For me, one of the highlights of the walk was at the end of everyday when you could see the campsite. Every day was a struggle, but as it was such, each night when you sat slumped around at camp, or laying in bed about to fall asleep at 7PM, you thought to yourself how rewarding the trek was. Another highlight was the language you heard whenever mum got a leech, or at times Claire. It was amusing, and you began to laugh, until you looked down and you yourself had leeches crawling over you shoes, so you had to join in the shenanigans “Get off you bastard!”.
Funniest moment? There were plenty of funny moments over the 2 week period. One of which was mum falling over daily – falling over nothing, over flat ground. The ability to fall over air remains a mystery to all but mum I believe.
When we started organising who would be in which team, whether it be Team A – the support crew, or team BEN – the walkers, we were sitting around a table down at Manyana. Mum had written my name down under team A, and I turned to her and said “Can’t I walk instead”. I think she was rather shocked I actually wanted to walk, but excited nonetheless. In my head, I was like “It won’t be that hard. Its just a walk with a pack.”. Man was I wrong. This became evident walking from CBHS to the station. The difference in walking with and without a pack was extraordinary. At the start, I felt like I was constantly about to fall backwards. I thought the first day would be hell, but I managed. But the second day, oh don’t even mention it. Waking up at 6.30, and then walk 4km up hills is not a good way to start your day, especially carrying a weighted pack! Mum had her biggest loser moment, but I missed it, as she told us to walk ahead. Highlight of this day, the toughest day I was on, was mum lying on the road, hearing a car coming, and jumping up and running off the road, pack in hand. Everyone was surprised she could move that fast! It was like lighting. Really slow lighting ...
To cap off the trek, I would like to quote three lines from a song,
Funniest moment? There were plenty of funny moments over the 2 week period. One of which was mum falling over daily – falling over nothing, over flat ground. The ability to fall over air remains a mystery to all but mum I believe.
When we started organising who would be in which team, whether it be Team A – the support crew, or team BEN – the walkers, we were sitting around a table down at Manyana. Mum had written my name down under team A, and I turned to her and said “Can’t I walk instead”. I think she was rather shocked I actually wanted to walk, but excited nonetheless. In my head, I was like “It won’t be that hard. Its just a walk with a pack.”. Man was I wrong. This became evident walking from CBHS to the station. The difference in walking with and without a pack was extraordinary. At the start, I felt like I was constantly about to fall backwards. I thought the first day would be hell, but I managed. But the second day, oh don’t even mention it. Waking up at 6.30, and then walk 4km up hills is not a good way to start your day, especially carrying a weighted pack! Mum had her biggest loser moment, but I missed it, as she told us to walk ahead. Highlight of this day, the toughest day I was on, was mum lying on the road, hearing a car coming, and jumping up and running off the road, pack in hand. Everyone was surprised she could move that fast! It was like lighting. Really slow lighting ...
To cap off the trek, I would like to quote three lines from a song,
The Scientist by Coldplay.
Nobody said it was easy
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start
