Well hello there all of you in web blog land.
You don't have to be Einstein to work out that it has been some time since my last posting and I'm sure you have all missed me as much as I have misssed you.
So you may all be wondering why I am posting again. Well the long and short of is that six months after having returned from South Amercia my feet are starting to get itchy again and it's time to hit the trail.
This time it's not a mountain however. For me it's time to go back to where all of this started.
The Kokoda Trail.
In 2006 I walked the Kokoda Trail as the first part of my adventure goals. At the time I got a porter to carry my bag and I am still a little annoyed with myself about doing that, the diggers that were up there during the war didn't have the luxury of being able just walk this as a holiday, they had to fight not only the enemy but also disease, injury and death.
For me personally, I don't feel as though I did it justice hence the main reason for me returning.
Not only for that reason but also it's good at time to get some perspective on how far you've travelled and how life as changed.
Not only am I head up but it would appear that may have conned someone special into coming up with me. Stay tuned for more informaiton on that.
Well rather than bore you all to death with information on something that is still twelves months away I am going to sign off and for the first time on my new adventure.........
Catch ya on the flipside
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Reports and reflections from Mendoza
Well here is the update you´ve all been waiting for.
Right now it´s about lunchtime on Saturday and I´ve checked out of the hotel and am now hanging around waiting for my taxi to head to the airport. So I thought whilst I have time it might be a good idea to fill you in on the particulars of the summit bid.
So the last time I posted we were in basecamp doing our final checks before heading up the mountain. The next day we loaded everything up and did the 3 hour trek up the mountain. The one thing you have to remember about heading up the mountain is that it is always up. I know that might seem like a stupid comment to make but it´s true, up, up, and up. The only time you get flat ground is when you are at the camps, but in saying that I would alway prefer going up any day compared to going down, I always fall over when I´m going down hill!!
So our first night was spent at Camp Canada, nothing major to report from there. We got there just after lunch, set our tents up and just basically sat there and watched the view until the sun dissappeared and we were forced into the sleeping bags by the cold.
We got up the next morning, broke down the tents and then headed up towards Nido de Condores. Because of the weather overnight we were forced to put on the plastic boots and thank goodness we did, within an hour of setting off we started hitting snow and for the last hour we were actually breaking trail through about 6 to 10 inches of new snow. As was the case in Canada we arrived just after lunch, set up the tents and during that process another snow storm came through so we were confined to our tents.
However during the storm one of the dutch guys decided it would be a good idea to have a snowball fight!!! Now here is one piece of advice, never be late to a snowball fight. The guys thought it would be funny to start pelting the tents with snowballs, so after a while i thought bugger it, may as well join them. So after putting my clothes and shoes on i went to open the tent door and as soon as i pushed it open, WHAM, I was smacked in the mouth with a snowball. Turns out it had been thrown from a good 30 metres away and could not have been timed any better!!
Eventually the storm passed, the clouds cleared, and we were treated by one of the most magnificant sunsets you have ever seen. Pure, crisp, snow covered peaks formed a perfect backdrop to the sun setting and from this height we started to see the curve of the horizon. It truely was a magical site.
Our guide come around before we crashed for the night to do another medical check and it was during that process that he discovered the German guy was starting to deteriorate. I´ve mentioned oxygen saturation levels before, well this essentially is a measurement that tells you what percentage of the available oxygen your body can consume. The general reading at Nido was early 70´s (i was at 74) however his reading came back at 60 which is not good. So after another hours rest it was tested again and it had dropped to 54. So under the cover of darkness he was led back down to basecamp as it was deemed too dangerous for him to spend any additional time at this height. So we were down to 7 people.
The next morning we started like the other mornings however this time we new we were starting to get into the higher altitudes and some more extreme weather so instead of just the plastic boots it was also time to put the crampons on. Instead of heading to Camp Berlin we went around a little further and camped at the Colluler (not sure of the spelling) which is just over 6,000m above sea level. Now as you know I have not done any high altitude work before but let me just say this place was hell on earth.
