Geelong's Gym

With 189km to ponder things whilst Walking Home, shadows was a topic of solo conversation in my head many times.

With the weather in the high 30s and full sunshine blazing down on the walkers, shadows were everywhere.

It occurred to me that shadows are often used in a negative way…hiding something, representing an issue that hasn’t been resolved, some deep dark secret lurking in the shadows!

Well here are some of my learnings:

• Shadows are great company and throw many dimensions to an otherwise flat picture.
• Shadows don’t weigh you down or slow you down.
• Shadows can give enormous relief from a seemingly in-escapable situation… in this case, the sun.

On day 3 of our walk from Camperdown to Colac, the air temperature was 35^oC.  The bitumen temperature was 60^o C.  Our feet were burning, our blisters were screaming, heat rash was appearing on many and heat stroke was starting to take its toll on a few.  The greatest relief was to walk closely to someone and find shade.

Some nasty blisters!

So here is my new saying in life:

Sometimes it’s really important to walk in someone else’s shadow.