Sunday 24th August 2014…hiking day and what a day!!!!!

Up at the unearthly hour of 7am for breakfast and to get myself ready for the Sunday hike….we met at the gas station in town at 8am and a pattern has developed…the numbers on the hike vary from week to week and no one knows how many will show but also Pierre the man I hiked with last Sunday likes to do longer and higher hikes than the most and that suits me so today just him and I were the only ones who wanted  to go on an extended hike….so we left and drove almost to the same place we were last week but we were heading for a different ridge…Pierre is experienced and knows these mountains and I like his company we set off and the summit in the middle of the photo is the first objective..

The trails were not well marked at all and we had to cross this ridge

and then through this field

The clouds on the next ridge over

Things got a little dicey as we managed to get off the tracks and spent a whole lot of time going through this kind of undergrowth

The animals always make a hike special

How about this beauty

 

We even found a friendly one!!!

We eventually found our way to the summit and the views of the lake again by Linda and Guy’s house

behind Pierre who was taking five are the rims of an old volcanic crater and here we are at 9200 feet!!!!

Coming down was Ok as we met this young lady!!!

Unfortunately things did not go well for us after here we managed to get off the trail actually this is not true because there really wasn’t a trail but we did find ourselves in some very nasty undergrowth and the clouds were turning a bit nasty

We really were not lost because we could almost see where we had to be but we were on the wrong side of the canyon and getting down into the canyon only to climb the other side was very hard but we did find time for some lovely fall colors!!!

We could tell by the clouds we were in for a heavy downpour and sure enough the thunder, lightening and heavy rain descended on us and we took shelter…the big issue was that both of us had used all our water and food supply up and we were still along way from the car and a little  bit lost…..I like that neither of us panicked and we sat and talked about what we needed to do and we figured we had one more canyon to navigate down and up and we would be close to the campo where we started..so we carried on and I must admit it was very hard and we were both a little parched but stayed warm during the rain storm and frequently asked each other how we were doing.

Thankfully we made it over the canyon and into a tiny settlement where we found a store or at least a room selling drinks and who comes out of the door but Susannah, she was a special friend at Casa Hogar where she lived for 12 years  ..it was great to see her and she told me she left two months ago and came to live with this family I asked her about Daniela and she said she was growing up and doing well…that made me feel good.

Both Pierre and I were glad to be back at the car and with drinks….he dropped me off at the gas station can you believe at 6.30pm and we both reckon we had hiked a very hard and tough 20 miles!!!!  But if was an adventure and I love those.

Straight home and into the bath and did that feel good…had left overs again and they were delicious and watching a pre recorded soccer game from England added to the enjoyment……so I shall not be any trouble tonight!!!!

Jane sent me another draft of a quotation that you all know means so much to me….

Calligraphy by Jane Dill!!!

Well this tired boy wishes you all

Yashi Kochi!!!!