Me vs Wild
Sunday the 23rd May would be forever etched into my memory. That was the day when I found out what taking risks could mean.
We were to go on a hiking trip, nothing much just walk around for 8 miles and come back. Well things don’t go as we plan it to be. For the starters I woke up late, this is the usual me. I was almost forced to go by my colleagues and they gave me just enough time to brush my teeth. In the haste that was caused, my colleague filled my bottle with warm water (I had to bear that torture for the whole day).
But ok we got into an extra small car with no leg space for my already hurting leg which cycled for 3 hrs the previous day. Still bearable coz there was supposed to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In this case it was a mountain at the end of the road. So we got out and everybody started walking and talking (in French). I could not get a word that was spoken and could not get why I was walking under the hot Sun on a perfectly fine Sunday.
Also after an hour or so of walking, I realized we were supposed to bring out own lunches. Whoa. No breakfast, an hour of walking and they say I might have to go without lunch? I was ready to kill, Shakti, who brought me on this trip without any information. Turned out he hadn’t brought any lunch either. Great, two Indians sticking out like a sore thumb in a group whose average age was on the other side of forty.
But luckily the other people had anticipated this and had brought a little extra. So at least we had our lunch and we rested for a while. And then we started our second leg of the journey which would take us back to our starting spot.
I wished it could be interesting, and you what they say about wishes. Be careful what you wish for.
So we decided to start to our way back, but it wasn’t meant to be that easy. After half an hour of walking we realized that we were lost and that GPS wasn’t as useful as we thought. So we were stranded with no path ahead and a deep valley on our side. Apparently we were supposed to be on the other side of the valley.
So after a lot of thinking and brainstorming everybody (except me) decided to go down the valley and climb up again to reach where we were supposed to. What?? Climb down a slope of 60° (or 30° depending from where you measure it). Just looking down was sending chill through my spine and they wanted to climb down. But majority won.
Thus began the downhill journey. I was the last one to start and the most frightened one too. With every step I was praying like anything and every slip would make my heart skip a beat. I held on to any and everything I could hold on to. But still more than once I felt as though I would lose my grip and fall down. Luckily somehow I managed to get to the bottom. I thought I had reached the finish line but no that was just the first lap.
If I thought the climb up would be easy I was instantly proved wrong. Besides the steepness and rolling we had endless trees to duck under to come to the other sides. I was skinned, bruised and tired when I finally reached the end. Only to find out we need to jump over few rocks, wade through freezing water and squeeze through cracks. And to top it all we didn’t take much pictures coz we were busy hanging onto our grips and our lives.
Putting the sarcasm aside, when I look back I am happy that I did take that walk. I can’t remember the last time I did something for the first time until I tried of climb down. I was afraid, but it was still fun. I was trying my abilities and as it turns out (as fat as I am) that I can do those stuffs. And that’s a confidence booster. Also I had never thought I would see such views (except on my desktop). Had we hadn’t got lost we would have been able to come across the cave that would be a camper’s delight or the clear watered stream of water. So I am planning a similar trip soon and hope it will be as much (or even more) fun.
We were to go on a hiking trip, nothing much just walk around for 8 miles and come back. Well things don’t go as we plan it to be. For the starters I woke up late, this is the usual me. I was almost forced to go by my colleagues and they gave me just enough time to brush my teeth. In the haste that was caused, my colleague filled my bottle with warm water (I had to bear that torture for the whole day).
But ok we got into an extra small car with no leg space for my already hurting leg which cycled for 3 hrs the previous day. Still bearable coz there was supposed to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In this case it was a mountain at the end of the road. So we got out and everybody started walking and talking (in French). I could not get a word that was spoken and could not get why I was walking under the hot Sun on a perfectly fine Sunday.
Also after an hour or so of walking, I realized we were supposed to bring out own lunches. Whoa. No breakfast, an hour of walking and they say I might have to go without lunch? I was ready to kill, Shakti, who brought me on this trip without any information. Turned out he hadn’t brought any lunch either. Great, two Indians sticking out like a sore thumb in a group whose average age was on the other side of forty.
But luckily the other people had anticipated this and had brought a little extra. So at least we had our lunch and we rested for a while. And then we started our second leg of the journey which would take us back to our starting spot.
I wished it could be interesting, and you what they say about wishes. Be careful what you wish for.
So we decided to start to our way back, but it wasn’t meant to be that easy. After half an hour of walking we realized that we were lost and that GPS wasn’t as useful as we thought. So we were stranded with no path ahead and a deep valley on our side. Apparently we were supposed to be on the other side of the valley.
So after a lot of thinking and brainstorming everybody (except me) decided to go down the valley and climb up again to reach where we were supposed to. What?? Climb down a slope of 60° (or 30° depending from where you measure it). Just looking down was sending chill through my spine and they wanted to climb down. But majority won.
Thus began the downhill journey. I was the last one to start and the most frightened one too. With every step I was praying like anything and every slip would make my heart skip a beat. I held on to any and everything I could hold on to. But still more than once I felt as though I would lose my grip and fall down. Luckily somehow I managed to get to the bottom. I thought I had reached the finish line but no that was just the first lap.
If I thought the climb up would be easy I was instantly proved wrong. Besides the steepness and rolling we had endless trees to duck under to come to the other sides. I was skinned, bruised and tired when I finally reached the end. Only to find out we need to jump over few rocks, wade through freezing water and squeeze through cracks. And to top it all we didn’t take much pictures coz we were busy hanging onto our grips and our lives.
Putting the sarcasm aside, when I look back I am happy that I did take that walk. I can’t remember the last time I did something for the first time until I tried of climb down. I was afraid, but it was still fun. I was trying my abilities and as it turns out (as fat as I am) that I can do those stuffs. And that’s a confidence booster. Also I had never thought I would see such views (except on my desktop). Had we hadn’t got lost we would have been able to come across the cave that would be a camper’s delight or the clear watered stream of water. So I am planning a similar trip soon and hope it will be as much (or even more) fun.
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