Stitching with Elli

Before leaving Australia, Bridget and Debbie got to come along with my group as we hiked up Mount Lofty.  They were a little nervous about making it the entire 2.5 miles, especially since it was steep. They decided to start out in my backpack and then walk later…..but when we saw the first waterfall, they jumped out.

“Wow! look how tall that waterfall is!” Debbie was fascinated.

“Let’s keep going!! I want to see what it looks like from the top!” Bridget was one of those people who hike as fast as they can so they can see what is around the next bend of the trail.

Debbie noticed that the rest of the group was getting ahead. Up she got and trudged along as fast as her little legs would go. Keeping up with big tall 6 ft+ boys on a hike is very hard when you are 18in  tall!

Our group hiked the Waterfall Gully to mount lofty trail.  It was quite steep for most of the trail…but when you paused from puffing and panting and looked up, the views were lovely!

There were beautiful flowers tucked in along the edges of the path.

Debbie managed to convince Bridget to occasionally take a break and just sit and enjoy the view for a while.

“How much farther do you think it is?” Debbie was slightly anxious…she was getting tired! To add to her concern, they had lost sight of Emily and weren’t sure how far ahead she was.

“I’m not sure. Estimating distance isn’t my forte. I guess we’ll just have to find out when we get there how far it is!” Bridget replied with forced cheerfulness. She was tired too, but since they were only going to be in Australia once, they were both determined to enjoy it in spite of  fatigue. That is a very good attitude to have when one is tired.

“Look over there!! Debbie suddenly called, pointing up the hillside.

Can you see what she saw?

A wild Kangaroo!!!

Both dolls got very excited and suddenly  didn’t feel quite as tired. They watched until the kangaroos left. Then, they continued onward and upward on the trail.

They would climb up UP UP….. then the trail would go down down again…..and then up UP….

“Why can’t it just stay up??” Debbie asked “I could climb it once, but this is like climbing it 10 times!!”

“Well, then we will have 10 times the bragging rights for climbing it 10 times.” Was Bridget’s cheerful reply. ” I think maybe this is the last time we are going down.”

It turned out that she was right! It was a loooooong steep way up this time…with stairs…..whew! they were too tired to take pictures.

Finally they arrived at the top.

“Wow! what a view!!” Debbie sighed as she sat next to the sign that identified what she was looking at.

They were both so tired from the hike that they didn’t talk much. They  sat and enjoyed the view.

Even when the view was occasionally blocked by big people who got in the way…..

“Is it rude to ask someone to move?” Bridget whispered to Debbie.

“I’m not sure.  Let’s just wait until he moves…We can look at the view in another direction until he moves.” Debbie whispered back.

Emily came back and told them they had an ice cream store attached to the gift shop at the top.

They looked at each other, and both decided almost immediately that they had looked at the view long enough.  It was time for ICE CREAM!

“Oooo this is so good!” Debbie sighed happily as she drank her ice cream soda.

“It is the cherry on top, after the hike.” Bridget grinned. “I think I will remember this hike the rest of my life!”