At Wilson's Prom, there's tons of long hikes to do - up mountains, to deserted beaches, and even overnighters. But given I hadn't done any walking because of my tendonitis, we chose a gentle walk suitable even for prams, and was marked as 2.2 there, and just under 5 return. Do-able, I thought.
The walk takes you through beautiful forest, alive with tons of birds from wrens and finches to lorikeets and tree creepers. We even spotted what I THINK is a magpie inkcap - perhaps 
I started getting a little worried as the slope headed downward, toward the Lilly Pilly gully which was our destination. I'd been suffering dizziness and feeling generally ill, a combination of a bout of high cortisol and giving up coffee again. I had to keep stopping on the way down and dreaded the uphill on the way back.
However I was distracted somewhat by the beauty of the boardwalk walk in the gulley, full of tree ferns and blackwoods (a type of acacia which has stunning black veins through lighter wood and is beautiful for wood furniture). We saw the holes of a tiny thumb sized yabbie or crayfish endemic to just this gully. The rain was intermittent so we sheltered every now and then under the thicker canopies and listened to the cacophonic frogs.
We decided to take the circuit route back, as it's always more interesting to go a route untravelled. It was an extra kilometer, which wasn't much in my mind.
Except, of course, it was the harder option, climbing steadily uphill. I was feeling bloody awful and Jamie took my camera to relieve me a little and I stripped down to just a T-shirt and light raincoat as the uphill was making me very hot. At this age I know that you can get through anything by putting one step in front of the other so whilst we stopped every now and then to admire a view or drink water, I kept going.
At last, at the two kilometer mark, we started going downhill. There's actually a path leading up from here that takes you two km up a small mountain but I passed on that. It was much, much, much easier going down so I started to cheer up some.
The views from the top were really lovely, glimpsing the beach and river of Tidal River below.
I was pretty happy to get back to the Landie and have a sweet, crisp apple brought from home. A couple of panadol kept me going though lunch - peanut butter and salad sandwiches with a view - and an afternoon sleep saw me feel marginally better.
That night my hips were screaming in pain but it wasn't the tendon, just muscles. I had to take a codeine to sleep, which I'd forgotten was also a cortisol suppressant, so by the morning I felt a ton better - my physical anxiety had abated and I felt ready to do the rest of the road trip without feeling awful.
I'm definitely quitting coffee again though as it just messes with my adrenals too much. A good cup of tea in the morning, hot against the chill, snuggled up in the back of the Defender, well now that's quite something.
With Love,
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