We arrived in the middle of gale force winds and again we had to erect tents. You have to remember you are not conditioned to the oxygen levels at this altitude so everything you do leaves you breathless. I don´t know how many times i had to stop to put my hands on my knees to stop myself from passing out. It´s a strange feeling but you almost work on autopolit because your brain needs to the oxygen for the manual work and there isn´t enough for both. If you want to try it then stand in a deep freeze with a hessian bag over your head and start doing manual labour. Not fun.
Because of the conditons and our general feeling once the tents were put up we all crashed straight away knowing that we will have our wake up call at 4am to leave by 6am.
Not quite sure why we needed a wake up call, as you don´t really get much sleep at that height, you generally just lie there, toss and turn, and start thinking about things that you want to do when you get home. It is not nice at all. At this level you have around half of the amount of oygen you have at sea level so your body just starts to relax into sleep, your breathing starts to shallow and then it realises that it´s not getting enough oxygen and it jerks you awake in a panic to get more. It happens over and over to the point where it´s just easier to stay awake and stare at the ceiling
We also learned later that we had another team member go down to basecamp during our summit bid due to oxygen levels again, he completed of serious fatigue whilst getting ready for the bid, and when his oxygen was measured he was at 53 so he was partnered with a porter and taken down the mountain which brought our team back to 6
So the time came, 4am, to start getting ready and this is where things started unravelling for me. The night before I had laid everything out so that come 6am I would be fully prepared and ready to go. I don´t want to use this blog to bitch about other people however my tent mate was not as well organised, in fact he decided at this time that he would not wear his glasses (which he is pretty much blind without).
So every little bloody thing that needed you to see what you were doing he started crying about and asking for help. From the ties on his boots, to the ties on the crampons, the jacket, it all came down to me to fix. Now I know I should have been stronger and said put your glasses on and do it yourself you blubbering idiot however the fact remains I left my gloves off and exposed my hands to the cold for too long. I have no one else to blame about that other than myelf.
Finally everything was organised, it was just after 6am and we started up the mountain under torch light, and I just could not feel my hands. I had liner gloves on and mittens but no matter what I did I just could not get my hands warm.
I perservered for just over an hour in this condition and after the first break we could see that the weather was deteriorating and I still didn´t have any feelings in the hands. Knowing that the weather was going to get worse and colder I made the heartbreaking decision to decend, worried that if I didn´t get my hands sorted out then I could have a disfiguring reminder of this trip. Maybe it was an over reaction, maybe they would have come good eventually but that was a risk that I just didn´t want to take!
Whilst it was a tough decision to make it also came surprinsingly easily. I don´t know what that means right now. It is now several days since that happened and I am still waiting for all the feelings to return to my finger tips but everything else seems to be ok. We´ll see what happens.
After another 24 hours stuck in a tent (yes 24 hours stuck in a tent with another male, both of us not having showered for near 2 weeks) we got up the next morning, packed the tents up and started our decent straight down to basecamp. Whilst we were packing up another guide came across to speak with ours and not understanding spanish Í didn´t know what was being said however it was explained to me afterwards that another life had been lost on the mountain during the course of the morning and he was checking to see if any of our guys knew anything about it.
It appeared that a solo climber had headed up the mountain at some stage during the night and must have struck trouble and perished, at that stage it was unknown what from other than he had passed. So by the time we were ready to head down the mountain doctor was preparing to head up the mountain to take the regulation photos and confirm the death. It´s just another reminder that this is not a walk in the park.
So we arrived at basecamp late in the afternoon, packed our bags and prepared for the 26km walk from basecamp to the trail head and then for the 3 hour trip to Mendoza. That was a massive day but there is something satisfying about finishing the trip in this fashion.
But that first shower after 2 weeks was amazing, the amount of dirt that come off me was amazing, and to have a room to spread out in was amazing. The things you take for granted.
Ok reflection time.
Should I be upset that I didn´t make the summit? Part of me says yes because the reason I didn´t get further was due to my own stupidity but at the same time that whole experience and the conditions were new to me so maybe I was only destined to experience as much as I did to prepare for other mountains.
Would I have made the summit? I guess I won´t know, but I hope in weeks to come that I don´t wake up wondering.
