I think I might have killed the treadmill, again. I realise now I might not have told you about the first time I murdered it, with spider spray. We had to order parts for it, The Other Half did fix it. Since then it has propelled me for hundreds, maybe thousands of KM.

My beloved treadmill had been making a strange smell for a while. I just thought it needed a small service, and the smell might have been the new commercial lubricant that we had used. The last time I used it on a Sunday evening to catch up my missing steps, I noticed that the room seemed to be smoky and the smell was “louder” than usual. Lucky The Other Half was at home, so I called him in. When he took the cover off, we found that the motor was literally smoking. Actual puffs of smoke were appearing.

A quick service was performed, and the assessment was Not Great. Thankfully, Spring has Sprung and the weather has been gorgeous, so out I went, almost every single day, to get my exercise done. The one exception was Tuesday, where I tried the treadmill again and got 10 minutes out of it before it began to smell again, prompting me to use the much hated elliptical. I guess I will have to use it when the weather does not allow out time. And we could really do with some rain, so I would accept having to use the hated elliptical if we could have some rain.

I do have a problem with my mind. It tells me that if I get out to walk, I better make it worthwhile. Why walk/run 5km when you can walk/run 10km, Snoskred? And why would you want to quit when the scenery is this great? I did 3x 10km plus one 8km last week and a 5km on Saturday. I had a rest day on Sunday. I’ve already done 10km and 8km this week.. On the days I do a 10km, I allow myself a small piece of baked cheesecake for dessert. I feel I have earned it. ;)

There has been a bushfire in Booderee National Park. It has been very bad and they believe it may have been deliberately lit. They got it under control early on, but the next day it had flared up in several different places, and then it really took off with some big winds we had.

It was a hot day too, 30 degrees C (around 85F) so that did not especially help. They had to evacuate the camping grounds, HMAS Creswell, and Jervis Bay village.

The fire is mostly out now, though they’ve had a couple of flare ups. I’ve seen some aerial photos on Facebook and the amount of bush that is gone is staggering. Our favourite bushwalk there looks like it is just clear ground and burned trees now. Once they reopen the park, we plan to go in and do that bushwalk and take some photos, and then go back at least once a month to watch it all grow back. It seems like The Other Half’s favourite campgrounds were spared any damage, at least for now.

This has us thinking about our own fire plan, and I will be doing some organising in the next few weeks so we can have a grab bag of things we need to take. We already have a plan for the cats, and the chooks are my big worry because if we had to evacuate at night that is easy, they will all be asleep on the roost, we just grab them and put them in the carriers. Daytime, HA, how hilarious, to try and catch chooks who are not great fans of being caught. Rosie the Grande Dame in particular will be almost impossible to catch, as she is speedy.

So we have a plan of what we are going to do, the plan we currently lack is where we intend to go. That might depend on the situation. In the meantime, I will be out and about, doing a lot of walking in the extremely awesome Jervis Bay. I might download some step aerobics videos for inclement weather days, and alternate that with the elliptical. I need to work on core strength.

The weather has been pretty incredible here in Jervis Bay, as I write this it is the 12th of August and we’ve had a solid week of gorgeous days.

I went walking at the bay every single day for 5 days in a row.

This week I have seen – the Shoalhaven Council added new gravel to some of the beach stairs. Plus they raked away a lot of leaves and sticks.

Shoalhaven Council re-planted this bench which used to be elsewhere on the path but there was a beach erosion incident, and it fell over. It is now back in a more sheltered position, on the opposite side of the path. If it suffers from beach erosion again over here, something is really wrong!

The following day the concrete had been laid, and the day after that it was painted.

One day Shoalhaven council workers were busily trimming trees that had overgrown onto the path, plus mowing lawns along the path.

There was some larger tree trimming done, which I did not get photos of as they had closed off the park for safety. Today as I drove there and back, there was lawnmowing being done along Jervis Bay road.

I think we are ready for spring now. Fingers crossed it will be as great as winter has been – blue skies, and happy weather for walking? But perhaps it might be too much to ask. We could do with a little rain. ;)

Another twilight shot.

Every day when I go walking at Jervis Bay, I think..

Can it possibly get any more beautiful than this?

Today the question was answered.

YES!

It totally can.

All I have to do is to forget to put the SD card into the camera, and therefore be limited to 15 photos only.

I’m only showing you 7 of them.

Ok, maybe 8. There goes the dolphin boat. So many days the dolphins meet the boat here. You can also see the Huskisson sea water pool which is resting for the winter. What a place to go swimming in summer!

No vampires, just a late afternoon walk.

Now that we have finished the new path above Orion Beach, why don’t we head down and take a look at the beach itself? Above you see it from the new path we have been exploring recently, you can see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Heads up – this is one of the steepest sets of beach stairs in the Shoalhaven – at least that I have experienced. This photo is looking back up towards the new path. Important to note, I have not been down every set of beach stairs in the Shoalhaven myself. :) One day!

There is a section which is flat, like a bridge.

More stairs down to the beach. But don’t worry..

The trip will have been worth it, once you get there.

As far as Shoalhaven beaches go, this one has a big benefit – you do not have to walk across a lot of soft sand to get to the water. Of course that means you do not have as much space to put down your beach towels and belongings. And you need to be aware at high tide there is very little beach to be found here. So you might want to be careful about where you put your stuff.

On the day we visited, it seemed to be one of the cleanest beaches I have seen. There was not much seaweed or seashells to be found here.

Now, you just have to climb back up those stairs when it is time to leave.. ;)

Just linking all these posts together –

There Is A New Vincentia Path
New Vincentia Path One
New Vincentia Path Two
New Vincentia Path Three
Orion Beach