I am not ashamed to say it, my cries disturbed birds resting in their nests. The ancestral spirits may have been ashamed to call me their own. I was a weakling. No match for the Blue Mountain challenge.
After hours of being the main reason for the hiking team to go slower than a snail and then hearing “But we haven’t started the real hike yet….We have another three and a half hours to get to the top” I had had ENOUGH.
My cries caused a team of six persons to huddle under a zinc shack (in what I know now is Penlyne Castle), some on wooden benches, others on the dirt ground – sleeping because I was too tired to take another step forward. My cries caused the team to shiver uncontrollably in the open air of the night, because I know they had not fathomed they’d be sleeping half way through the journey under the open sky. And after all this torture, my cries ordered them to “Go on without me. I can’t do this.”
I listened with intent ears after being left alone by the hikers, in the cold hours of the morning. I peered into the darkness looking for any resemblance of a vehicle’s headlight, a famer’s truck or a bus. It was time to get off this mountain. Mavis Bank Police Station Here I Come!
I squeezed myself into an old rackety mini bus that too had its own mechanical questions of will power. My fate in the hands of a driver who I prayed could safely turn the narrow corners – though I know he would have driven this route countless times before. There were close calls, there were abated breaths, but I made it.
The faces of the police in that warm concrete station were like angels. They welcomed me with opened arms and I nestled in a corner wrapped in my sleeping bag – and slept. I slept until the sun came up and made friends with the women and men who certainly served, protected and reassured me.
The stories of my hiking companions were beautiful to hear. I know it must have been breathtaking to see the sun rise over the mountains and break through its mist. Though I did not make it to the top I did get a stone from its peak. I have no regrets. It was a great experience and for anyone who asks, “Yes! I’ve climbed the Blue Mountains!” You didn’t ask if I made it to the top.
P.S. I would like to say thank you to my hiking family. You were all so understanding and loving towards me, so patient and kind. It was a great experience. One that I know I will never do again because the peak ain’t no walk in the park.
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