Parks and beaches are closed. So are playgrounds and exercise equipment. Social distancing is the norm. COVID-19 is realigning our priorities in life. In Sydney, one is only allowed outside for the following reasons: shopping for food and essentials; visiting a medical facility; getting to work/school (if online is not possible); and, exercise.
I am grateful for all our hardworking frontliners, who everyday, take an enormous and unfathomable risk. These are tough times.
I am savoring these times though, keeping the family within the house and adhering to government regulations when heading outdoors.
We live close to a Regional Park. Wianamatta (Wiana = mother, matta = to meet) trail head is just 5 minutes away.
This park traditionally belong to the Aboriginal Darug people for thousands of years and we pay our respects to them and to their elders, past, present and emerging.
A portion of Wianamatta Regional Park used to be a military depot during the Second World War. Remnants of old military warehouses and paved roads are now being taken over by bushland.
Luxford Trail is the main road that connects suburbian Ropes Crossing to neighboring Jordan Springs. It is about 6 km, trailhead to trailhead, but there are a lot of bifurcations one can explore and enjoy.
Most afternoons I ride or run the trails to get a semblance of normalcy. It’s amazing though when you are in the middle of nowhere, the pandemic seem like a different world away.
Amidst housing communities and real estate, you come across a mob of kangaroos, a pair of emus, a solitary snake for once, a flock of cockatoos, mynas and crows– all in their natural habitat. You feel like an alien among them.
There is a part of Luxford Trails that this unique group of avians congregate on towering gum trees. The musical singsong of the Bell Bird is hard to miss passing through. You’ll know it when you’re there.
On weekends, I explore further and longer. It is in these moments that we savor the experience of being out in nature while we still can.
The crunch of bike tyres on gravel and trails, the rustle of the bush and the cacophony of birds– these are sensory stimuli to the brain providing a varied contrast to life in quarantine.
Stay safe and pray for our frontliners.
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Marc Viax 
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