Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jog.

Why Hello There!

I have returned from an amazing adventure, trekking through Himalaya. I took LOTS of beautiful photos. The ones I took sightseeing in Kathmandu you can see here and those from the actual trek are viewable here.

This is a great little map of the trek itself:

I cleared customs in Brisbane, Australia and headed to Byron Bay for the Lighthouse 10km, an annual event and a favourite of mine. Boy oh boy I could tell I hadn't run in 4 weeks! It was TOUGH. I even needed walk breaks. From the turnaround point down on the beach, I started chatting with a lovely speech pathologist from the area named Cathy. It definitely made those last 2km much more enjoyable.

I arrived home on Monday evening, November 1st and my tenants were wonderful. They left my apartment in better condition than I had given it to them in! It was such a blessing.

I had been well for the entirity of my nepalese adventure. I had 1 day of stomach upset in Namche and 1 day of a sore throat. And then I came home.. I got gastro AND a chest infection once I had returned! So the germs of a developing country are no match for my immunity, but apparently Australia is. I think it was the air travel. I'm finally recovered from that and easing back into work at the gym.

Last Thursday I had another fitting for the socket attachment of my prosthesis, which is very exciting and coming along nicely :). On Monday, I was visited by a staff member from Work Focus to assess the requirement for my prosthesis in my place of employment. Hopefully this will result in the government's Employee Assistance Program providing funding for me. On the downside, the process is a little slow.

In slightly disappointing news, I didn't win the New You Awards and will have to get cracking on serious fundraising for my $10 000 road bike in the new year. I'll focus on the arm first. I think it will be far less stressful if I tackle one thing at a time.

As we hurtle towards the end of the year, I decided that the best gift I could give myself is a finely tuned version of myself. I decided to embark on an 80 day transformation on the day I left for Nepal in order to ensure I enter 2011 in improved mental, physical and spiritual shape. Regular journalling is key and there is a whole list of objectives contained within my entries. Completing the trek in good health and without injury was another goal, so hooray for having ticked that one off already!

The next stage of the transformation is a little scary. My friend and fellow trainer Dani will be accompanying me on Daniel Reid's 7 day fasting detox, which is all about cleansing and purification. I've never done a detox before, and I've certainly never gone 7 days only drinking supplements and not eating. Add to this that I've never had a colonic, of which there are 2 through the detox, and you'll get an idea where my trepidation stems from :)

There's lots more in the works, but I'll leave you with this for now. Until next time!

<3

The Roof Of Australia

Nearly 20:30 on a Sunday eve. I've just arrived back in Sydney and spring is definitely in the air. It is the conclusion of a fantastic weekend, filled with fun and adventure.


At 13:30 on Friday afternoon, El Flangers picked me up from my apartment in Randwick and we set off for my first ever adventure in the snow. We ate dinner at Angie's Italian in Jindabyne, and just after 21:30pm we pulled up at our accommodation, which until that point had been kept secret from me! We stayed at Rodney the Rocket Fox's Rivergum Lodge, in our own private log cabin with a wood fire and everything!


The mission was to unpack and quickly get to bed, as we needed to be up shortly after 6am. On Saturday, we breakfasted at 7am then headed into to town where we met our guide, Nick, at the Wilderness Sports store and collected our snow shoes and other necessities. Finally, we set out for Thredbo village. It was such a sloooooooow journey because every man and his dog wanted to get to the snow! The weather was beautiful and there had been recent good falls. We, however, were not heading to the fields in order to ski or snowboard. We were headed on a trek from Thredbo to the summit of Mount Kosciuszko on a journey entitled "The Roof of Australia".


As we approached the Kosciuszko Express chairlift, I went into sensory overload, surrounded by glistening white for the very first time and about to embark on my first chairlift experience! It was with much awkward nervousness that I sat between my mals counterparts, but once we were headed up the mountain I quickly began to enjoy absorbing all this new input, the sights and sounds of a busy snowfield. By the time we reached the top, the situation had drastically changed and we faced very different conditions on the mountain. Once we had attached our snow shoes, we started making our way into a very strong headwind, but for the first half hour, we still had clear sky. 


It was magic. In the sunlight, I marveled at the way the snow glistened like diamonds. I noticed the different textures of snow; soft, hard, icy, bumpy, flat - all of it incredible to me! As we approached Rams Head, the strong headwind became fierce and the weather closed in. The blue sky was ancient history and we experienced frequent white outs. It was very tough going and as the feeling came and went from my fingers they burned and ached. It was also extremely challenging mentally and just 30 minutes away from the summit, conditions became so bad our guide made the executive decision that we should turn back... But we didn't. We agreed to go another 50m and if it didn't improve then we would abort... Improve it did - albeit very slightly! 30 minutes later and I was ELATED to find myself at the summit of our highest mountain for the second time this year - but under strikingly different conditions to my first encounter with this mountain. That magical place where I feel so centered and alive. Where all things are clear to me and I am able to release myself of all fear and anxiety.

After a quick photo stop, we headed towards Rawsons Pass and homeward bound. Less than 2 hours later, we were back at the chair lift and on our way down to Thredbo village. Of course, once we reached the bottom, the weather was just as perfect as when we had embarked on our journey, if a little windier than before. We essentially trekked the red trail on this map:

Overjoyed but thoroughly spent, we stopped in at the Wild Brumby Schnapps Distillery for a tasting on our way back to Jindabyne. We spent the evening chatting with Rodney back at the Rivergum - as it turns out, he's a city2surf legend and we had much running to discuss :)


Today we made our way back to Sydney at a very leisurely pace and along some very scenic roads.. Secure in the knowledge that our gear for Everest has been successfully tested and that we are made of the right stuff to tough it out! Adam was fantastic company and I am so so grateful to him for taking me on this adventure and organizing it all :) I just had to pack and tag along!