Lumbering Walk!

Facing El Niño for weeks plus the haze, a long heavy downpour one day last week was a welcome sight! Though improved slightly, the haze stayed.

Taking this opportunity, our human decided to go for the morning walk...

...and got caught in this ridiculously laughable situation.

The path changed after the downpour. Could not turn back with mud getting stuck to the shoes, our human lumbered uphill ungracefully.

And collected even more mud going downhill.

The shoes felt like it weighed a ton.

When showed these photos to our human's brother, he teasingly commented that if our human train like this daily, soon our human could walk on water like those in Chinese Kungfu movies.

When it rained a few days later though not heavy, our human chose to walk a different route.

PS: Our human will not wear those shoes to walk as the soles have started to detach.

Stray Escort

There are many stray dogs on the roadside near the path entrance to the hill top.
Neutered, most of them are fearful of humans but some are friendly to regular hikers.
Lately some strays followed and acted as escorts to our human like this one.
He, a neutered male, escorted our human from the roadside up three-quarter way to a resting point.
When our human went down, he followed closely behind.
Our human purposely walked slow so that the stray could trot in front.

At this fork lower down, our 4-legged friend decided to wait for our slow human to catch up while enjoying the view. (We are experiencing a slight haze from open burning from a neighbouring country.)
On seeing the stray totally engrossed in his thoughts, our human quietly turned and quickly went uphill again.
Soon our human heard quiet shuffling behind, turned and saw our little escort behind.
Well, what can our human do except reward it with some kibbles that were kept in an air-tight sealed bag in the haversack.
This stray never left our human's side and followed all the way down to the road.

Millipede

Midway uphill a few mornings ago, our human chanced to see this little friendly creature.

Using the shoe for comparison, the phone was quickly taken out to record it.

As there were no hikers in sight, our human waited until it moved out of sight.

This is not the biggest our human has seen; there were bigger millipedes and centipedes while walking deep in our country's jungle.

Airborne Leg First!

Few weeks later another interesting incident happened.
At the very same hiking rest stop, our human walked to the other side of the stream turned man-made pool where a small flat area had been cemented with a few benches. 
To go there, one has to walk on a narrow man-made concrete mini-bridge above the small waterfall that separates the upper and lower level of the stream.
On the return walk, our human slipped on a small patch of green moss/algae and went airborne leg first.

The next instant, our human felt something cold and soft.
Our human quickly stood up and realised that the murky water filled with mud and decaying leaves was almost waist high.
Water in the upper level 'pool' dropped due to the previous few days of dry weather.
To be honest, our human could not recollect how the climb up out of that murky water was.
Soaked and very dirty with decaying leaves in the hair, a fellow hiker helped our human pick it out; another hiker gave our human a clean dry T-shirt to change.
Our human then went to the lower stream to clean up before heading downhill.
Now our human is extra careful at that area, moving slower and sure-footed.
Without even a scratch, one hiker commented that the 'mountain spirits' must have protected our human. They said it could have been dangerous if landed on any part of the cemented area or rocks.
PS: Cell phone, keys and money in the waist pouch were wet and had to be cleaned and dried.

Sinkhole

This frequently visited rest stop beside a small stream is a favourite among hikers. Few years ago someone cemented the sides of the stream creating a small pool on the upper level. This stream flows down some big rocks to the lower level and was cemented to resemble a small waterfall.

When it rains (usually heavy), water will gush down the hill slopes beside it making its way to the stream.

With normal quick steps, our human walked beside the stream when suddenly the ground beneath gave way and our human fell forward onto the soft sand.

Since our human never uttered a sound, other hikers resting on the lower level did not know about the incident. Though the sand had the full imprint of our human's body (knee, hip, shoulder and face), our human just brushed the sand off and then walked downhill home.

At home, while taking the bath, our human checked and did not sustain any injuries.

That evening, there was a long heavy downpour.

Next morning, our human went back to the same spot but this time our human walked nearer the hill slope and with a long fallen branch prodded that sunken spot which now looked normal with no indication of a sinkhole.

Our human was shocked to discover that it was almost two feet deep. This time this potential sinkhole had to be make known to other hikers. Our human then drove in more twigs and branches, and placed an orange plastic lid to indicate danger.