This weekend we
decided to revisit Mount Richardson. We had done this trail before,
but couldn't remember much of it, and I had the idea of just looking
up the old blogpost about it and re-post, but it appears I never
wrote anything about Mount Richardson.
I suppose there
isn't too much to tell either, it starts quite ok and then quickly
becomes very steep, so steep that the lovely scenery is not noticed
at all as you try to keep your eyes on the next meter uphill on the
path. I had acquired a walking pole, to assist the knees and hip-joints
in going up- and downhill. It was helping me to take big steps uphill
and not put all the weight on my knees, although I also found out it
doesn't take all my weight
in a downhill situation.
We made it to the
top in about the recommended time and had lunch there sheltered from
the cold wind by a bush. As we walked on through more of these kind
of bushes, I asked Thomas: “what bush is this again?” and he said
“No idea, some sort of heather”. And then lots of things clicked
in my head and I remembered one of my former colleagues studying this
bush, and how I once had an intern with me on fieldwork who had to
dig out whole specimens of this bush for my colleague.
 |
| selfie with walking pole and bush |
Going back through
the old photos, I realized we did this tramp with 2 of our NZ
friends, who actually gave us a photo as goodbye gift, of us on the
top, which has been in our living room for the past 4 years, so the
top should have looked a bit more familiar I suppose…
The walking pole was
a big help, and according to internet resources can also be used as
an emergency tent-pole, to estimate depth of snow or mud, and as
weapon against tigers and other wildlife. We didn't see any tigers,
so it must have worked.
