Two seats back, in the middle of the plane, I spotted two empty rows of four. Heh. As soon as we were airborne and the seatbelt signs were switched off, we leapt to action and staked our claim on the free space. Nice.
I spent the entire flight stretched out and completely horizontal.
I also spent a long time in deep thought. Taking in the events of the last couple of days. Drifting in and out of sleep, dreaming of home.
See this is why I love flying: alone time, rest, thought and much relaxation. Hurtling through the sky, wrapped in 200 tonnes of metal at 600mph.
This thing worked FINE in Namibia. In fact, the photo above was taken and uploaded on the spot in the middle of the Namibian desert, this place in fact.
However, for some unknown reason, in the good ol’ US of A, it failed. Nothing. Nada. My glorious sock-rockin’ sat-phone, was… useless.
Which meant in turn, I was non-contactable for four days.
Say it again. Four days.
Say it one more time, and this time say it with me – out loud: Four. Days.
‘Liberating’ doesn’t quite do it justice.
At one point, we were sat by a lake some 10,000ft up, the air was thin, the horses were thirsty and the winners were discussing going for a swim. The sky was clear, the water freezing and the surrounding landscape, breathtaking.
Just pausing – for a moment – to take in what I was experiencing.
Four days with no signal. Four days in the mountains. Riding horseback every day, we rode down from 8500ft on the last day, Friday, and it took five hours.
I couldn’t tell you the total of how far we travelled or for how long. All I know is every day we were saddled up by 10am and we only got out again for lunch and then again at the end of the day for dinner and rest. I never thought I’d enjoy it so much.
Incredible really, incredible.
I wrote every day, trying to keep a personal journal as well as an official, Lucozade one is no easy task. But when there’s nothing to distract you except maybe the odd passing moose, you’d be amazed how one can focus the mind.
Perspective is a wonderful thing… and the view from here, is amazing. I know what things are important to me now. Not that I didn’t know before I guess.
But as I said, being up here sure does focus the mind.
One key thing that was an amazing constant throughout the Lucozade Challenges was that no matter what far flung corner of the world we found ourselves in, we always had an awesome, local guide to train us and look after us.
For the last challenge, yacht-racing in the Caribbean, we had this guy, Rob Brinkworth.
An Englishman through and through, Rob took great pride in telling us about the Stars and Stripes yacht we were to race, he’d been looking after the boats themselves for years. In the short time we spent on St Maarten, Rob educated us all in the ways of the 12-metre challenge, he made us feel confident enough to handle this multi-million dollar winner of a vessel and at the same time made sure that we respected his word and his skill as a fine seafaring yachtsman.
A fantastic teacher, I remember Rob expressing to us at the end of the week how much he had really enjoyed coaching us all in the science behind sailing and reminisced about his days as an instructor educating school teachers on how to sail, preparing them for a Summer of PGL (a UK institution set up for children to take part in activity courses, such as sailing). He had rediscovered his love of sharing knowledge and, as we left St Maarten at the end of the week, I sensed that maybe there might be change in his future.
Sadly, Rob died last week.
Struck down by an aggressive illness, his life was cut short before he could put any such plans into action.
I heard the news late yesterday afternoon. Al, one of the winners from the challenge, had stayed in touch with Rob after we left. After he told me I immediately started trawling through my files… The following video is put together from all the footage I took while under his tutelage.
Rob, this is for you mate:
While waiting for the video to export, I checked through my notes to clarify a few dates and I found this entry, the last one I made before we left the Caribbean –
Moleskine entry: September 16th, 2009
Race Day
“Later at the bar that evening, Rob tells us that today’s race was kind of a big deal for him. The night before he had called a meeting between our crew, the opposing crew and the race judge. They all agreed that the race today would be ‘for real’.
You see they race these boats day in and day out and could’ve quite easily made some decisions (that wouldn’t have been obvious to us), that meant they would’ve handed us the race. Rob, having trained us all week and seen how we respected the skill and the effort that went into it, insisted that this would be the case.