Will I go back to Aconcagua? I don´t know yet, I need time to process everything to see if I really want to go back. That mountain is ugly, make no mistake about it. Other than the sunset at Nido there is nothing attractive about this mountain. Do I want to put myself through that again...... I really don´t know.
Has this put me off mountains? No
All I know is that maybe some reality is required to put things in perspecive.
I will post some photos from the trip when I get back to give you an idea of every day life on the mountain but for the time being it´s time I left South America and headed back.
I just want to sign off by thanking everyone that posted messages of encouragement. It gets lonely at basecamp at times and to have people such as yourselves that have so much interest in what I do and care about what I do makes me a very happy man and always brings my spirits up.
Thank you for following my journey and for the last time from Mendoza..........
Catch you on the flipside.....
Right now it´s about lunchtime on Saturday and I´ve checked out of the hotel and am now hanging around waiting for my taxi to head to the airport. So I thought whilst I have time it might be a good idea to fill you in on the particulars of the summit bid.
So the last time I posted we were in basecamp doing our final checks before heading up the mountain. The next day we loaded everything up and did the 3 hour trek up the mountain. The one thing you have to remember about heading up the mountain is that it is always up. I know that might seem like a stupid comment to make but it´s true, up, up, and up. The only time you get flat ground is when you are at the camps, but in saying that I would alway prefer going up any day compared to going down, I always fall over when I´m going down hill!!
So our first night was spent at Camp Canada, nothing major to report from there. We got there just after lunch, set our tents up and just basically sat there and watched the view until the sun dissappeared and we were forced into the sleeping bags by the cold.
We got up the next morning, broke down the tents and then headed up towards Nido de Condores. Because of the weather overnight we were forced to put on the plastic boots and thank goodness we did, within an hour of setting off we started hitting snow and for the last hour we were actually breaking trail through about 6 to 10 inches of new snow. As was the case in Canada we arrived just after lunch, set up the tents and during that process another snow storm came through so we were confined to our tents.
However during the storm one of the dutch guys decided it would be a good idea to have a snowball fight!!! Now here is one piece of advice, never be late to a snowball fight. The guys thought it would be funny to start pelting the tents with snowballs, so after a while i thought bugger it, may as well join them. So after putting my clothes and shoes on i went to open the tent door and as soon as i pushed it open, WHAM, I was smacked in the mouth with a snowball. Turns out it had been thrown from a good 30 metres away and could not have been timed any better!!
Eventually the storm passed, the clouds cleared, and we were treated by one of the most magnificant sunsets you have ever seen. Pure, crisp, snow covered peaks formed a perfect backdrop to the sun setting and from this height we started to see the curve of the horizon. It truely was a magical site.
Our guide come around before we crashed for the night to do another medical check and it was during that process that he discovered the German guy was starting to deteriorate. I´ve mentioned oxygen saturation levels before, well this essentially is a measurement that tells you what percentage of the available oxygen your body can consume. The general reading at Nido was early 70´s (i was at 74) however his reading came back at 60 which is not good. So after another hours rest it was tested again and it had dropped to 54. So under the cover of darkness he was led back down to basecamp as it was deemed too dangerous for him to spend any additional time at this height. So we were down to 7 people.
The next morning we started like the other mornings however this time we new we were starting to get into the higher altitudes and some more extreme weather so instead of just the plastic boots it was also time to put the crampons on. Instead of heading to Camp Berlin we went around a little further and camped at the Colluler (not sure of the spelling) which is just over 6,000m above sea level. Now as you know I have not done any high altitude work before but let me just say this place was hell on earth.
We arrived in the middle of gale force winds and again we had to erect tents. You have to remember you are not conditioned to the oxygen levels at this altitude so everything you do leaves you breathless. I don´t know how many times i had to stop to put my hands on my knees to stop myself from passing out. It´s a strange feeling but you almost work on autopolit because your brain needs to the oxygen for the manual work and there isn´t enough for both. If you want to try it then stand in a deep freeze with a hessian bag over your head and start doing manual labour. Not fun.
Because of the conditons and our general feeling once the tents were put up we all crashed straight away knowing that we will have our wake up call at 4am to leave by 6am.
