Mt. Minick
Wow yesterday was not the fun I wanted it to be. That's the first time nature has punched me that hard. Kym had the bright idea of taking a different route up the mountain, so we set out for the middle of it instead of the side. We rode the horses until we passed a small little farm where an old man met us outside and actually offered to take us to the foot of the mountain. He led us to a little watering hole where we tied up the horses. He had a little dog that was adorable. The dog actually stayed with us this entire trip, which you'll see is quite amazing, considering we scaled 15 foot boulders, and went through man eating vines.
Anyways, we left the horses and the old man behind us and started out long trek. It was exciting at first but then we took two steps and realized we had no idea where to go. The trees didn't even break enough to see the mountain, except for every 50 yards for a quick second. There was nothing even close to a train. Even the trees gave way to large, overgrown weeds. What we really needed was a machette. All of the plants had stickers, ranging from small ones just to stick a leaf on you, to cactus sized needles that sucks me through my jeans and stayed. My brother and looked like cacti when we got home, among other things. So we get going and we have no idea how to choose our path as we go, we just try to look for the direction leading up the mountain while being somewhat accessible. "Somewhat accessible" means there were only sticky plants to walk over or through, instead of places where branches actually wove together to make a wall, or where it was straight cliff that we couldn't get up without gear. Everywhere we went was like jungle vines wrapping around or bodies, neck, and worst of all feet, tripping us up. The feet vines where especially scary while we were making jumps from one rock to the next. twice Kym almost went head first into a 15 foot drop.
It was a very slow climb. Then, as we're both getting to the frustration point where it's just not a fun adventure anymore, kym gets stung. We're not sure if it was a critter on a plant, or the plant itself that stung him, but he said it felt like a thousand needles of fire. He screamed just a bit and yelled for water. We poured some, which soothed him, and you could see his skin welting up where he got stung. We brought 2 2-liter bottles of water with us, and used the last of the first one cleaning his arm. Right there we decided it wasn't worth it any more. We were about two thirds to the top, but we were halfway through our water, Kym was hurting pretty bad from his arm, and the climb was only getting harder. So we turned around. The dog was still with us which was cute and comforting. I had to help him sometimes when he actually climbed up some of the rocks we climbed that were near vertical, but had no way to get down. I felt bad seeing him with stickies all over his fur, but he seemed used to it.
The way down went faster, though not much faster. Finally we found a dried up stream bed that we could follow. More rocks, which really sucked when I rolled my ankle on my bad foot, but less plants. Though this whole time we had to walk doubled over because of all the branches growing over it. We found another problem though. We had no idea how to find or get to the watering hole where the horses were. I thought about that when we first left the horses, but was too excited about the adventure at the time, and figured I'd just remember land marks. There was no way to remember anything in that jungle maze. We get to the bottom of the mountain again and keep following the stream and hope that it leads to the watering hole, but soon find that it curves in the completely wrong direction. we're lost, and we're down to 1 liter of water, and the sun is relentless. We decide that if we can make it home, we can take the route that we know back to the horses, though it'll be much much longer since "home" was 10 kilometers away. 10 kilometers through weeds taller than me all with thorns and stickies and packed so tightly (just like the way up the mountain) that Kym and I have to walk with our forearms in front of our faces and our heads bowed in order to not have our faces scratched up. Every inch of our body itched, and anything not covered was scratched and burning. Not to mention that every half kilometer or so there was a barbed wire fence that needed jumping, which is really uncomfortable. This whole time Kym and I are being mostly silent, in horrible moods, doing our best to not blame the other just to have someone to blame, knowing that it wouldn't help us get home any faster.
Finally, with about an hour of sun left, and 2 hours after the water was finished, we see our stables. When we get home, we don't stop as people talk to us, we don't even answer, we just walk straight to the pool as we rip our clothes off and jump in. Then showers and a lot of scrubbing, 500mg of ibuprofen each, and a lot of drinking water. We hopped on the motorcycles with some stable hands (who were laughing at us) and went and grabbed the horses, as well as take the dog back, who still stayed with us the entire time. He probably did the most for our morale during the trip.
