Yesterday was a special day.

Rob and I walked up the (relatively) gentle slope from Coles Bay into the Hazards on the Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania, finishing at the lookout over Wineglass Bay which is nestled in the saddle between two gorgeous pink granite peaks. The track took us between pink granite rocks and boulders and small eucalypts. We were treated with a rare yellow-tailed black cockatoo calling from one of the trees. The sun was shining (even though this was the first day of winter), and the sky mostly blue. A heavenly day:-)

But really this doesn’t sound like much of an achievement. And for all the others making the same trek it wasn’t much, really.

But for me it was huge – the first bushwalk I’ve done for so many months I can’t remember when the last one even was! Given how much I love walking, especially in the bush, you can see how special this was. And to share it with Rob was extra special.

For the latter half of 2007 my knees gave me increasing levels of pain, reducing my normal walking exercise down until it wasn’t happening at all. So of course my fitness was pretty bad. Then investigations in November and the diagnosis in December that the cartilage behind my patellae was completely worn away and there was a lot of fluid in and around my knees so no walking, no climbing, no stairs even (and we have several sets of stairs in our house)…I went through a lot of grief over that.

So early in January, as soon as everyone was back at work including physios, I began an intensive program of rehab. Two physios a week, one remedial massage a week, two remedial rehab gym sessions, daily rehab exercises at home…it took a lot of focus but I saw this as my only chance to walk again. I wasn’t ready to give up just yet!

Now the physios have given me the green light and I am to go back only if I need to. I’m seeing the remedial massage person once a month just to make sure everything is still in order. Gym is progressing to mostly strength work and I still do some rehab exercises at home. Walking around Kings Park and Bold Park is fine now but I hadn’t yet plucked up the courage to tackle a proper bush walk.

So you can see why yesterday’s walk was so special, although I did use two trekking poles for the bigger steps to make sure I made the whole walk.

As we came back down the track, a boy and his Dad passed us on their way up. Just after they passed us the boy asked his Dad “Dad, why is that lady using 2 walking sticks?”. I called back “Because she has sore knees!”. The Dad laughed and said “There you have it son.”

But at least I was out there!