be on his way, I only filled half of our bottles. Little did I know that there would be no more fresh flowing mountain streams to fill our bottles on the remainder of the journey, as we had been previously doing. And that was only the beginning of the challenges for the day!
It would have been realistic to have stopped at Kirby Steven overnight.
Here is hubby's daily diary.....
Day 9 Bent's Farm - Keld A killer of a day!
We left Bent’s Farm at 7.00 a.m. and got back onto the track over the moors. We were unsure of our safety on passing through a field of cows as we had heard stories of cows attacking hikers, and a farmer's wife recently being squashed by an attacking cow. The weather was cloudy and cool as we made our way down slopes, over a disused railway line, up over the slopes on the other side and towards Kirby Stephen.
It took us until 1.30 p.m. to make Kirby Stephen where the first thing to purchase was walking poles for Denise and Jonathan. Denise possibly would not have been able to carry on without some help! We enjoyed a welcome lunch of fresh bread and Battenburg cake from the baker plus a large drink of cold milk as we sat in the shade beside a bubbling creek.
At 7.30 p.m. we reached the road and headed east, the hillsides a beautiful colour as the sun
It was a great relief to buy walking poles today. When we relaxed eating treats from the baker by a delightful stream at Kirby Stephen, we had no idea of the challenge ahead! Dave did not realise that he was packing a 2 day hike into one day only!
Truly, it was a very hard day! I (Denise Robyn) took the responsibility of filling our water bottles at Kirby Stephen in a public toilet block, but because I felt pressured to hurry, with hubby wanting to be on his way, I only filled half of our bottles. Little did I know that there would be no more fresh flowing mountain streams to fill our bottles on the remainder of the journey, as we had been previously doing. And that was only the beginning of the challenges for the day!
It would have been realistic to have stopped at Kirby Steven overnight.
Here is hubby's daily diary.....
Day 9 Bent's Farm - Keld A killer of a day!
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| Bent's Farm to Kirby Steven - perhaps a 10 mile hike for us. |
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| Then there was another 20 plus miles (with getting lost) from Kirby Steven to Keld |
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| We paused for some minutes plucking up enough courage to pass through this field of cows, unsure of our safety. |
We left Bent’s Farm at 7.00 a.m. and got back onto the track over the moors. We were unsure of our safety on passing through a field of cows as we had heard stories of cows attacking hikers, and a farmer's wife recently being squashed by an attacking cow. The weather was cloudy and cool as we made our way down slopes, over a disused railway line, up over the slopes on the other side and towards Kirby Stephen.
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| mothers with their sons |
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| Lunch in the shade by a cool creek at Kirby Stephen |
It took us until 1.30 p.m. to make Kirby Stephen where the first thing to purchase was walking poles for Denise and Jonathan. Denise possibly would not have been able to carry on without some help! We enjoyed a welcome lunch of fresh bread and Battenburg cake from the baker plus a large drink of cold milk as we sat in the shade beside a bubbling creek.
By now the sun was shining
and it was quite hot. We wearily trudged up a long incline and out over
moorland again. Denise had only filled four of our one litre water bottles at a
pub in Kirby Stephen, and unfortunately we had not realized that we had just passed
the last of the clean, bubbling creeks from which we could constantly replenish
our water supply throughout the day.
We made a diversion to the
map to take a shorter journey due to the intense heat. We headed for a bitumen
road towards Keld. It was hard hiking and we were rationing our water. Denise walked with umbrella up and a wet
towel soaked in algae water around her neck.
We had to make sure that we didn’t drink from the bottle of algae water
which she had collected to keep her towel wet. We stopped to rest and eat some fruit, all alone in
the great expanse of hills. We had seen no-one on these hills and
our only sight of life was the hang
gliders above us. Jonathan, who was suffering heat stroke, had drunk most of our water
supply. After he slept for an hour on the
lonely sunny expanse, fortunately he was able to carry on. Denise kept a litre of water
between us for emergency.
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| Dave decides to take a diversion to the map! |
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| Resting in the afternoon heat with no shelter. |
At 7.30 p.m. we reached the road and headed east, the hillsides a beautiful colour as the sun
sank in the west behind us.
It was a long road and we were sore, tired and thirsty.
We
reached Keld at 10 p.m. – just light enough to set up camp. However, the grass was infested with millions
of midges which crawled thickly all over us – in our eyes and ears and down our
throats, driving us mad. Denise filled our water bottles as Jonathan and I hurriedly
pitched the tents.
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It was already 7:30 p.m. when we saw a never-ending long straight road but we did not dare feel despondent as Jonathan had already suffered heat-stroke, and we were at the end of our water. We slowly plodded on. |
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| Jonathan and I pitched the two tents while Denise filled the water bottles suffering an invasion of midges. |
We quickly threw our things into our tents as
soon as we pitched them, trying in our haste to evade some of the midges. Jonathan and I had showers, but Denise
wouldn’t even go out amongst the midges to go to the toilet! We dived into our
sleeping bags, but there were many hundreds of midges in our tent already, with
unzipping the tent flap a few times. What a night!