Not quite sure why we needed a wake up call, as you don´t really get much sleep at that height, you generally just lie there, toss and turn, and start thinking about things that you want to do when you get home. It is not nice at all. At this level you have around half of the amount of oygen you have at sea level so your body just starts to relax into sleep, your breathing starts to shallow and then it realises that it´s not getting enough oxygen and it jerks you awake in a panic to get more. It happens over and over to the point where it´s just easier to stay awake and stare at the ceiling
We also learned later that we had another team member go down to basecamp during our summit bid due to oxygen levels again, he completed of serious fatigue whilst getting ready for the bid, and when his oxygen was measured he was at 53 so he was partnered with a porter and taken down the mountain which brought our team back to 6
So the time came, 4am, to start getting ready and this is where things started unravelling for me. The night before I had laid everything out so that come 6am I would be fully prepared and ready to go. I don´t want to use this blog to bitch about other people however my tent mate was not as well organised, in fact he decided at this time that he would not wear his glasses (which he is pretty much blind without).
So every little bloody thing that needed you to see what you were doing he started crying about and asking for help. From the ties on his boots, to the ties on the crampons, the jacket, it all came down to me to fix. Now I know I should have been stronger and said put your glasses on and do it yourself you blubbering idiot however the fact remains I left my gloves off and exposed my hands to the cold for too long. I have no one else to blame about that other than myelf.
Finally everything was organised, it was just after 6am and we started up the mountain under torch light, and I just could not feel my hands. I had liner gloves on and mittens but no matter what I did I just could not get my hands warm.
I perservered for just over an hour in this condition and after the first break we could see that the weather was deteriorating and I still didn´t have any feelings in the hands. Knowing that the weather was going to get worse and colder I made the heartbreaking decision to decend, worried that if I didn´t get my hands sorted out then I could have a disfiguring reminder of this trip. Maybe it was an over reaction, maybe they would have come good eventually but that was a risk that I just didn´t want to take!
Whilst it was a tough decision to make it also came surprinsingly easily. I don´t know what that means right now. It is now several days since that happened and I am still waiting for all the feelings to return to my finger tips but everything else seems to be ok. We´ll see what happens.
After another 24 hours stuck in a tent (yes 24 hours stuck in a tent with another male, both of us not having showered for near 2 weeks) we got up the next morning, packed the tents up and started our decent straight down to basecamp. Whilst we were packing up another guide came across to speak with ours and not understanding spanish Í didn´t know what was being said however it was explained to me afterwards that another life had been lost on the mountain during the course of the morning and he was checking to see if any of our guys knew anything about it.
It appeared that a solo climber had headed up the mountain at some stage during the night and must have struck trouble and perished, at that stage it was unknown what from other than he had passed. So by the time we were ready to head down the mountain doctor was preparing to head up the mountain to take the regulation photos and confirm the death. It´s just another reminder that this is not a walk in the park.
So we arrived at basecamp late in the afternoon, packed our bags and prepared for the 26km walk from basecamp to the trail head and then for the 3 hour trip to Mendoza. That was a massive day but there is something satisfying about finishing the trip in this fashion.
But that first shower after 2 weeks was amazing, the amount of dirt that come off me was amazing, and to have a room to spread out in was amazing. The things you take for granted.
Ok reflection time.
Should I be upset that I didn´t make the summit? Part of me says yes because the reason I didn´t get further was due to my own stupidity but at the same time that whole experience and the conditions were new to me so maybe I was only destined to experience as much as I did to prepare for other mountains.
Would I have made the summit? I guess I won´t know, but I hope in weeks to come that I don´t wake up wondering.
Will I go back to Aconcagua? I don´t know yet, I need time to process everything to see if I really want to go back. That mountain is ugly, make no mistake about it. Other than the sunset at Nido there is nothing attractive about this mountain. Do I want to put myself through that again...... I really don´t know.
Has this put me off mountains? No
All I know is that maybe some reality is required to put things in perspecive.
I will post some photos from the trip when I get back to give you an idea of every day life on the mountain but for the time being it´s time I left South America and headed back.
I just want to sign off by thanking everyone that posted messages of encouragement. It gets lonely at basecamp at times and to have people such as yourselves that have so much interest in what I do and care about what I do makes me a very happy man and always brings my spirits up.
