So

 Most Saturday mornings I go for a walk with my colleague, Alun, near Tilbuster Creek just north of Armidale. It takes us through beautiful but rather empty countryside far from traffic and other people. We almost decided not to go today because of heavy rain over the week and fear that the grass and gravel paths we take might be waterlogged. 

Well, we decided to take a gamble, so we met up at 7 am at the end of Blue Wren road and headed off on foot. It didn't take long for our fears to be confirmed. Here's Alun wondering how to cross a creek-bed that's normally dry ... we didn't even try!

And, as we expected, the main river, Tilbuster Creek was running high as these pictures show. The paths alongside varied from soggy to fairly dry, so we made fair progress albeit in very wet shoes and socks.

And here am I in my hippy gear admiring the scenery. By the way, it wasn't cold at 7.30 am. The minimum temperatures overnight just recently have reached as much as 19 C (66 F) because of cloud-cover. As you can see from this picture, the sky was a dull grey. Although we experienced no rain, ti started to pour as I drove home. We were lucky that we weren't just as soggy as our footware!

 

The entire journey lasted 90 minutes, but the countryside was empty apart from plenty of birds of various species. We met no fellow walkers, encountered no cattle - although we had to dodge a lot of pooh, and saw no kangaroos - although they're normally plentiful. Let me know if you'd like to join us on our next weekly trip!

AS