While there is still tons of rain in the area, we’ve decided to attempt the Indian River walk we’ve heard about. Scott and Carol hired a guide to take them up the river in a boat and said it was OK, nothing remarkable so we’re not crazy about the idea now.

We have some notes in the Doyle’s Guide Book so we set off up the road. The start is a bit confusing and turns out we’re on the wrong road (!) but we eventually figure out the right road and find the “grassy road” that leads to a bridge across the river and then, ostensibly, up into the hinterland. It’s wet and mucky but what the heck.

After a couple of hundred yards we come to the bridge over the river and the pool the guide book says is inviting for a swim after the hike. Uh, no thanks. Pretty muddy and who knows what else is in there.

Carry on up the way for about a another km or so, we see this beautiful white horse just grazing in the field. It’s starts getting somewhat jungly but it’s pleasant. We’re not sure where this is going but it’s not going to the jungle bar on the river Christy wanted to see on foot and when I tell her that, she wants to backtrack to the other trail that might take us there.

We backtrack almost back to the bridge. On the way, a Toyota Forerunner goes past us on the way out!

That trail is just a little driveway to the beginnings of somebody’s garden, it’s not the trail we’re expecting. Maybe we missed it on our backtrack? Retrace our steps back towards the jungle on the main road and look for a trail heading west. Nothing obvious, but a slight, very slight, almost invisible gap in the jungle. I stick my head through and there’s a pile of junk there and maybe, just maybe a trail on the other side. We decide to give it a try.

We’re full scale bushwhacking now, thankfully there are no dangerous critters, no snakes, no stinging plants in this country. Just jungle and we’re managing to make some headway. Pretty soon the trail peters out and we find ourselves at a creek we had crossed on the main trail. It’s pretty shallow, stony bottom and certainly leads to the Indian River. We decide to walk through it as long as we can. If there is a trail, it has to cross this creek.

We muddle along, Indiana Jones style, jumping across one deep pool until we get to a bend in the creek where the banks are steep and the water deep. We can’t go this way any longer. Either have to keep bushwhacking (and it’s pretty bushy beside the creek), try to find the trail if there is one, or make our way back to the main trail and exit. We decide to try to find the trail, but generally head to safety doing it. We never find anything that looks like a human has ever trod here before and soon enough we are in spitting distance of the main trail and happily exit, glad to be alive, no one bleeding, but all a bit muddy.

We stop for lunch at the bridge and then head on into town. On the way a guy on a mountain bike passes us and we ask him what’s up the road, he says a garden, while cycling past us. OK, maybe next time we’ll go further.

Back on the paved road, we walk back into town, I write “Milu” in some fresh road repair cement. Stop at the cafe for coffee but I have to be back at my computer for a zoom call at 3:30 pm so we don’t dawdle.