Exhausted, but jubilant

Delta and I had planned on going camping up in the Catskills in early October to catch the initial glimpses of autumn colours. We'd been hoping to persuade some of our friends to come with us, so were particularly enthused when Davis, Simone and the Vish decided to join the bandwagon as well.

I'd never gone camping in the fall chill before, so wasn't quite sure what to expect. But it was simply perfect. The trees were positively jostling eachother for their turns to display their resplendent, fiery foliage. The weather blessed us with bright sunshine, and the lingering chill in the air only made us appreciate the blazing fire that much more.

I'd had my heart set on climbing a steep trail we'd never undertaken before, and luckily everyone else seemed pretty happy to comply. But none of us, me included, expected quite the task we had undertaken. Up, and up, and up we went, until several hours into the hike, we finally burst through to the top, and sat at the cliff edge, munching our sandwiches and gazing down in awe at the vast expanse of the autumnal Hudson valley before us.

And then, as Newton pointed out of all things that go up, it was time to go down. Painstakingly, knee-crunchingly, anke-twistingly, unalteringly, down. I must confess, my knees would have been rather more impressed with me if I'd had the ol' preemptive alleve. But all the same, we all made it to the bottom in the end, just in time for the setting sun. Just in time for a quick shower, getting the fire alight, and a glass of wine.

Exhausted, but jubilant. No better feeling in the world.