He told the rest of the staff that the race was to be exactly that.
No fudging it for anyone.
“Throw everything you’ve got at us.” he told them “Try and thrash us. If you do, it’ll be their fault. If you don’t, well then.. they’re awesome. Either way, these guys will not appreciate being handed the race and will know if you do…”
Wow. What a guy. I for one am very glad he called it like that because, come the finish line, yes we came second – a very close second in fact. But boy did we earn it.”
Good luck Rob, wherever you are.
Your friends, old and new, remember you well.
Not because we have to be up anytime in particular…
…it’s just so beautiful up here at Sunrise.
Breakfast can’t go quick enough.
Today I am so eager to get back in the saddle again. I have to tell you, the first time I ever encountered a horse I had the most horrific allergic reaction, I was nearly sick. My eyes blew up, my breathing suffered, I was itching and scratching all over… It was horrible.
So to say I was apprehensive about this particular challenge might be somewhat of an understatement. But today? Up here at the Snowshoe Lodge, some 9000ft up in the Big Hornhorn mountains, I could not be more excited about seeing my horse again.
Marlena, the equine in question, is and I quote: “A real bitch”.
She bites, she doesn’t do as she’s told and if you don’t show her who’s boss, she’ll throw you around like there’s no tomorrow. Heh. We’re having fun, put it that way.
I digress.
Today we’re herding cattle properly. 220 of them. Younglings.
They’re fast and they don’t like horses much.
Our guide, Stewart yells: “Let’s move out!”
And I smile… 🙂
Additional notes, thoughts and sketches: July 23rd – 24th
I’m sat at the back of Virgin Atlantic flight VS039 en route to Chicago. I’ve never been to the windy city before, for all intents and purposes it looks like I’m not going to see much of it either.
We’re just passing through…
Our final destination today, July 18th 2009, is Billings Airport, Montana. From there we are to be transferred to The Hideout ranch some four hours drive outside of the airport, over the state line into Wyoming.
All this travel is for challenge two of Lucozade’s Summer of Energy Challenges and time we’re Cattle Ranching.
Last week we were sand-boarding in Namibia which, it has to be said, was simply breathtaking. There are hundreds of photos to look at and just a few videos too. As you may know, I have a very, very hectic Summer lined up ahead of me and to say that I’m clocking up ‘a few air miles’ might be somewhat of an understatement.
Strange. I have a note here, it says:
‘Experiment with adjusted images’.
I think I know what I mean. I’ll have a play with that that later…
Moving on…
Through a rather strange set of circumstances, I find myself not sat next to my traveling partner in crime, Sam. But in face next to a young student going by the name of Grant Rostad. He spots my N97 and asks after a play. I offer it up gladly, and also go onto explain how, in my opinion, the N86 (which I’m also carrying) is the far superior device.
“Oh no!†he says “I’m all about having a qwerty keypad, and a touch screen. Those things make a phone for me. “
Americans are such strange creatures.
We talk more and eventually at the very last minute, we grab said N97 and throw a quick podcast together for The Really Mobile Project.
It’s all a bit incidental and a bit geeky too, but I kind of like it.
Later that day, on a different page…
Chicago came and went.
We board the 1547 United Airlines flight to Billings, Montana. THEN a 3hr drive into Wyoming.
Headed for a place known as ‘The Hideout‘ at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains.
Rejoining the ‘Notes from my Moleskine‘ series, we round up the final three pages from the first Lucozade Challenge: Sandboarding in Nambia.
—– Shofat, Manzoor, Sam, Me, Foyce and Suhel —–
Moleskine entry: July 12th, 2009
I’m home, at last…
We were all supposed to be back Saturday (today is Sunday), but early morning fog meant we couldn’t land in Walvis Bay and so we missed our connection. 24hrs in Windhoek, the Namibian capital, ensued. Forget the delay, the most hilarious thing I saw in those 24hrs was our pilot, Elsa, texting the control tower telling them she couldn’t see them
I digress, the important part is:
I am home.
