We’re walking in silence along the Great Ocean Walk, commonly called the GOW. We’re a group but we’re all individuals, experienced pack walkers enjoying the sunshine after a squall all through the night. Awake in our tents, the thin sheet of synthetic protecting us, we could hear every whine of the wind; trees agonising as their branches were stretched and pulled. No crashes thankfully. Now we walk with smiles. Cheerful though dazed with tiredness despite twelve hours or more laying in my warm cocoon of sleeping bag. The trunks of the trees display the effect of many nights and days of strong winds. We’ll go back to our solid houses but the trees will stay anchored at home here. What a perilous life trees have.