Thank you for following my journey and for the last time from Mendoza..........
Catch you on the flipside.....
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Well the time has finally arrived
Well after having sat at basecamp for a couple of days and having done our training walk the time has finally come to head up the mountain. I don´t think you ever get used to the different level of oxygen as there are still a few time, putting shoes on etc, where you need to take an extra breathe or two so will be interesting to see how things go further up the mountain
We saw the basecamp doctor this morning and i got the all clear, oxygen was back up to 89, blood pressure is good, and whilst they heard something in my lungs they said there was nothing to worry about so here we are about to go up the mountain. One of the guys on our trip is having issues with his blood pressure and oxygen so not sure how he will go but we will wait and see
Have i got nerves, hell yes!! but at the end of the day all you can do is listen to your body and as long as you do that you should be fine. I dón´t think you can really walk into this mountain thinking yes I am going to climb you, there is so much that can conspire against you that all you can do is put yourself in the best position and hopefully your body and mother nature can agree to let you up there for that window.
So to give you an idea of the timetable for the next couple of days i´ll put this into Sydney local time.
Around midnight Friday night we will leave for the walk up to Camp Canada which is at 5,000m
Around the same time Saturday night we will leave for Nido and then the next day we will head to Berlin which will be our highest camp at 5,900m
Then sometime Monday probably around lunch time we will crawl out of our tents and make the approx 8 hour push for the summit. As i said there are a number of things that could through this schedule out such as weather but we have two days up our sleeve if we can´t get up on the first day.
We were chatting to some people when we were at the doctors and they said they got stuck at Berlin for 2 days with bad weather with there being no reprive in site so they had to give up the summitt and come back down. For one of the guys it was his second attempt with no luck.
I am prepared not to get the summitt, it will be a dissappointment but at the same time I am not going to go up there and risk my life unneccessarily just to try and stand on top of a pile of rocks. Now I know some of you are saying that´s what i´m doing anyway but there is a difference. There´s calculated risk and then there´s stupidity. I am not going to lose my life over this mountain.
Now for those of you who can´t wait for my updates to come through there if another option. You can follow our progress at www.aymara.com.ar/spot_in.asp and then put int the code ayrn19ene2424. These reports come from basecamp so could be a little delayed however it will keep you more up to date until I can get back down.
Well I will sign off now and will hopefully have some good news for you all in a few days.
Stay safe everyone and catch you on the flipside............
We saw the basecamp doctor this morning and i got the all clear, oxygen was back up to 89, blood pressure is good, and whilst they heard something in my lungs they said there was nothing to worry about so here we are about to go up the mountain. One of the guys on our trip is having issues with his blood pressure and oxygen so not sure how he will go but we will wait and see
Have i got nerves, hell yes!! but at the end of the day all you can do is listen to your body and as long as you do that you should be fine. I dón´t think you can really walk into this mountain thinking yes I am going to climb you, there is so much that can conspire against you that all you can do is put yourself in the best position and hopefully your body and mother nature can agree to let you up there for that window.
So to give you an idea of the timetable for the next couple of days i´ll put this into Sydney local time.
Around midnight Friday night we will leave for the walk up to Camp Canada which is at 5,000m
Around the same time Saturday night we will leave for Nido and then the next day we will head to Berlin which will be our highest camp at 5,900m
Then sometime Monday probably around lunch time we will crawl out of our tents and make the approx 8 hour push for the summit. As i said there are a number of things that could through this schedule out such as weather but we have two days up our sleeve if we can´t get up on the first day.
We were chatting to some people when we were at the doctors and they said they got stuck at Berlin for 2 days with bad weather with there being no reprive in site so they had to give up the summitt and come back down. For one of the guys it was his second attempt with no luck.
I am prepared not to get the summitt, it will be a dissappointment but at the same time I am not going to go up there and risk my life unneccessarily just to try and stand on top of a pile of rocks. Now I know some of you are saying that´s what i´m doing anyway but there is a difference. There´s calculated risk and then there´s stupidity. I am not going to lose my life over this mountain.
