Oxfam Trailwalker – First training

We could not have asked for a better start -
Yesterday rain brought relief to the summer haze.
Today, Churchill National Park greeted us in perfect conditions.

At sunrise we set to our first training session.
Here we come to our
Oxfam Trailwalker challenge.

It all began with a timely perfection
- Synchronisation; harmony and, a happy birthday cheerio
to one of our team members.

We leaped to the track one and one and one
going so meticulously as a team we discussed life matters;
pondered the readability of the map
and, most importantly, pondered our fitness.

Invariably we stopped talking fitness and life matters.
We enjoyed the landscape and our
passing encounters with kangaroos.

We conquered Churchill National Park,
with its morning splendour
and the solitude of
the ridges surrounding the outer suburbs.

We followed the path cheerfully,
tackling the hills with candours esteem.
Nothing stopped us,
not even one unavoidable detour at one critical intersection
– (a vandalised sign) –
made us break the allegory of a morning bush run.

Just before we reached the Lysterfield Lake
we turned back, time was ticking away.
By every minute our confidence grew,
knowing our spirits will rise
on time for the challenge that matters
sixteen weeks away.

Today we let our fears disappear
and acknowledged the Wurundjeri people
for preserving such a beauty.