Absorbed by the Bush

The Perry’s had 3 children, all daughters; Alexandra, Eliza and Paige. Alexandra was the girly girl of the group, Paige the studious book worm who excelled in academics at school. But Eliza was the most adventurous of them all. Eliza would go exploring every chance she got, on family outings, holidays, at new places she visited, even at school! Although this sometimes annoyed her family, she did it anyway. The only one who joined in her enjoyment was her dad. Eliza’s parents believed in bonding time and so that’s usual what Eliza and her father’s ‘father daughter bonding time’ entailed.
For a combined 18th birthday and graduation of high school present, Eliza’s parents paid for her to go on a two week adventure holiday to Glenrock Lagoon in Newcastle. Eliza had also taken two of her friends along, Jonathan and Samantha, or Sam for short. One day Eliza wanted to go for a bushwalk while her two friends opted for a trip to the beach instead.
So Eliza set out for the famous Glenrock Lagoon Bushwalk on her own. The 1.5km bushwalk was said to talk around two hours but it took Eliza a lot longer, for she stopped to linger and look at the beauty of nature and the natural sights that surrounded her. It took her about 2 hours there and another 2 hours back, almost doubling the original estimated completion time. Eliza didn’t care though.
On her way back, Eliza got lost, having veered off the outlined route as she often did to explore. She'd been absorbed by the beauty of the bush. It had taken her a while to discover she'd actually veered off the path at all. Having forgotten to take her mobile phone with her, Eliza was lost. Sam and Jonathan didn’t know there was trouble. She’d never told them how long she’d be, she hadn’t known herself.

Finally, after what must have been two hours but felt like a lot longer to Eliza, a kindly stranger found her, luckily he was a local and led her back to the proper path. “There you go love.” He’d said before going on his way again.

That day, Eliza learnt a valuable lesson. Always take a means of contact with you and always give someone a rough estimate of how long you should be.