______________________
Learnings & Memories
: Four kids from Brum can be all the company you’ll ever need for an extreme sports holiday to Africa.
The winners for stage two have been drawn and the competition for stage three opens real soon. Between now and then however, I’ll be Cattle Ranching through Wyoming. I’ve never ridden a horse before, let’s see how that works out…
Before I close the book on stage one mind, I need to make sure I write something about Eric & Raymond.
These were the two guys that held our hands and showed us the way the whole time we were there in Namibia. Without them it would’ve a been very, very boring trip and probably quite rubbish too.
Gents, I tip my hat. Thank you, both of you. You made it all worthwhile.
I’ve never flown this far South before. Cape Town is 10hrs straight down. Damaraland, Namibia 2hrs back up again.
The stars are very different here.
Last night we slept out under the skies, in the middle of a half-million hectare concession, where people, wildlife and animals all co-exist together. Rhino, Springbok, Zebra, Giraffe, Leopard, Cheetah, Elephant and Ostrich. We’re told there’s no real danger, but we’re quiet all the same.
On the way out, Eric – our guide – remarks that the stripes of a Zebra are as unique as that of a human fingerprint.
“Zebras have human fingerprints?”…asks a not-really-listening Suhel. “Yes Suhel, Zebras have human fingerprints.”
We laugh, uncontrollably.
Lions walked past through our camp, right past them. There are paw prints outside my door. I heard them late, out there in the dark, purring their deep, low grumble. Not quite a growl, not quite a roar but still… that sound.
A glimpse through the window revealed nothing. I could see the light from a distant toilet-tent knocking gently in the trees, but that is all. The moonlight, so bright out here in the middle of nowhere, shines down clearly, basking all in pale illumination. But I see nothing.
Cheers and as always, your comments and questions are welcome 🙂
_______________________________
Moleskine entry: July 5th, 2009
Day one of my epic Summer of travelling so far has consisted of… well not very much really.
Admittedly, I’ve moved a certain distance, what with hurtling through the sky at 500mph and everything, but I’ve actually spent most of the time sleeping.
Night flights are my favourite kind.
There are six of us on this trip. Me, your official storyteller. Sam, my partner in crime and also my one and only constant over the next ten weeks… and of course our first four competition winners.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Lucozade Energy Challenges as a concept, let me tell you that it was a brand new one on me too. One winner, plus four of his/her friends, every other week taking a particular challenge for which a new skillset is required. Each activity is set in a different far-flung part of the world and they all require the chosen four to learn said skill quite quickly before partaking in a competition of some kind. All in the name the new Lucozade Energy tag-line ‘Do More’.
Me, as you know, got this gig just a couple of weeks back. Sam? The same. However, his role is different to mine in that he to be the group’s designated ‘Chaperone’ over the coming weeks and, judging by the first few hours, he’s going to be good very company indeed… 🙂
Time to meet the winners of the first competition; Manzoor and his three friends, Shofat, Suhel and Foyce.
They’re a good bunch of lads. Football players from Brum would you believe, and they’re just a little bit excited.
Heh.
At the time of writing we’re about 10mins from touchdown in Cape Town, Shofat’s just woken up and we’re discussing the prospect of seeing some Black Rhinos over the next few days. You see, this particular challenge – Sandboarding in Namibia – isn’t all about the taking on the extreme sports of the Skeleton Coast, it also involves tracking down the aforementioned huge beasts as part of a desert safari.
What?
There’s got to be something to fill in the gaps between all the epic sandboarding, right?
Next stop: Namibia!
I’ve always tried to carry a pad of some kind. Some of you may already know of my penchant for writing the occasional blog post in long hand first.
Well, for the ‘Epic Summer of Travel‘ (as I’ve taken to calling it), I’ve decided to take the plunge with my first ever Moleskine.
Taking notes, drawing pictures and collecting keepsakes, this book is now my friend and guide. So If blog posts start appearing over the coming weeks that seem a little out of date, now you know why.
Moleskine entry: July 18th, 2009
whatleydude.com 