Dam Easter !

Hey its good to be back !

I ventured out to Atkinson's Dam for Easter for a bit of camping and skiing. Weather was great and although the dam was only at 18 % full we could still ski.

I did plan to get a few runs in over the weekend but a rest was needed.

Second day eating brekky ( bacon and eggs) I looked out over the dam and declared to everyone that I was going to run around the dam. It looked like a fair hike and the tree's, long grass and electric fences that divide many properties around the dam seemed my only obstacles. So after letting my brekky go down a bit I got into my road running gear and set off.

As with all plans they never seem to go as planned.

About 500 meters along the edge I decided to cross what I thought to be a dry end of the dam.

The long grass had me running with high knees and when I hit the mushy muddy bits I started to collect mud on most parts of my body. After crossing the mushy area I thought that's it no more mud easy running from here on. Ha This is where it all just started.

I headed up a hill to the trees and made my way along the top edge of the dam.This is where I found a track (motorbike or something). Like a drunk following the sidewalk I followed the track and focused my eyes on about 3 meters ahead. The grass was long filled with spider webs and weeds galore. When I finally looked up I realised I was heading for the waters edge and got off the track heading along the edge. 3 electric fence jumps later I noticed ahead water flowing. So I followed the edge of that till hopefully I would find somewhere to cross. About 1 k later I found a spot where it narrowed to about 2.5-3 meters wide with hard ground on either side. Off to the right was a little steep hill and so my plan (oh yeah the plan) was to run up the hill turn around run down for max speed and jump across. Easy!. All went well up to the point when flying through the air (well I thought so) I came to the realisation that I was not going to make it. Isnt it funny how in a split second your mind goes from oh yeah to oh sh*t. Well I think you can guess what happened next, yep I landed about 2 foot from the edge in the water/mud.
Wet shoes, dry long grass and dirt patches what more could I ask for ?
I followed the line of tree's high up on the dam to get a bit of shade and try get away from the long grass but thats where all the cows were and I was hopeing there were no bulls around.
A couple more gate and fence crossings I headed for the waters edge, why ? I guess I was getting hot and it seemed a good idea at the time. The grass got longer and thicker, I was wondering wether this was a good idea. So I aimed for the top edge of the dam wall but when I got there I was faced with 3 barbed wire electric fences close together ? 3? anyway the only way out was to scale the dam wall rocks and hope I didn't get injured climbing.
At the top of the dam wall was a nice dirt road and the view was spectacular.
I ran to the end jumped yet another gate and headed for the road. About 2k up the road was the entrance to the campsite and I had only done 11.5k so I ran a futher 2k down the road and back to get a few more k's.
The next two days I stuck to road runs and was surprised to not find any wildlife on any of my runs. 16k and 12k.