Coffee...! No hot water, what do I do about getting my bean fix? I had brought this great upside downy thing that would brew filter coffee, and I had brought ground coffee - I even had milk and sugar...
Extreme situations call for men to dig deep and find inner strength... to find the solution, to do whatever it takes... to drink cold coffee... wasn't bad - wasn't Globe's, but I got my fix.
I was tired - going from a luxury king mattress to a thermal mat on rocks is a bit of a downgrade - even though I had been awake since 2:30am the previous day, slopey, rocky sleep was not ideal... This allowed me the luxury of enjoying waiting for first light from 4:30 am... it was delayed - six it arrived, who is in charge here?
Even though the next leg was 12km and the 'moderate' 8k the day before was slightly tiring ('please please god will this ever end...') I figured if I started early, and hiked for 10 hours doing the glorious 2km per hour, I could do the next 7km leg also... one foot in front of the other... and repeat...
So the dreamy image of backpacking is this, picturesque, tranquility, serenity, peace and beautiful scenic views...
The reality is probably closer to this...
I had set off and I am going along... my back pack probably weighs 450kg by this time and I have to lean way forward to balance myself out. I am listening to my glutes rebelling, looking at the wonderful view of my feet padding along at almost 2km per hour, and the straps on my pack are just squeaking in my ears.
As I am padding along staring at the ground I notice this other noise in a very low tone, and it is just slowly registering in my mind - it is a James Earl Jones kind of tone "Om... nom.. nom.. nom.., Om... nom.. nom.. nom..." as I start to think to myself, what is this Om nom nom...? I look up, as I look up, the current "Om... nom.. n..." stops... and there is a black bear, in mid chew looking at me... he is in the bushes, but he is close, probably 7 feet close... And he is looking at me, kind of like the look your wife gives you when you have left your socks on the floor...
"Uh oh... er nice bear.. yes, don't worry about me... I'm just gonna go back... no please don't stop... keep eating those berries... you don't need any extra protein... "...om nom nom..."
I quickly backed up... and scurried away... my buddy didn't even see him but I think he heard something... So I backed away probably 100 feet, I was quick too, probably got up to 3.5km per hour... maybe more... I got out my knife (cos that will help me against a cranky double duty Wolverine) and I made some noise - loud whistles... don't ask, I have no idea why I would think whistling is scary for a bear... and then I crept forward...
And he/she was gone! Woohoo! Whistling worked... me man, scare off bear with stick and whistle... "Om nom nom nom..." I scurried away again...
The rest of day two was less dramatic, I saw some Orca whales playing in the ocean - they were there for about 15 minutes - that was pretty cool and I was in a great spot to see them.
You see the spot in the middle of the top left quarter? That is where the Killer Whales are no longer... they were there I promise - water spouts and everything...And this was behind me - great spot for bathing my feet and filling up the water supply.
Anyhooo... I managed the 21k - it was after 7pm by that time - 11 hours, probably with 60 minutes of breaks... and I was consuming roughly a litre of water per hour... hard work but I was beginning to enjoy it, my body became accustomed to the weight, I was able to take in the beauty of nature instead of my ugly, muddy and very stinky boots - it was pretty cool.
So I pitched camp and this was just as the sun went down... pretty nice.
The site was all sand - luxury, the temp was perfect, cool breeze, not a cloud in the sky. I made a little camp fire, I ate my dinner... peanuts... which I had also had for breakfast and lunch - but an easy choice - eat or not eat... I figure I am burning close to 6 million calories a day... eating was the choice.
I hit the sack and was in la la land pretty quick...
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