G’day Mates,
How are you? I hope this finds you splendid, busting with life at the seems. For me, right now is a time of rest and letting the body heal. The last 13 days have been glorious! Filled with tremendous views, hikes, tours of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, cleansing for 10 days, going through some beautiful emotions and not so beautiful emotions-but all needed and healing.
Before I left Hobart I went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, oh my goodness, the scent in there is just lovely. The hundreds of thousands of pounds of chocolate that is made there daily is just ridiculous! But how yummy is it to smell and take little tastes of. Do you know which country eats the most chocolate-according the Cadbury? Take a wild guess……Ireland. I guess with it being cold and well you know what they say about chocolate and sex…..hummmm……well…..Maybe Ireland needs a little something! ; )
It was pretty impressive to see these machines that can wrap 700 candies in a minute, while the fastest hand roller was 120 or 170 a minute. I can’t imagine, those are some fast hands. They give you a little box mixed chocolates at the end and plenty of time to shop in their little shop full of sweet delights.
After that is when Kristin had the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, which left lots of left-overs in the house. But come Monday, only 2 days after the fiesta we started our cleanse. For me this is a time to get India out of my system, as it effects the body in strange ways and last time it took 5 years to get my toe nails back to normal. So off we went onto the Master Cleanse. Not sure if you know anything about it but it’s a cleanse you do for preferred minimum of 10 days to over 40 if you are seriously ill. All you intake the whole time is Bentonite (sp?), in the morning, with a tea to help you go!!!! Then you start with the real stuff of maple syrup, lemon and cayenne pepper in water-drinking 2-4 liters a day and that is your diet for 10 days, well repeating the Bentonite and tea at night as well. But that is it.
This process was amazing, truly impressive to see where “hunger” starts from…..as we think our way into hunger. I so many times didn’t feel hungry but my mind wanted to eat. Talk about a mind control, to really watch the mind. Here you are getting all the minerals, vitamins and substance you need to live on, exist and your mind is going “I want this, feed me that”. But since Lemons and Limes are the two most healthy things you can eat and the minerals in the syrup is so comprehensive to keep you going and the warmth and vitamin B and C in the Cayenne is so good you being well fed through a liquid diet. It’s just retraining the mind to know you are fine, you don’t need “food” to exist and function.
There were many times I didn’t feel hungry, and other times that I couldn’t get enough of the stuff-on the strenuous days! The great thing about this stuff is it tastes great. I didn’t think it would but it was lovely, I never got sick of it-well except one day when I had to put less syrup in as there was no store for 2 days away and I wanted to extend my stay in the woods, then it got a little bitter!!! ; )
So that was cleansing and clearing and lightening of the load of the toxins in the body and bile and a little weight.
After getting used to being on the cleanse, 3 days in I took off for Cradle Mountain…..this is the place that everyone goes to, to do the Overland Track, which I had decided not to do as I didn’t want to be part of the human highway. I got up there and already to go up to the Scott Kilvert hut for a night or two, excited to be backpacking-first time on my own, what an exhilarating feeling to do this on my own! I loved it.
But what I was ready for is this trail that was recommended to me to go up-which I found out later is the hardest trail in the whole National Park. On no food, only a liquid diet I went up by foot, on hands and foot, and hands and knees, around cliffs, up cliffs, over mountains, next to lakes and sweated up steep jagged edges, and panted up with my 40+ pound pack (I was loaned some pretty heavy gear), nursing a sore knee, to get to the hut 5 hours later. I don’t ever recommend doing this on a cleanse, I call it crazy. I had no idea what I was in for as I took the hardest trails, but then I always love a good challenge, just preferably not on a cleanse! I will say being in nature is the best place to be when you are on a cleanse though, it really makes you closer and more at one with nature and I felt more alive!
But the views made it all worth it….Let me start with where the trail starts from. Lake Dove. Take my breath away….here you stand before this gorgeous lake with the back ground being these 2 jagged mountain ranges jutting out of no where behind them. They are ragged, sharp, pointed, and gorgeous! Green all around them but them being this brown jutting out from the earth with the blue lake in front of them. I just didn’t want to leave from the lake. But with every bend, with every turn, they got closer to them, they kept beckoning me, reaching for me, taking me in , drinking me in with each step closer. It was a grey day but it was still stunning that day.
I got up to the view point of Cradle Mountain and what can I say….there really aren’t any words to express how strong, bold, knightly, and brilliant this mountain is. I felt so at peace and happy in the presence of this mountain. It’s as if it talked to me. Maybe I was here once before in a past life, maybe not, but this mountain called to my body and talked to it and my body loved it. I never wanted it out of view. I never had this feeling with a mountain before. So on I went, forging forward past Crater Lake which is huge and glorious with it’s mountainess edges and deep slices cut into the sides of the mountains surrounding it. At this point I was on the Overland track, which is the most easy part of the whole trail….it is actually so well maintained even going up hill it’s an easy track to take.
