The Goldstream adventure

I joined Will and Johanna on a hike today. We went with the bus to the Goldstream park, which is about an hour west of Victoria. It turned out to be quite a challenge to find the right trail. After a few meters of climbing down a really steep path, we ended up at a river and apart from a few stones, there was no trail across. Thus we turned back and found a real trail to follow. It turned out that the trail we chose wasn't the one we had wanted to follow. We ended up on a big street and we had to cross it by following a river going through a tunnel beneath the street. Since we really had to jump from one stone to the next this time, I wasn't sure I could make it and thus got two big sticks to help me out.

After crossing beneath the road, the next problem was to find the right trail. Will thought he had found it so we started walking. As it turned out, it wasn't really a trail and we were suddenly in the middle of nowhere, there were plants all around us and no path to find. We kept going further in this wilderness until Johanna saw a snake. That's when I said that this cannot be the way and we should turn back. But there was really no turning back to, we were surrounded by wilderness. We decided to try and get to the nearby highway - the only problem was the river dividing us from that highway. Will climbed across a huge tree that had fallen down, but Johanna and I couldn't get up there. Thus we tried crossing the river by jumping from one stone to the next again. Johanna slipped and got her shoes all wet and I didn't see a good way across either, so I took my shoes off. The water was ice cold and it was really slippery. In order to get a better balance, I gave my shoes to Will. Unfortunately, one of my socks dropped into the river. Will could save it, but it was wet. After I was finally on the other side, I put my one dry sock and both shoes back on.
The real path was actually just next to the highway and  it led us to the visitor center. I had hoped to buy a sandwich there but they didn't have any proper food, so we just ended up sharing all we had (buns, cream cheese, granola bars) for lunch.

We tried going to some falls which are actually called Niagara falls next. Unfortunately, I tripped and kind of twisted my ankle. I had to sit down for a few minutes since it really hurt. After a while it got better, but I still couldn't walk properly. However, I had to keep going since there were no buses or anything up here. Will found me a really big stick to help me walking. With this I could somehow make it, although it wasn't very pleasant. The falls weren't too big but nice to look at. Because of my ankle, I didn't go too close, though.

Our next goal was a big railway bridge high up the path. You had an amazing view from there. While walking on top of the bridge, you could actually see down to the tops of the trees below. I was the only one not scared of walking on the bridge, since it was really wide.

The walk from the bridge to the bus was still very long and with my ankle, it took us even longer to get back since I couldn't walk very fast anymore. I think it took two or three hours to get back to the busstop. Still the hike was really nice and even though I couldn't walk properly anymore, I enjoyed the hike. 

I have to admit that in the beginning while we were still lost and looking for the right trail, I had been thinking of turning back and giving up the whole hike. I might have saved myself the pain of twisting my ankle that way.  However, at the end of the hike, I was extremely glad about all these amazing experiences and proud of myself for making it. The twisted ankle might still be a bit annoying in the next few days but this adventure was definitely worth it.