29 May 2011

Pemberton
Gloucester Circuit (12 km)

While I’ve been busy trying to self-diagnose my ongoing tummy troubles (currently narrowed down to ulcer, malaria, dengue fever, or, in addition to the goulash, salami poisoning), Gina’s been busy strategizing how she will get up that Gloucester Tree.  She has decided that a “don’t look down” policy will be most effective, along with a hand-hand-foot-foot methodology for both ascending and descending each rebar peg.  I’m not sure which of us is sicker – me, with obvious symptoms of gastrointestinal distress or her, needing to defy gravity, odds, and possible death by climbing that darn tree.  I think she wins, for we are now tramping around a 10 kilometer circuit of Gloucester National Park as a warmup for The Tree.  The Tree that must be conquered.

So did she make it to the top?  Did her policy and methodology work?  Well, let’s just say that in my experience, a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder may sometimes drive you a little nuts when they can’t let go of an idea or thought or need to touch and organize and reorganize that countertop of items before they can leave the house but that characteristic can also work in their favor, helping them to accomplish what others may more easily walk away from unfinished.  So of course she made it to the top (and back down as well).  Simple as repeating to herself one more time: hand-hand-foot-foot.