You can’t believe how heavy lemons and syrup are until you take them on a walk with you….I don’t recommend that walk! ; ) I just laugh at myself now for doing such a crazy thing but live and learn I guess.
I got the base of Cradle and decided that because my knee was in so much pain by this time and I was getting tired and I had at least 2 hours left to hike, not to go up, plus it’s a pretty dangerous trail up there and even worse coming down.
So I went on to the hut, which took 2 ½ hours, losing the trail at one point, almost going down a cliff, but instead realizing the trail was straight up the cliff side. YIKES! I had rain, sleet, hail and stuff I called slail as it was between sleet and hail, I had gusting winds and a little bit of sun. And though I was tired and cranky I still sang as I went along-the strangest songs you find you know when you trek, things I didn’t even know I knew….a strange thing in nature what pours out of ya! Coming off that steep mountain trail my legs were shaky and I was pooped, so I copped a squat for a bit (took a break) and just rested with the lovely surroundings of great green valleys, mountains and the scent of nature all around me. Luckily from there it was most all down hill. I got to the hut and I was alone for the first bit. The lake the hut sat on was just lovely.
I got in set up, had my “food” and rested. That night was filled with 3 others showing up, talking, them eating and thinking I’m crazy to be not eating and doing this-I agreed. But with my hot water bottle in my sleeping bag I went out and slept very nicely, after I got over the sounds of the craziest snorers I’ve ever heard in my life, so erratic, no constant anything, just all over the place different sounds coming out of this woman’s mouth and the man at least was pretty even with his snores.
I got up to the most gorgeous morning in a long time. I didn’t need my 5 layers, my fleece hat and my hiking boots. So off I went outside to the lake and did my yoga, meditated and wrote, as the sun came up over the lake and shown it’s brilliance of life on me and the earth. As I sat there all I could think is “this is how I want to get up every morning, to a lake in my back yard and the sun in a clear blue sky warming my whole being”. The only things I’d change is I’d like the wind to be warmer, a kayak for the lake and preferably a place a little closer to a road so it’s easier to get the food to the house, oh and central heating and a larger pot belly stove!
I finally had to tear myself away from the lake so I could get down the trail. I headed out a different trail out and had some more just stunning views of other lakes. But I have to say with my knee being cranky it wasn’t as nice as it could have been if my knee was feeling better. Luckily it was a pretty good trail out. I got back down and got a great little wooden shack with 3 bunks in it all to myself for $17.00 and went off for a tiny hike and came back to the kitchen that was warmed by a large fireplace to just read, relax, have my drink and some tea and pass out. I was wiped out.
Over the next two days I went on some great hikes and got to see wallabees every where (I see them as little kangaroos) and the best thing happen that made me so very happy. I not only saw a wombat, but I got to follow it around and it finally came right up to me and smelled my foot. OH I was so excited!!! I was about to pet it but I saw the bus was coming and had to leave, and it scared the poor little critter. From a distance it looks like a pig but up close it has brownish/black fur about 1 ½ inches long, short stubby legs, about a ¼ of foot from the ground, long and round-a little chubby with a angular face and round beautiful beady eyes. It kept its head down eating as it walked and had a little tail as well. OH it was so cute. I just wanted to pick it up and take it home with me. I now want a wombat, wallabee and a koala in my yard as wild pets.
The next few days I just relaxed as I went on my way to Coles Bay and hiked over this hill to Wineglass bay, which OH MY GOSH! I now know why it is said to be one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. It is stunning and not only just the white sand that is so soft to the touch, but the water is so clear AND the best thing is a whole group of 10+ dolphins came and swam, played, jumped out of the water straight up and splashed down. A few people actually swam out to them. The wind was way to cold for me to be getting in that cold water-no way!!! YIKES! You have to realize the wind comes straight from Antarctica and it feels like ice air. I think it is actually colder here in Tassie then in New Zealand. Not sure how but it’s what it feels like. But the dolphins came for a very long visit but once 5 people got out there the dolphins left. Well for a while, they came back to play a little more and then they were off again.
So now I am back in Hobart to relax, I got a ride from a fellow coming here from Coles Bay, the drive was just stunning. I am back, I am starting to take in a little food, after doing a day of orange juice and my body is not so sure about this solid food stuff. It at first felt like a lump in my stomach and it’s getting a little used to it. But I’ll tell you, I have never felt so full from eating a half of an avocado! It sustained me for a good 3-4 hours. I did some research on these lovely fruits to find they are one of the easiest digestible foods there are and we are to have 3-6 a week and they are the perfect thing to eat while trying to come off meat as they have so much protein. So just in case you want to come off meat, this is a good substitute. This website I found told you so much about them it blew me away. Thankfully I love these lovely fruits.
So the next week will be adjusting to eating again, gently and easily and resting. I hope you are having a brilliant time in life, your heart is opening and living your dreams. Heaven knows my dreams are growing by the minute and once I am home I’ll happy to put them in motion. Yet right now I’m living a different dream! Much love to you, I send you all hugs, Heather
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