Going up the Country: The Flume

The walk from the Flume to Hopkins Point is both the path most and least traveled.

This meandering path runs, sometimes walks or just plain dawdles, along the Foreshore, meaning just off the beach curving around Lady Bay. It is a walking/bike path tucked in along the edge of the dunes. The dune verge is a few hundred meters wide, reaching up to Merri Street and the first row of houses on the other side of the street.

This narrow necklace of sand and coastline vegetation is home to our neighborhood wallabies, many birds, and is chock full of memories. The other ocean, the one of coastal grasses, also ebbs and flows along and throughout the Flume.

For those Stone Harborites amongst us, the walk along the Flume is a bit like that walk to the Point, especially the first one after an absence. For those Hilton Headers that may be along, it is the walk south to the Calibogue Sound Inlet, or at least to the water tower turn around point.

It is very pleasing to remember walking this Foreshore with niece Sarah and Kevin, and to be back in touch with walks and talks here with my daughter Kate. It is a place to be with parents, and ghosts, spirits, and other kindred travelers past, present, and future. The mind, and spirit, gets both exercise and repose here, as does one’s more physical body.

I am never alone when walking here, when being here. One becomes part of a larger landscape. The appreciation of just being here runs deep and strong.