Run, Mountain, Run

Matt: In my infinite wisdom, pure clarity of mind and stable state, I thought that after coming back from South Africa, where incidentally I went down with a bout of the flu, I would agree to run the Wadi Bih Relay..with merely a week to train and a get rid of a nasty chesty cough left over from the flu. Genius!!

What was I thinking??

The Wadi Bih Run: I 76km run through the Haja Mountain, broken down into stages, climbing to 1100 metres. The relay is for a team of up to 5 and you can split the sections however you see fit, the longest of which being around 6km. Mental.

Paul Louzado, somehow convinced us to join in. Making up 2 teams, team Road Runner and team Wile E. Coyote. We set off from Dibba beach at a little after 8am and proceeded to run for the next 6 hours, the support car would drive on to the next check-point for the swap over, so some legs of the run were very long and lonely affairs, but through the majestic Haja Mountains, rugged cliffs raising up on either side of you, funneling you on to the next bend in the trail.. occasionally rounding these bends the track would open out to wide wadi bed with impressive view of the vista ahead.

Overall a wholly rewarding exercise, with 62 teams entering, couldn't be all that bad, could it??

Well done to both our teams for completing the run respectably.

Yep - if you look hard enough at the pic above you can see me on the road ahead..this was the flat gravel road before climbing into the mountains!! Before I nearly died from exhaustion..

This weekend - Stairway to Heaven Hike....(sanity check optional)

Cape Fear

Matt: What a start to the year.. It's all been a bit of a whirlwind - so let me start by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope you all had a great festive season.. I know it seems a long time ago now, but Hey! I've been busy!

So come the 6th of January I was away, winging my way to Cape Town South Africa to meet up with the delightful Angelica for a week of adventure and fun! Well that's how it was supposed to happen, let me back track to a few days before...

Fiona, Lenny and Myself decided to head out for a hike in the Haja Mountains, sadly we were greeted by a close border post, this but paid to our plans as all the hikes we knew in the area were through the border. But we were downhearted? No. we decided, with GPS in hand, to forge a new hike, hence for to be known as the FlyBoy Hike.

We drove through a small settlement nestled at the base of a steep looking unknown wadi and figured we'd climb up as far as we could and then about-face and come back down. So we logged the car point on the GPS and set off. It was a really good yet tough scramble, with some really interesting climbs and varied terrain. Eventually we ca to the summit 750metres up, there was a narrow pass which we decided to explore. We rounded a cliff to see far below an abandoned settlement atop a small plateau, typical dry-stone buildings you often find hidden in the mountains and beyond that there looks to be another wadi that could lead down to the road and back to the car. After a brief discussion and memories of '60 Metres of Rope' we decided what the hell, lets do it!
Pointing out the settlement to the others..

So we made our way down toward the settlement to survey the wadi. It was all looking very promising. We broke for lunch here with an amazing view and such peace from the bustle of the city. Traversing out way round the cliff to get to the plateau.

We decided it would be possible to get down the wadi to the road and make our way back to the car. It was a little scary heading into unchartered territory, but a real thrill and we had all the precautionary equipment if needed. There were some high technical descents which involved climbing and care, but we didn't attempt anything too dangerous. As we went down something flew in to my eye, causing me a great deal of discomfort, I couldn't keep the eye open for any time at all! Eventually after a lot of rubbing and prodding and inspections, I managed to get moving again, Fiona couldn't see anything in there, but I could sure feel something.
Well we managed to get back down the wadi and to the car safely, with a few 'I can see' stops on the way.

The eye irritation continued all that evening and I gave it a good eye bath the next day, the following night at 4am, I woke up in a lot of pain in my, red and inflamed, eye! After 30 minutes or so of prodding around in there with a torch and a cotton bud, dosed in Optex, I manage to get out one of the culprits causing the pain.. a live wriggling maggot, squirming on the end of the cotton bud, more were in there. I eventually got another out, but could still feel more.

Next morning, a doctors and a hospital visit later, I was sporting an eye patch and a small medicine cabinet and then boarding the plane to South Africa. Mid flight, I felt more movement in the eye! Yay!! So first stop post landing in Cape Town was the Ophthalmologist, who very excitedly removed the remaining maggots.. nice! Hence FlyBoy Hike, a fly must have died and dropped the buggers in my eye as I squashed him, they were still all out now and the vacation could begin!

Penguins at Simon's Town.

It was a great vacation too including: Exploring Cape Town, Climbing Table Mountain, Sea Kayaking, Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, Walks on the Rocks, A Game Drive, Sand Boarding, Bungee Jumping (Oh my gawd, the Fear!), and much more..

Click Here for the pics.