SNAKES ON A TRAIL

As the ridgeline fell away before me, I slowed my cadence. A cool breeze swept up from the valley below bringing a moment’s relief from the humidity.

I looked for where the trail would take me next – across a valley floor carved by a creek and long ago converted to farmland, and then up onto ridges fringed with tall eucalyptus.

There on the edge of the forest I spied another runner coming toward me. I started moving again – no runner wants to look slack around another.

When we were close enough, we shared the coded smiles of trail runners and traded information about our day; her English accent rattled through the bush and her