Disaster Averted!

You may have noticed a transitory gap between this and my last post, not that they have anyway been that regular. This time though, the gap signified a full-blown crisis which might well have blown the project well off-course.

Shortly after my extended excursion on Sandown Beach I went down with an agonising pain in my abdomen, extending from my kidneys down to my nether regions. Thank goodness, Veronica had arrived by now and was in full executive and administrative control. After a rather painful day, she found a delightful GP in Betty’s Bay, a retired fellow experienced in making diagnoses in remote environments. He diagnosed a kidney stone accompanied by a full-blown urinary tract infection. A subsequent visit to another GP in Cape Town confirmed part of the diagnosis, but he wondered whether the urinary tract infection might have been a side-effect of the extreme high-intensity focussed ultrasound treatment that I had had previously.

Whatever the cause, the effect was that I was consigned to bed and then to very restricted exercise. Given the extremely tight schedule of my fitness programme and the fact that there is little flexibility in my LEJOG schedule, it seemed for a time that I would simply not be able to complete my preparation programme in time to start the walk. Veronica was insistent that the result would have to be postponement of the entire programme for one year.

Such a depressing thought was most dispiriting. I have already invested so much in doing the trip this year that postponement would be extremely annoying, not least because it is impossible to predict what might go wrong in the next year which might make the trip even more difficult.

The good news is that I have recovered much faster than either Veronica or the GPs predicted. Yesterday, I did an 11km walk and today I did two walks of about 6km each without any ill effects, and I felt really good throughout. I may not be much fitter than I was when I came here on holiday, but at least I have not gone backwards. So now the crucial task is to make sure that I make real progress before returning to England.

I suppose the upshot of all of this is to recognise that my health isn’t what it was. I will have to accept that this may mean that during the course of a really testing physical endeavour, I may well have many more physical challenges to overcome. I need to build this possibility into my mental preparation and work on ways to deal with the challenges. The key is to realise that in most circumstances there is a way through, and it comes down to using maturity and good sense to find a solution.

One good sign, though, is how much I am enjoying the walking. Not, of course that it is difficult to enjoy walking in this exceptional place.

Here are just a couple of snaps to prove that I am up and at it again, taken on the first of yesterday's walks on the magnificent and aptly named Silversands Beach.

A rather poor shot of a pair of African Oyster Catchers, the second-most rare birds on the African coast, but my constant companions on all these walks.

And now a flight of Sacred Ibises (or Ibi?), just to lift the tone a tad....

Here is a shot of yours truly, enjoying himself immensely....



This is a shot of our shared house, taken from across Jock's Bay in the heart of Betty's Bay. Shabby, what?

And finally, ABS (another bloody sunset) from the garden of our house, called Edenly, obviously, just to rub it all in....