Day 7: 22 February 2019
Walking with Jessie is special for several reasons. Merran and Jessie have been walking partners for the last year. She is preparing to celebrate each of her next few birthdays by climbing mountains – and we are not talking just little hills. While she is a former ballerina, Jessie is now well into her 70s and still able to easily knock over 10 kms or so with us. We value her friendship as she has encouraged and supported Madeleine in particular in her musical endeavours. Jessie loves music and the arts and has done much for North West Tassie in establishing the Hans Vonk Music House which hosts regular classical music performances, master classes, poetry and philosophy gatherings. She has become one of Merran’s good friends.
Walking with her today was special because, along with Tim’s dad, she walked the first 10km with us on our first day last November. So it was symbolic of being back on track to have her with us again today.
We took her on a slow drive through Lorinna on our way to the starting point and were greeted by an old friend working on her property. We were invited back for a cuppa when we completed our walk and came to collect our drop off vehicle.
Walking quietly through this idyllic and isolated community we shared stories of people we knew and history of this community. Tim has had a long history of coming to Lorinna. He used to come up nearly every year as a child to the tiny Sunday School Anniversary held in a shed which subsequently was pulled down to become the community centre. He also used to visit the Buddhist community which still operates a retreat centre in the valley. Jessie had friends who had told her of this place so she was fascinated to walk past it.
It was a perfect day for walking and we wound our way to the end of the road in good time. Merran was able to take up the invitation to share a cup of tea with our friend, one of the long term residents, and Tim got Jessie home to attend to Billie, her much loved dog who was patiently waiting back at our place in Sheffield.
