Let the Injuries Begin (2 of 2)

October 17/10

DAY #3 . 34 km . Song = "I WOULD WALK 500 MILES" . Weather = RAIN, RAIN, RAIN & then SUN!

We've finished only our third day of trekking and already I feel as though my body's been beaten to a pulp and then run over a few times on the 90 Mile Beach highway. But hey - I'm still loving it.



Me taking in the view on one of our breaks

 The three of us (still Dirk, Alex and me) managed to find a peaceful oasis in amongst some trees off the coastline of 90 Mile Beach. But that all didn't happen until we spent the day walking along a beach that seems never to end. And in the rain, no less. Our only saving grace was that the wind happened to be behind us. 

We started out alright, choosing to mix it up today by doing 5 min breaks every 45 min for the morning and then every 30 min after lunch, as opposed to the normal 10 min breaks every hour Alex and I have been doing until this point in time. It went pretty good for the first couple of hours, but then the rain started to pelt down and things began to look quite hopeless.

The hard part was that we could look as far ahead as we could see and all that would be there is beach. And even then, we knew that we had to go further and that alone wasn't enough to reach our ultimate destination of Ahipara. It felt as though I was in some warped dream of which I kept trying to move forward, but nothing ever happened. So - as it were - we fought the rain and walked, attempting anything to keep our minds from the growing pain in our feet and increasing boredom of seeing the same scenery for a second day in a row. We sang songs. We made mini goals to reach such as a certain shell to pass. And break times. We lived for those breaks if only to be comforted by the thought that we were slightly further along the beach.


And that was just it. We were never really certain of how far we were on the beach at any point in time. There were no landmarks. No specific distinctions between one sand dune to the next. We could only guess at how fast we were even walking.


Fortunately we did have the entertainment value of passing vehicles on the beach. Or - as it were - they were passing us. The best were the tour buses full of middle aged people zooming past us and honking - the drivers waving to us - as all the passengers pressed their faces to the windows in order to gawk at us walking in the rain. Apparently these people were not ones for long walks on the beach.


The drivers understood us though - if only to encourage us with a smile and a wave. But there was one driver in particular that pulled over to give us a bottle of water and then did the same on the way back for which we were really grateful for as the water sources along the way were scarce. 


Eventually we stopped to ask a family how far along the beach we were and were happy to find out we were only about a kilometer away from our goal stopping point. We were so happy, in fact, that we decided to keep going for another hour in hopes to make it to a rare stream. But not before we had a relaxing break.


It was then that the sun finally decided to come out and life was good. We even got to watch a couple of sea lions laze on the shoreline. Once we got up to go for our last stretch our bodies started to slowly stop working. EVERYTHING hurt.


Eventually we made it to a stream where we thought we would set up camp. We were stoked at the idea of being able to have access to fresh water for the night as it would mean we could freely drink without fear of running out and not having enough to get started for tomorrow morning. The only thing was, when we got round the dunes to where we figured we'd be sheltered by the wind, we found the stream oasis to be polluted by everything imaginable. Empty bottles. Pieces of rope. Old shoes. Everything and anything had been dumped in and around the stream. Weather it had washed down the stream, been tossed there by passerbys or come in with the tide - we do not know. But it is things like this that makes me wonder what is wrong with people in the world of today. And the worst part is that there is no way that we can even begin to help clean up that area as we have to carry everything on our backs. I only hope that someone soon will come by to clean up the rubbish as it is things like that that hurt our environment in the long run - and it's something that is completely preventable. 


Regardless, we managed to find a good camping spot in the trees behind the dunes and we've set up for the night, careful to organize enough water that would get us through as much as tomorrow as possible. Not an easy task.


But now that we're here life is good. Particularly in the horizontal position.




October 18/10

DAY #4 . 27 km . Song = "GOOD MORNING" (Viagra commercial song) . Weather = FREEZING COLD WIND AND RAIN FOLLOWED BY SUN AND MORE WIND

Turns out we scream like girls. And whine like girls. Winge, complain and groan like girls. It sure is good to know we ARE girls. 

We have made it to Ahipara and have barely been able to set up tent, eat dinner and shower before crashing in a horizontal position within our tent and groaning with pain as every movement hurts. Granted, a majority of this may be caused from simply being dehydrated and, as a result, our lactic acid content in our bodies is at a major high. Whatever it is - it hurts. 

At the very least - we have made it. We are stoked to have made it and tomorrow is our rest day. Today was a day that never ends. It was as though we fell down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, only instead of falling we had to walk. And walk. And walk. Right from the get go we could see Ahipara in the distance as it was tucked in the hills in the distance. But it never seemed to get closer. Even as the day went on and we spotted things like people on kite carts, a man golfing in the middle of the beach and then running to catch his ball and another endless stream of tour buses - it just wasn't enough. We just wanted to get there. To the destination. We were done with the beach. 



The end of the beach that took us 3 days to walk.

 As the hours droned on we eventually made it. Alex and I said goodbye to Dirk as he was set to stay at a hostel and Alex and I planned to camp for the night and then we sat at a cafe and had something to munch on before we went to set up camp. And so here we are. Dead tired and completely stoked to have tomorrow as a rest day. Our major hope is that we can sort out Alex's injuries as her ankle has swollen incredibly big - to the point that we now refer to it as a "Fankle" - we plan to set out tomorrow for the doctors. Fingers and toes are crossed. Okay - maybe just fingers. The toes carry too many blisters at this point in time.