Once again we headed to the mountains for Christmas along with 3/4 of the Hogg Family members - Cathy and her family were absent after deciding to spent Christmas in Tassie.
Finding a dog sitter turned into a drama this year. The student who was very keen to have Indi pulled out 48 hours before our departure date. At first we thought it was ok thinking we had several other options, however these all fell through one by one. A last minute plea to our neighbours was successful - not only were they home for Christmas but their 17yr old daughter was more than happy to come and have sleepovers with Indi!
Due to this stress, Andy and I postponed our departure time by a day. We originally were going to leave after I finished work on the 23rd Dec. Instead we sent the girls up with the grandparents on the morning of the 23rd and we joined the family at midday on Christmas Eve. This arrangement had many advantages - allowing more time to have a transition between crazy work with too many patients, enjoy a relaxing dinner at the local pizza place and get organised with food, presents and stuff!
The drive up was quiet and we arrived at Guthega around lunchtime. The girls were happy to see us! Post lunch, we decided to go for a short walk up the Paralyser taking advantage of the glorious sunshine.
Starting along the trail to Illawong, we crossed Farm Creek and climbed up the other side. Here our route left the trail to follow the ridgeline up to the trig point. Today we were minus Ella, who was not at all interested in a walk plus she was currently fending off a cold. Instead we were joined by Susie, Patrick and Mia (Josh also deciding to hang out at the lodge too.)
As we began the walk we reminisced about our attempt to summit the Paralyser back in December 2015 (see
blog post here). My memories were of the girls tackling chest high heath and then melting down halfway up! Anyway we weaved our way through the scrub, the heath seemed manageable or maybe it was that Katy was bigger?
Back in 2015 2021
Ambling along making good progress we came to a steep, thick rocky outcrop. Katy in her shorts (! yes were did have some long pants in the bag but they were too hot apparently) found this section tough and it was!
Andy convinced us the trig was only 10 minutes away just over the crest. Katy persevered. The trig was not over the crest but Andy convinced us it was just over the next crest and it wasn't long to go! Katy kept going. Eventually the scrub opened up into a grassy meadow and there we could see the trig in the distance. Spirits were lifted and we were soon clambering on the rocks at the trig point soaking up the 360° views.
Our 'short' afternoon stroll was 7.5km long with 450m climb and took us around 3 hours to complete. All in all though a lovely walk and well worth the effort! There was no relaxing once we got back to the lodge as it was our turn to cook dinner for the gang of 10. The butter chicken, vege dhal, rice and flat breads was gobbled up by the hungry adventures and the Finnish Christmas Stars made by Katy were a great choice for a delicious dessert.
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