The Mental Challenge of Walking

I have said this before after my one and only camp with Ange on the Great Ocean Road walk, but I am NEVER camping again. Unless you can get me a proper bed, it isn’t happening.

I managed to fall asleep when I first went to bed, purely from exhaustion, but within a couple of hours, I was awake and feeling every lump and rock on the cold ground and my back was aching.

I managed to sleep again, but woke up an hour later to hear it raining and I felt extraordinarily hot, to the point where I was stripping down to nothing. At one point I wondered if maybe I was suffering extreme hypothermia, but then figured if I was having this type of conversation with myself, I was probably ok.

By 5am, I was fully awake and trying to work up the ability to get dressed in the freezing air to make my way down to the toilet (another negative of camping, at least in Winter).

Finally, I was up, dressed and packed ready to make my way back down the mountain (which despite being 3245mtrs above sea level, my guide repeatedly told me it was not a mountain!)

The challenge though was it had been raining all night, so the trail was going to be in a worse state than coming up.

I had some time to wait before breakfast, so took my last walk around Khumai Dada. As I walked further along, I walked past a swing that looked out to the mountains and I felt the need to leave Kelly’s photo nearby. I managed to tie her photo to the prayer flags and just as I did, the wind whipped up, lifting the prayer flags and Kelly high above me.

I stared up at the flags and Kelly’s photo way up in the sky, wondering how I was going to take a photo for Kelly’s family. I felt like I was talking to a naughty child, asking her to come back down, but she kept flying up.

I had to walk the length of the rope holding the flags until I reached a point that I could grab hold to bring her down and as I did so, slipped in some mud and fell backwards. I could almost feel Kelly laughing at the whole situation!

As I held Kelly’s picture one last time, I thanked her for helping to keep me safe and hoped she was flying high always.

Breakfast was a spicy dried chickpea curry, boiled egg and a type of bread I hadn’t had before, but was delicious.

Just as we were about to head off, the rain started coming down hard, so my guide said we needed to wait. He had told me there was a quicker way, but there was snow coming and it would be dangerous, which is why we we were going back the way we came, but this would also be tricky.

It was at this point, I decided to pull my waterproof pants on over my hiking pants. I thought if I was going to fall over, at least I wouldn’t feel cold and wet.

Fortunately, we didn’t have long to wait and we were off. I am always super slow going up, but going down is where I am usually really quick, so as I was struggling to make it up over the last two days, I regularly kept thinking how much I was looking forward to going down.

How wrong I was. With the slippery mud and uneven path, I had to use ever ounce of concentration to plan each step, using my poles as anchors in the thick mud.

It was slow going and mentally challenging concentrating so hard on each step, worrying about falling off the side when we needed to step along the edge of the trail on the grass.

When we started walking in the jungle area, it became even worse as now I was contending with mud and wet leaves covering the rocks that were uneven and alternated in size between being barely the width of my boot sideways, to so large I had to climb down 50cms to the next step, all while it rained down on us.

It was at this point, as I was clambering down a large rock, that my foot slipped, pulling my leg down awkwardly and causing my hand to smash down on the rock to try and catch myself from falling further. My nerves were already feeling frayed and we had only been climbing down an hour.

We stopped at a teahouse for what was supposed to be a five minute break and turned into 40mins because the rain started coming down even harder. I had a great cup of sweet coffee though and it felt amazing to warm my hands.

Just as I was making the decision that the rain was going to continue coming down hard and we needed to get moving, it eased slightly.

It became apparent when I started moving again after the period of resting, that the fall I’d had earlier was causing me issues. Trying to step down large rocks on my left leg was becoming harder and harder and caused me to have to walk even slower.

I had numerous conversations with Bree, asking her to help me out and stop the rain, to no avail. It continued to rain down on us and even my rain jacket was no match for it. I was soaked through.

Despite this and the pain I was feeling in my left leg, I still tried to take in my beautifully eerie surroundings.

We finally arrived at Hilekharka where we had stayed the first night, for our lunch stop. As I was walking in, I heard my name being called and turned around to see Shishir and Sula! It was good to see them after not seeing them at the top.

Inside, the fire was going and I peeled off my rain jacket, gloves and fleece, which were all wet. The men around the fire all moved so I could get close to warm up and they each held my items up against the fire to help them dry. I was so incredibly touched by their kindness.

I got to talking with one of the group and he told me they had been on their way up to Khumai Dada, but because of the rain and the expected snow, it would be too dangerous to continue, so had made the decision to turn around. It was to have been their first trek, so I felt lucky I had been able to do it, despite the pain I was feeling.

I decided to take some of my Spanish crack Ibuprofen to try and ease my pulled muscle and help get me down the mountain. Within 20mins, I was moving better and able to pick up my speed. Honestly, if anyone from home is going to Spain anytime soon, I need you to hook me up, as I only have three tablets left. 

Sula and Shishir caught up with me again just as we reached the section with the hundreds of stairs. I had forgotten how many there were and I could also tell the Ibuprofen was starting to wear off halfway through as each step was causing me pain.

By the time we hit Sayipakha, I was almost using my poles as crutches and when we hit the road, I was hobbling and having to walk down the hill sideways because I couldn’t put pressure on my left leg without crying out in agony. I must have looked ridiculous to my guide, but he just silently walked behind me.

I finally arrived at the bottom to our waiting taxi at 3:45pm. The taxi driver had to help me sit in the car and helped me pull my boots and my rainproof pants off as they were wet and covered in mud and I did not want to spend the next hour in them, but I couldn’t move enough to do it myself.

I was soaked and frozen and all I wanted was a hot shower when I got home. I knew though, with the bad weather, that was not going to be an option as there is only hot water when the sun has hit the solar panels enough to warm the water.

My lovely taxi driver helped me inside and I hobbled to my room, had the quickest rinse in cold water, before wrapping myself up in warm clothes and sitting with Pramilla. Half an hour later though, I went to lie down because I felt bone deep tired.

As I lay there, I began to feel quite nauseous and wondered if for the first time ever, I had been caught out with some tainted water or food. I managed to pull myself up to get a bucket because I knew if I was going to be sick, I wouldn’t be able to move my muscles quick enough to get to the bathroom just two metres away.

I do however, get nauseous when I am extremely tired and I could feel sleep descending on me and it was only 6:30pm. I needed to sleep though as I had barely slept in two nights and it had been mentally challenging concentrating on every single step for nearly eight hours.

I was glad to have done it, but glad to have finished it.