Eight years ago we were walking in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
There were a few different loop options – nothing serious, and so we decided to go for the longest one.
As usual, we really weren’t carrying anything – one water bottle I think between two of us.
About 45 minutes into the walk, we found ourselves off the track.
It had been raining a bit recently, and the little track had been washed away slightly, and then all of a sudden we realised the track we were on wasn’t a track at all.
Once we realised we had lost our way, we turned around and started going backwards, retracing our steps.
No path.
30 minutes later, still no path.
We were more or less going in circles now.
After what felt like hours (it was only about 45 minutes), there was some tension, so we decided just to stop. We waited for 10 or 15 minutes, with no effort.
After all, we had “tried” already and couldn’t figure it out, so we may as well just pause for a bit.
All of a sudden, it clicked – we turned and went straight up the bank in the steepest part, and found our way to a trail that would reconnect us with our original path.
Once our direction is set, action tends to play out as the best strategy.
But if our direction is questionable, sometimes stopping all together before we do anything else can give us the best chance of finding our way again.
