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Monday,
15th March, 2004
I had
another bad night's sleep. It was beginning to make me very tired
during the day, when I needed all my energy focussed on the trek.
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A
small group of people above us were deliberately trying
to block the pathway with soil and uprooted trees
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The
fifth day followed the river through a deep, and in places, narrow
gorge. It was 16 km to a small provincial town called Beni, our
next stop.
The
going was good in places but very difficult in others where landslides
had completely buried any memory of the normal path.
We
crawled across loose slate slopes high above the river then just
as quickly were meandering along a wide dusty track. The roar of
the river was ever present all day.
In
one spot there was a small group of people about 50 ft above us,
deliberately trying to block the pathway with soil and uprooted
trees. I have no idea why. In fact they nearly hit a group who were
about 300m ahead of us.
Very
close to our destination I had to inspect a Basketball court that
had recently been built. It was complete apart from the netting
on the hoops.
By
the time we entered the Area Welfare Centre (AWC) compound I had
developed a couple of blisters.
Day
five had definitely been the hardest. However I knew what I had
to do next. I borrowed a surgical blade from the medic and sliced
open the blisters to remove the liquid inside. I then squeezed antiseptic
cream, containing iodine, onto the raw skin.
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| Looking
down on Beni the following morning. |
Once
I had came back down from the ceiling, I was able to walk normally
again. Two of the porters also had treatment for foot problems.
Unfortunately
I didn't see much of Beni, but I did have a chance to have a beer
and relax with my hosts.
I
also made a call to my wife, who was relieved to hear that all was
well. Morale was well and truly restored!
Author's
Note: although I didn't know it at the time, the AWC would be caught
up in a large scale Maoist attack on the Government buildings surrounding
it five days later. The AWC was damaged but everyone was safe. I
felt relieved that I had missed the attack, albeit by a matter of
days.
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