Now for those of you who can´t wait for my updates to come through there if another option. You can follow our progress at www.aymara.com.ar/spot_in.asp and then put int the code ayrn19ene2424. These reports come from basecamp so could be a little delayed however it will keep you more up to date until I can get back down.
Well I will sign off now and will hopefully have some good news for you all in a few days.
Stay safe everyone and catch you on the flipside............
Monday, January 24, 2011
Basecamp of Aconcagua
Hi there eveyone back in Australia.
well we have funally arrived at the basecamp for Aconcagua.
Eeverything has been relatively easy and painless since my litle issue in Santiago and I hae to say if you ver get the chanec to go to Mendoza I would highly recommend it.
So to bring you all up to speed on what has ben happening well after doing our final gear check and getting ouyr climbing permitts we headed up to a place called Pueta del Inca which you could pretty much say is the last established hostel place that you can stay at before you hit the trail.
So after a nice shower and dinner we headed up the the start of the trail the next morning to walk to our camp site called confluencia. Luckily our tents were ste up so it was just a matter of choosing tent buddies and relaxing for the night, and no i didn't the spanish doctor as my tent mate!!!
The next day we did a training hike up to 4000m which was to help us get ready for the walk to basecamp. I can quite confidently say that was one of the most pyscologically draining days I've had. Walking ether through or alongside rocky creek beds followed by a monster of a hill which easily takes an hour to climb is demorolising.
Luckily we have a rest day today though to get over things before we walk up to Camp Canda for another training walk. Then the next day we climb Mt Bonet, followed by a rest day and then we start our 3 day assualt on the mountain.
|There has only realy been on incident sinec we've been on the moutntain which was a Japenese climber that had to be carried down from Nido to basecamp and then evacuated out. He had come down with a severe case of odema and it was a bit touch ad go there for a while but the last we heard he was ok back in Mendoza.
Well I should really sign off and head back to start drinking some more water, water water water, it's all we drink up here, anywhere between 4 and 5 litres. I'll let you work out what that does to your sleeping patterns!!
And for those who are interested my oxygeniaton levels at Confluencia wa 94 and my test this moning came back 81. Should be better by our next rest day. Blood presure is up around 150/90 which is relatively normal for this altitude.
Anyway its time for me to go.
Will email again before we launch our summit bid.
cach you all on the flipside
well we have funally arrived at the basecamp for Aconcagua.
Eeverything has been relatively easy and painless since my litle issue in Santiago and I hae to say if you ver get the chanec to go to Mendoza I would highly recommend it.
So to bring you all up to speed on what has ben happening well after doing our final gear check and getting ouyr climbing permitts we headed up to a place called Pueta del Inca which you could pretty much say is the last established hostel place that you can stay at before you hit the trail.
So after a nice shower and dinner we headed up the the start of the trail the next morning to walk to our camp site called confluencia. Luckily our tents were ste up so it was just a matter of choosing tent buddies and relaxing for the night, and no i didn't the spanish doctor as my tent mate!!!
The next day we did a training hike up to 4000m which was to help us get ready for the walk to basecamp. I can quite confidently say that was one of the most pyscologically draining days I've had. Walking ether through or alongside rocky creek beds followed by a monster of a hill which easily takes an hour to climb is demorolising.
Luckily we have a rest day today though to get over things before we walk up to Camp Canda for another training walk. Then the next day we climb Mt Bonet, followed by a rest day and then we start our 3 day assualt on the mountain.
|There has only realy been on incident sinec we've been on the moutntain which was a Japenese climber that had to be carried down from Nido to basecamp and then evacuated out. He had come down with a severe case of odema and it was a bit touch ad go there for a while but the last we heard he was ok back in Mendoza.
Well I should really sign off and head back to start drinking some more water, water water water, it's all we drink up here, anywhere between 4 and 5 litres. I'll let you work out what that does to your sleeping patterns!!
And for those who are interested my oxygeniaton levels at Confluencia wa 94 and my test this moning came back 81. Should be better by our next rest day. Blood presure is up around 150/90 which is relatively normal for this altitude.
Anyway its time for me to go.
