I’ve been on the trail for three hours, the first time I fall.
The coastal scrub has opened into rolling hillsides of summer-gold grass, the sea wind blustering the dry stalks. Climbing uphill has begun to take its toll, but it’s the downhill sections that bring me undone. Stepping onto dry, flattened grass, my boot shoots out and I land hard on my left side, knee cracking onto rock, shoulder wrenched sideways under the weight of my pack.
