I love my dog

My hero

A couple of days ago I went for a longish walk as part of my preparation for my 100 km walk in October.  To shake things up a bit - because I love living on the edge - I decided to reverse the direction of my usual 5 km loop and start at the end if you see what I mean.  I should not have done it; things look totally different if you start from the other end, and you realize that you probably weren't paying as much attention to landmarks and surroundings as you first thought.

I ended up getting totally and utterly lost.

Recognizing a road we came to - which wouldn't have been there if I'd been going the right way - and knowing I didn't want to walk up it with all its winding and curving, I did what I thought was extremely smart and went 'off piste' away from the walking track. 

"Let's go bush" I told Charlie dog, and all of a sudden there we were blundering around amongst spikey parrotbush and red rocks.

On the up side I found some treasure, remains of the old rubbish dump that used to be in the area.  Old pieces of pottery, reminding me of home, and some shards which could 'eventually' be used in a mosaic.

I also have a rather macabre interest in animal bones.  Don't ask me why.

On the down side, I had lots of prickly leaves sticking in places I rather they didn't and no clue how to get back onto the track towards home.

At this point, after patiently watching me fossick about amongst broken ceramics and animal fragments for reasons he could not understand, Charlie lost the plot and took control.  Which doesn't happen very often with our dog (both the plot losing and taking control, he's very much a follower and happy with that).  He strode in front of me purposefully, nose to the ground, determined to get home before tea-time. 

And found a beautiful, wide, clear track back to civilization.  I was so relieved I could almost swear it was surrounded by glowing, dancing lights and the voices of angels.

This is not a parrotbush - but to me it does look like someone waving their arms about - really, if you look at it with your eyes half-closed, it does ...

And I'd almost left him at home, because I complained that he slows me down too much.  If it wasn't for him, I'd probably still be wondering around in the bush 3 days later.

I love my dog.