todayiamadaisy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
todayiamadaisy) wrote2009-04-28 11:30 pm
todayiamadaisy) wrote2009-04-28 11:30 pm
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Expedition K2
The same person who once gave me a book listing 365 things to do in order to feel great has since given me a book called 365 ways to change the world. Do you sense a theme here? Anyway, the idea for April 28 was Experimental Travel and, since I'm always up for being told what to do by a book, that's what I did.
By experimental travel, it meant doing something to see the world differently, whether you're on holidays or in your home town: going on a walk taking alternate right and left turns, for example, or mounting an expedition to K2. Not the mountain, but the map reference.
It was the trek to K2 that I undertook today. I got out my two maps of the City by the Sea (one is a street directory and the other is a tourist map) and plotted my course. I have to admit, I was sort of hoping that K2 would be somewhere near where I live, but on both maps K2 was right on the other side of the city, in the wilds of the west. So I drove rather than trekked, but that didn't make my excursion any less arduous.
The City by the Sea doesn't really have a bad area to live, but west has the industrial estate, and the meat works, and a swathe of Housing Commission homes. Which is not to say that the east (where I live) is anything special (it isn't), but the west is just a little bit more run down.
The real reason I avoid the west is that the streets there are twisted - curving and changing names and turning back on themselves - and that plays havoc with my poor sense of direction. Even with the map it took me several attempts to find both locations. At one stage, I drove down a street and passed four separate entrances to Davis Street, which doesn't seem like it should be possible.
Since I had two maps, that meant two K2 summits to scale. The first one I tackled was the tourist version, which turned out to have K2 over the Merrivale Recreation Oval. Thrill to the view of the mesh fence! Gasp at the goal posts! Look at that red-wheeled tractor going up the road in the distance! Um, yes... the Merrivale Recreation Oval isn't particularly exciting. (I should say that I was trying to take these photos as if I was looking up at a summit, which isn't immediately apparent.)
The second K2 was the one found in my local street directory and this was even further west. Through the industrial estate I drove: past the meat works, past more auto-wreckers than I would have thought sustainable, past the rubbish tip, past the... past the bitumen? That's right. After the rubbish tip, I started seeing paddocks and cows and eventually the smooth sealed road turned into a bumpy unsealed one. I was shocked. I grew up much further away from the city than this, but our roads were all sealed. This really is the wild west.
Anyway, once I made it to K2 I found the Merri (pronounced Merr-EYE) River, which isn't much of a river just here, as you can see. In fact, this is the river after several days of heavy rain, so it's quite full. You can't really see it, but the paddock was sodden and marshy, and there was a flock of straw-necked ibis on it. They flew away when they saw me. There were always flocks of them around when I lived on the farm, but I haven't seen any for ages.
So that was my trip to the twin summits of K2. Did I see the world differently, if just for a moment? I suppose so. I mean, I found the edge ofcivilisation the City by the Sea, and I really wasn't expecting that.
By experimental travel, it meant doing something to see the world differently, whether you're on holidays or in your home town: going on a walk taking alternate right and left turns, for example, or mounting an expedition to K2. Not the mountain, but the map reference.
It was the trek to K2 that I undertook today. I got out my two maps of the City by the Sea (one is a street directory and the other is a tourist map) and plotted my course. I have to admit, I was sort of hoping that K2 would be somewhere near where I live, but on both maps K2 was right on the other side of the city, in the wilds of the west. So I drove rather than trekked, but that didn't make my excursion any less arduous.
The City by the Sea doesn't really have a bad area to live, but west has the industrial estate, and the meat works, and a swathe of Housing Commission homes. Which is not to say that the east (where I live) is anything special (it isn't), but the west is just a little bit more run down.
The real reason I avoid the west is that the streets there are twisted - curving and changing names and turning back on themselves - and that plays havoc with my poor sense of direction. Even with the map it took me several attempts to find both locations. At one stage, I drove down a street and passed four separate entrances to Davis Street, which doesn't seem like it should be possible.
Since I had two maps, that meant two K2 summits to scale. The first one I tackled was the tourist version, which turned out to have K2 over the Merrivale Recreation Oval. Thrill to the view of the mesh fence! Gasp at the goal posts! Look at that red-wheeled tractor going up the road in the distance! Um, yes... the Merrivale Recreation Oval isn't particularly exciting. (I should say that I was trying to take these photos as if I was looking up at a summit, which isn't immediately apparent.)
The second K2 was the one found in my local street directory and this was even further west. Through the industrial estate I drove: past the meat works, past more auto-wreckers than I would have thought sustainable, past the rubbish tip, past the... past the bitumen? That's right. After the rubbish tip, I started seeing paddocks and cows and eventually the smooth sealed road turned into a bumpy unsealed one. I was shocked. I grew up much further away from the city than this, but our roads were all sealed. This really is the wild west.
Anyway, once I made it to K2 I found the Merri (pronounced Merr-EYE) River, which isn't much of a river just here, as you can see. In fact, this is the river after several days of heavy rain, so it's quite full. You can't really see it, but the paddock was sodden and marshy, and there was a flock of straw-necked ibis on it. They flew away when they saw me. There were always flocks of them around when I lived on the farm, but I haven't seen any for ages.
So that was my trip to the twin summits of K2. Did I see the world differently, if just for a moment? I suppose so. I mean, I found the edge of