Mountain Tales

Blue Waterholes – a place of peace

People always talked about Blue Waterholes with reverence, and from the earliest trip I joined my parents for in the mountains they were very keen that I ride there with Dad. It seemed a long distance and a little scary but I was excited to give it a go. See more.

That first trip must have been with Heidi and Maggie and we most likely rode from Goodradigbe or maybe from Cooinbil (this was in the days before I took trip notes). I do know that we stopped at the top of the ridge and didn’t go down as we felt it was a bit far to ride around – so I still didn’t know what the gorge itself was like. We had lunch on the hill and shared an orange, a tradition that has become so much a part of being in the mountains with Dad that I suspect it will remind me of that for the rest of my life. After lunch we rode back via Bill Jones Hut, which was much more interesting than any of the huts I had encountered near campgrounds. It had a tiny rusty bed frame and various implements that I now know make hikers lives easier but at the time I thought were there as museum pieces.

After this first failed attempt (that was nevertheless a fantastic day of riding) I think we might have driven in on an off day, or perhaps we waited till we were camped closer or felt more confident about the distances. I’ve now ridden in several times, very much enjoying the valleys just before it that are home to many brumbies. A ride through them always provides a beautiful brumby sighting. Sometimes you get to witness a small drama of their lives playing out – colts fighting, foals playing, or even the whole herd taking off when you ride around the corner right into them (to both yours and their surprise).

I’ve also walked down the gorge several times. It’s a fantastic day hike with many creek crossings and a fab view at the end. Swimming costumes highly recommended as there are plenty of deep little pools you could take a dip in to cool off. Swimming costumes also recommended for the blue pool that is just to the right as you arrive at the bottom of the track from the camp ground. In this case be prepared for involuntary vocalisation as you enter the water as it is properly cold!

More recently Dad and I have ridden there in the rain from the Homestead, going across the plains to cut corners but still covering 40kms in one day. In a big change from our earliest days, we were comfortable not being on an exact path, but knowing to head to a particular ridge or river crossing. In the rain we had the gorge all to ourselves and the different light brought out different colours in both the river and the foliage. The horses are much happier in the rain as well as it is much cooler and there are no flies, so the ride is calmer and more pleasant for all of us.

Blue Waterholes has now become a place of personal importance. I almost want to call it a spiritual home of sorts, but not only have I never considered myself a particularly spiritual person, but it feels disrespectful to Australia’s First Nations people to talk of having a spiritual connection to their sacred lands.* Suffice to say that I hold a deep love for Blues Waterholes and it gives me a strong sense of peace. The water itself is so blue and so cold – always the same blue and the same cold as it travels some distance underground before Blue Waterholes. The gorge always feels like a welcome containment after the open plains above. And so often I am visiting it with people I love.

*To find out more about the Aboriginal People of the Mountains read this statement on the Perisher Historical Society website, this information on the Kiandra Historical Society site, or this Government Fact Sheet.

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Learning and Growing

On Trusting Yourself

There is nothing quite like the mountains for making you be really sure about your decisions. Whether its reading a map or deciding how much food to take, you’ve really got to think carefully, check twice, then back yourself. I’ve taken too much of the wrong type of food and felt horribly guilty that Sam has carried it all over the mountains and we haven’t eaten it. I’ve also taken not enough food and gotten into the emergency food supplies shockingly quickly. Neither of these were particularly big mistakes, but they were certainly learning experiences, and made me very glad that I had put a buffer of emergency food into the packs – a great approach for an area in which you lack experience.See more.

On Relationships

Dad and I have had one argument. On a hot day where I didn’t know that Dad knew the country really well he took a turnoff that we hadn’t planned and it took us a few heated sentences before we worked out that he knew the path he was taking us on. That probably means we’ve had one argument per 1000kms or something amazing like that. Pretty impressive I’d say!

The relationship you develop with your horse over hundreds of kilometres is also pretty special. Sam and I had some rough moments at the start as he has plenty of energy and plenty of opinions on how things should go. Now that we’ve travelled hundreds of kilometres together though, we know what to expect of each other and how to behave to get along well. Sam knows that if he comes to me with a problem I’ll do my best to understand and fix it, and I know that if I stay calm then he will too. We know that Heidi is braver about most things, but if neither horse is keen then Sam is more likely to trust his human than Heidi. We also know that if we don’t know if its safe and Heidi really doesn’t want to go through something it isn’t safe. You can just imagine how much fun that was to find out, can’t you? Also finding out that Sam can’t tell if something is a bog or not, but Heidi can. Also an interesting discovery moment.

On Fear

I can be very fearful and one of the great benefits of these trips has been the continued practise at being in fear-inducing situations and remaining calm. On one of our early training rides I let my fear get the better of me going down a steep hill to cross a creek and Sam completely lost it: shaking, then turning around and running straight up the hill to flat ground. At that point I realised that Sam had no chance of remaining confident if I didn’t, so I worked hard on simulating the physical appearance of calm regardless of my feelings. Given how sensitive horses are, this involves regulating breathing and relaxing the whole body into normal riding posture even when the brain is on high alert. When I get it right I feel like the old cowbody in the City Slickers who tells Billy Crystal that all you need in life is one thing.

On Failure

Horse trekking books suggest that rather than attempting to get to a particular place on a particular day, you head out on the trail and see how far you get. We have always tried to approach it with this attitude, but in the modern world of outcomes-based assessment and achievement culture it can be hard to slip into this mode when you get to the mountains. We never pushed past what was safe, but we could certainly see how you might do that if you are thinking about getting somewhere rather than about having a good day of riding.

Now that we have had quite a few days that didn’t go at all to plan, we can see that those days were just as incredible as the ones that did go to plan. We were still out riding together in beautiful country, exploring and talking and seeing beautiful places. I think if we had ever felt that we hadn’t been properly prepared or gotten started early enough and that had been our reason for failure then we might have been disappointed, but if we’ve thoroughly prepared and put the time in then every day is a success as long as everyone is safe at the end of it.

That has been an interesting approach for me to consider in life generally. If I work consistently and intelligently for a good amount of time each day, then whatever I achieve each day is the right amount. I can optimise my systems every now and then to find out if there are more efficient ways, but mostly work gets done at the pace that work gets done and stressing about it won’t make any difference. Horses only walk so fast, brains only process so fast. No point in getting upset about reality.