Will email again before we launch our summit bid.
cach you all on the flipside
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Well here we go
Just a very quick updat to let you know that our final equipment check was done last night and we are now ready to go.
Am just sitting in my hotel room about the get ready to head downstairs to check out and load up. We then head off to get our climbing permits and then head off towards to mountain.
Mendoza is a beautiful place and if you ever want a great south American city to visit by al means pick this one. I will post pictures when I get a chance but put it on the bucket list.
Well my next post should be from base camp.
Stay safe everyone and catch you on the flipside
Am just sitting in my hotel room about the get ready to head downstairs to check out and load up. We then head off to get our climbing permits and then head off towards to mountain.
Mendoza is a beautiful place and if you ever want a great south American city to visit by al means pick this one. I will post pictures when I get a chance but put it on the bucket list.
Well my next post should be from base camp.
Stay safe everyone and catch you on the flipside
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Down town Santiago
Ok so here is a little thing that some of you didn't know about. At this point in time I should have been sitting (or lying given it's just after 2am here) in my motel in mendoza. But you. Can guess from reading this blogs title that I am in fact in santiago. Long stou short LAN had to delay the planes departure out of Sydney mean we would have arrived 15 minutes after the last plane to Mendoza.
Now initially j was quite annoyed but really what's the poor in getting annoyed, it's not going to change anything. After getting fobbed off by LAN ground crew for over 2 hours (completely different story involving a lot of pointing and arm waving) I finally cracked it and decided to make my own accommodation arrangements.
As I'm walking through the terminal I get stopped by a guy who flashes what looks like a formal identification card asking what I was looking for and when I told him he said that's my job, grabbed my bags and headed outside to a private car.
I know you don't have to tell me how stupid I was, but at the of the day we kept following the signs to Santiago city which in a weird way mention they weren't going to Robb me or if they were it would be a lot more difficult.
Anyway I really should try and get some more sleep before my 430 alarm.
Hope all is well and catch you on the flipside
Now initially j was quite annoyed but really what's the poor in getting annoyed, it's not going to change anything. After getting fobbed off by LAN ground crew for over 2 hours (completely different story involving a lot of pointing and arm waving) I finally cracked it and decided to make my own accommodation arrangements.
As I'm walking through the terminal I get stopped by a guy who flashes what looks like a formal identification card asking what I was looking for and when I told him he said that's my job, grabbed my bags and headed outside to a private car.
I know you don't have to tell me how stupid I was, but at the of the day we kept following the signs to Santiago city which in a weird way mention they weren't going to Robb me or if they were it would be a lot more difficult.
Anyway I really should try and get some more sleep before my 430 alarm.
Hope all is well and catch you on the flipside
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The time has come
First of all let me say happy new year to you all and also to apologise for going AWOL on the blog. The silly season took my priorities elsewhere but have no fear for I am back.
OK well we are starting to get close to D'Day, This time in about 40 hours I'll be on my flight to Mendoza (via New Zealand, yes there are going to be downsides to this trip). It's kind of hard to explain what's going through my head at the moment, disbelief, fear, joy, excitement, apprehension, there are a multitude of feelings. I know once I get over there and get started that I will be right as rain but there is always going to be nerves when you go into unfamiliar territory.
So I am now officially on holidays, sitting here looking at all the gear I have to pack and part of me want to start but another part of me doesn't but something tells me it has to be done either way.
I will leave you all for the time being and will give you some more information tomorrow relating to itinerary and fellow expedition members but for now be good all and catch you on the flipside.
OK well we are starting to get close to D'Day, This time in about 40 hours I'll be on my flight to Mendoza (via New Zealand, yes there are going to be downsides to this trip). It's kind of hard to explain what's going through my head at the moment, disbelief, fear, joy, excitement, apprehension, there are a multitude of feelings. I know once I get over there and get started that I will be right as rain but there is always going to be nerves when you go into unfamiliar territory.
So I am now officially on holidays, sitting here looking at all the gear I have to pack and part of me want to start but another part of me doesn't but something tells me it has to be done either way.
I will leave you all for the time being and will give you some more information tomorrow relating to itinerary and fellow expedition members but for now be good all and catch you on the flipside.
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