Now today I can barely move. Everything hurts from climbing, lifting, crouching, and bending my way through this outback of ours.
I took on a mountain in completely untouched wilderness, and lost horribly. I learned a lot though, and next time I'll win.
Anyways, we left the horses and the old man behind us and started out long trek. It was exciting at first but then we took two steps and realized we had no idea where to go. The trees didn't even break enough to see the mountain, except for every 50 yards for a quick second. There was nothing even close to a train. Even the trees gave way to large, overgrown weeds. What we really needed was a machette. All of the plants had stickers, ranging from small ones just to stick a leaf on you, to cactus sized needles that sucks me through my jeans and stayed. My brother and looked like cacti when we got home, among other things. So we get going and we have no idea how to choose our path as we go, we just try to look for the direction leading up the mountain while being somewhat accessible. "Somewhat accessible" means there were only sticky plants to walk over or through, instead of places where branches actually wove together to make a wall, or where it was straight cliff that we couldn't get up without gear. Everywhere we went was like jungle vines wrapping around or bodies, neck, and worst of all feet, tripping us up. The feet vines where especially scary while we were making jumps from one rock to the next. twice Kym almost went head first into a 15 foot drop.
It was a very slow climb. Then, as we're both getting to the frustration point where it's just not a fun adventure anymore, kym gets stung. We're not sure if it was a critter on a plant, or the plant itself that stung him, but he said it felt like a thousand needles of fire. He screamed just a bit and yelled for water. We poured some, which soothed him, and you could see his skin welting up where he got stung. We brought 2 2-liter bottles of water with us, and used the last of the first one cleaning his arm. Right there we decided it wasn't worth it any more. We were about two thirds to the top, but we were halfway through our water, Kym was hurting pretty bad from his arm, and the climb was only getting harder. So we turned around. The dog was still with us which was cute and comforting. I had to help him sometimes when he actually climbed up some of the rocks we climbed that were near vertical, but had no way to get down. I felt bad seeing him with stickies all over his fur, but he seemed used to it.
The way down went faster, though not much faster. Finally we found a dried up stream bed that we could follow. More rocks, which really sucked when I rolled my ankle on my bad foot, but less plants. Though this whole time we had to walk doubled over because of all the branches growing over it. We found another problem though. We had no idea how to find or get to the watering hole where the horses were. I thought about that when we first left the horses, but was too excited about the adventure at the time, and figured I'd just remember land marks. There was no way to remember anything in that jungle maze. We get to the bottom of the mountain again and keep following the stream and hope that it leads to the watering hole, but soon find that it curves in the completely wrong direction. we're lost, and we're down to 1 liter of water, and the sun is relentless. We decide that if we can make it home, we can take the route that we know back to the horses, though it'll be much much longer since "home" was 10 kilometers away. 10 kilometers through weeds taller than me all with thorns and stickies and packed so tightly (just like the way up the mountain) that Kym and I have to walk with our forearms in front of our faces and our heads bowed in order to not have our faces scratched up. Every inch of our body itched, and anything not covered was scratched and burning. Not to mention that every half kilometer or so there was a barbed wire fence that needed jumping, which is really uncomfortable. This whole time Kym and I are being mostly silent, in horrible moods, doing our best to not blame the other just to have someone to blame, knowing that it wouldn't help us get home any faster.
Finally, with about an hour of sun left, and 2 hours after the water was finished, we see our stables. When we get home, we don't stop as people talk to us, we don't even answer, we just walk straight to the pool as we rip our clothes off and jump in. Then showers and a lot of scrubbing, 500mg of ibuprofen each, and a lot of drinking water. We hopped on the motorcycles with some stable hands (who were laughing at us) and went and grabbed the horses, as well as take the dog back, who still stayed with us the entire time. He probably did the most for our morale during the trip.
Now today I can barely move. Everything hurts from climbing, lifting, crouching, and bending my way through this outback of ours.
I took on a mountain in completely untouched wilderness, and lost horribly. I learned a lot though, and next time I'll win.