Man vs Wild

I went for my afternoon constitution.I had seen, on Google maps, a park nearby; Norma Croker Park.Norma Croker was an athlete who came 4^th in the 200 metres at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. She was in the winning relay team for the 4x100m. In 1960 she was disqualified from that race but came 15^th in the long jump. She went to Brisbane State High School so they have made a park for her in her honour.I didn’t have a map, just a rough idea of where it was. I was becoming a seasoned bush trekker now and this time remembered to take water with me. I set off down the road and soon came to where I thought there would be an entrance. The first thing I noticed was a sign...The helicopter I had seen yesterday was obviously not from International Care Home Search and Rescue...it was hunting Fire Ants!It stopped me in my tracks.How big are these ants if they are being hunted by helicopter? Where has Will brought me? I definitely think that when you arrive here they should show you a video at the airport and then you can decide if you want to stay or catch the next plane back. I thought King Browns were bad enough but now there were Fire Ants to deal with!I nearly set off back but then thought ‘What would Jenny Agutter do?’ So I carried on. The path was lovely, a clean, wide concrete strip. I spotted a lovely blue kingfisher sitting on a telephone wire. I paused to take a picture......then carried on. Suddenly the concrete path came to an end but a dirt path carried on. It dipped slightly into a gully with a stream. There were logs and piles of rocks and over hanging trees. It looked like typical jungle to me. I stopped again and gulped. Images of lurking King Browns and giant Fire Ants hiding behind trees played through my mind. I began to wonder how I was ever going to cope when we finally got to Frogknot!

Jungle!

The ‘Jenny’ in me urged me on and I crept cautiously forward. Once out of the gully I stopped again. The path stretched forward through knee high grass! Poor Norma Croker! Her park is a death trap! I looked down at my white hairy legs sticking out below my shorts. They might as well have had neon signs flashing ‘Bite Me! Bite Me!’ attached

Would you walk down a path like this?!

‘Be brave’ said Jenny. So I carried on. It was hardly aerobic exercise at the speed I was going but my heart was certainly beating fast!I was startled by a black beer can lying by the path and then spotted what looked like a large spiky beetle in the middle of the track! I was relieved that it turned out to be just a leaf.

It's not normal is it?

I came across a tree that looked like it was covered with bloody claws!I carried further on and came to a bridge over another stream that flowed down into Oxley Creek. There was a rusty shopping trolley lying in it. How familiar? It was just like home! I felt a bit better after that so continued on.I came upon a small wooded hillside and the path sloped up. So up I went. The grass here looked as if it had been mowed but I did not drop my guard. You can’t trust those King Browns.Suddenly I came to a road. That was it! That’s all you get for coming 15^th in the long jump! A gully, long grass, a spiky leaf, trees with bloody claws and a rusty shopping trolley. I’d be livid if I was Norma Croker! In fact I thought about writing to ‘A Current Affair’. They would definitely get another half an hour of awful television from this!I would have stood there outraged for a bit longer but I realised I had to head back. So, I girded up my magnificent loins and turned round, down the wooded slope, past the rusty shopping trolley and over the bridge, past the bloody claw tree, over the spiky leaf, through the knee high grass and across the gully, back to the concrete path. When I reached the main road I just thought I would see what lay over the bridge that the road went over....I decided it looked like the ‘wong’ way to me (sic) so headed back home through the now familiar wilds of the Archerfield Industrial Estate.I walked in the door and exclaimed,“I survived!”Dulcie was sat at the table. She looked at me as if I was mad and then blew out a cloud of smoke!