On Monday I drive down to Forcett to meet Brit. It's hiking day, and after a week of sitting in front of a screen, I'm keen to get outside. We decide on Cape Raoul; a coastal route with ocean views and giant cliffs.

It doesn't take long before I realise I'm not quite in the same shape I used to be. We're barely an hour into the walk when I lose Brit. I know she's on the path, but I do begin to worry that I haven't caught up to her. It's not until we meet at the first lookout that she assures me she could see me behind her the whole time. I can't respond - too busy catching my breath!

The walk itself is breathtaking, meant in both senses of the word. The scenery changes from bushes with padamelons hiding to rich forest, out to rocky lookouts and sheer drops to the ocean below. As suddenly as we turn a corner, the landscape flattens. There are shrubs instead of trees and succulents instead of pepper berry bushes. Alongside the wooden path the ground is dry and cracked. There are seals lounging beneath the cathedral-style rocks and the ocean sparkles a deep blue beneath us. I ignore the vertigo that's followed me from each rocky edge, take some happy snaps, and we take the 7km uphill walk back to the car.

I tried to take Brit on a bushwalk when she came to visit Wollongong last year. Not knowing the correct entrance it was a failed attempt, and after a day like this on her local soil, I think I owe her a full day of sightseeing when she comes to visit next. And cake. Brit - I owe you cake.

The walk was long but not overly strenuous, minus a few stairs. The lower half of my body begs to differ on Tuesday morning, when I wake up aching from buttocks to toes. It's a good ache, the kind that says your muscles have been working hard, but there's a long drive ahead today. By the time I make it to Penguin I'm walking like one, hobbling around with stiff legs and aching joints. Best to do more of this hiking stuff, better to get used to it than suffer periodically.