honest reflections

PARENT OPINION #1 / THE HIKE

by yumi stynes

Hi everyone, Planning is underway for our 84km hike in Tasmania at the end of March! Anouk, Dee Dee and I, several kgs of dehydrated food, inclement weather and armies of leeches—OF COURSE I’M EXCITED! We are still on the hunt to borrow as much stuff as possible, so please let me know if you’re willing to loan a bit of yours. I’M PRETTY GOOD at taking care of other people’s stuff, will return everything in original condition or replace it. Anyway, let me know!

That is the message I posted on Facebook in February this year. By March, I’d driven the car all over my fair city, collecting backpacks, toilet trowels, waterproof jackets and head torches from multiple kind souls.

Borrowing stuff is a great way to reconnect with people. I hadn’t seen some of them in years. I’m good with it, too—fastidiously listing items and labelling everything like a librarian. It’s a form of conservation: I’m loathe to dump a load of money on a new hobby like bushwalking and then discover I’m not really ever going to do it again, with a house full of crap.

I’m not a hiker. I just need to trap my two eldest children in a situation where they’re forced to talk to me. As for me, I need to be forced to not check my phone 250 times a day and forced from work and junk food and frittering away my life on nonsense.

We do end up spending a bit of money—thermal underwear (“base layers”, in camp-nerd speak) seems important, as do good merino wool socks, hiking boots and food. Aside