Now I know I have ascended a lot of steps today… my phone tells me 23 flights which is counted on my phone as 3 m of elevation. So 69m/ 230ft up. My legs already know this, as they are slightly complaining with that familiar dull ache in the calves and shins. Today, we decided to walk to a wild deer park, halfway up the mountain. It was an absolutely stunning journey and we did start off relatively early to try to avoid the intensity of the heat although because I had to keep stopping between my left inner knee twinging or my hands and ankles swelling up, it took a bit longer than we anticipated. A 30 minute journey on Google Maps ended up taking about an hour and a half. At the top of the paradise water gardens (there were some maintenance work so the water was not flowing sadly), you can see a photo of me beneath looking like I’m saying ‘why oh why, God, hath thou forsaken me with 20’000 steps’… I am just trying to get my sausage-like hands to return to a more normal state, and Leon managed to capture the moment.
When we finally got up to the wild park, there was a little shop at the bottom of the funicular that we popped in to grab some drinks and I had the most delicious cornetto that was a citrus and buttermilk flavour! All in the name of cooling down and for the good of my health of course! We grabbed some cold drinks as well, and I washed my hands in some cold water which really helped.
We found the ‘Rund weg’ (round way), which would lead us around the wild Park and the first little bit that we stopped in had a viewing platform made out of wood, a little like a high decking. We sat down on this platform and I took my shoes and socks off, proceeding to put my legs up the side of one of the wooden struts enclosing us. It feels like I imagine a baby would in its crib! I could spy through the slats to see if any deer emerged although I was thinking they would probably not really venture out into a meadow in the midday sun. So I kept my eyes on the forested area, little smatterings of Spotlight hitting the forest floor through the trees. I looked up at the blue sky and the bright green oak leaves that were overhead providing us with some shade. There were all manner of unusual birds singing along with a familiar coo of the wood pigeon, and lots of buzzing. It was quite hypnotic actually. I took another look to the left to see if I could see a deer and I saw a shadow move from within the forest and a little honey glow of the that was moving around nustling in the forest floor. I tapped Leon who was laying next to me up the other way and he gently sat up and also managed to see the little deer moving around before silently disappear disappearing.
We carried on walking through the high altitude forest that had a lovely cool breeze but still plenty warm enough! There are giant ferns that I imagine were probably there in the Jurassic era as well, and we have a funny conversation, musing whether dinosaurs would have been covered in bright feathers, looking like the Rio carnival girls, and why did the pterodactyls die as they were flying and surely could get away to a different area? All important questions!
The next little clearing, I spotted a darker brown furry lump, like a huge loaf of bread sticking out of overgrown grass. I stopped for a moment and watched and eventually some antlers emerged! We spent the next 10 minutes trying to get a photograph and watching. Leon managed to get the money shot although they did disturb him and he ran away. He hasn’t sent me the photo over yet, but this is the one that I got of him and the best one of the deer.
My battery is about to die, so I will just pop this on charge and carry on in an hour or so. TBC.