Saturday morning stroll......... (or acquisition of mud on clothes)

A few weekends ago a group of us started the weekend with a hike up a hill. To the 'comms tower', a shed on the top of a big hill with a big aerial that you can see in the night time down at townsite. 

I think the previous Saturday night, at around about midnight there had been a towards-the-end-of-a-big-night request about whether I could hitch onto someone's walk up the hill the next time they did it. As luck would have it, the decision had been made during the following week to head up the hill that saturday. So the group of keen hikers expanded until we consisted of a couple of full families, a half a family, myself and another lady setting out down the road to the beginning of the walk.

It was a gorgeous morning, plenty of sun. Although it had been raining quite a bit the week before (muddy!!).

So we set out up the hill. It was nice and shady, so the increasingly powerful heat of the day wasn't too oppressive.

We passed a couple of vegetable gardens, a lot of bamboo and a few creeks on our way upwards. Really beautiful and rain-foresty. Pretty muddy and slippery though. I think a lot of us were wondering 'hmm, will coming down be interesting?'. So we all tried to find ourselves personalised adventure/walking sticks. 

After a while we left the canopy of the jungle behind and followed the power lines upwards still. Through some very overgrown scrub, some of which was almost reaching the lines themselves. It's just so fertile here (the ground, that is).

And then after about an hour we made it to the tower. It was a bit of a surprise to find that the shed was in a bit of a state of disrepair, unlocked with all the computers and stuff (very technical explanation) exposed to the elements and open to the wild pigs. Maybe that explains why our internet and phone isn't always so reliable?

Anyway the view was absolutely worth the walk.

In one direction we could see across to townsite and out towards the islands in the distance.

And then in the other direction a view of the mine and beyond.

And then down. In a few more ways than one. Somewhat challenging. Fun if you like slip and slide. 

Here are a couple of the many dirty bums that headed back to town.

And my sock-dirt mark when I got my boots off.

But definately worth it and looking forward to another Saturday morning stroll soon.

And here's a little guy who is now crawling and working his way towards coming along on a hike real soon (albeit in the backpack).