Back from the back of beyond

So, not quite the image you may have been expecting, but this is a photo of me, and one of the venturers, using banana leafs as sun protection, having had a bit of a shocker on our 20km walk to the settlement of Carona when we left on 15th Feb. Essentially, when a guide tells you to walk on and they will catch up, the lesson is not to believe them. A second and equally valuable lesson is to carry life jackets, throw ropes, a sat phone and at least 2 litres of water per person when you do this 20km walk because things can, and do, go wrong.

We left Banco at 4.45am as planned and started walking fairly swiftly, concerned about the tides. When, at about 10.30am we realised the cliffs were ahead but the tide was well up, we were sooo close to the village that we decided to press on. Although I am a strong ish swimmer, nothing prepared me for the huge suck of the ocean as I tried to get past the rocks, literally gripping onto the crab infested cliff with my fingertips, both feet being sucked out to the open sea, daypack on my back getting totally soaked. Adrenaline pumping far more than I´ve experienced in a while, 4 of us managed to get across. The other 8 were stuck, the tide was rising by the second and we lost our confidence at getting any more people across. So, the four of us walked on and realised to our horror, that we had another set of cliffs ahead of us, and we were now trapped on a small beach with a rising tide.

With my hard earnt Westway rock climbing skills, I managed to scale a crumbly side of a waterfall and the rest of the group follwed and we sat there for ages not knowing quite what to do. On the other side of the first set of cliffs, the other PM had SAT phoned into fieldbase to let them know the situation. I think my group of 4 had a good time on the whole - we had fresh running water, puritabs and a concentrate powder called Tang that you empty into your water to flavour it. Soon enough, me and the boys had dammed the waterfall creating a lovely pool to put our feet in, stripped the nearby banana trees of leaves and laid them down on the stony ground, and fell asleep.

It was 2.30pm and we´d been there 4 hours waiting for the tides to retreat, when I woke to see one of the indian guides standing over us, looking at me. After a fairly confusing exchange between my bad spanish and his bad spanish, we put on our boots and he walked us up the sheer mountainside, grabbing onto roots and shoots, sweating more than I ever have in my life, to the top of the hill. It was only once we were there, that I understood that we had walked too far, that we had missed the turning to the village and that if he hadn´t found us we would have waited for the tides to go down, and then carried on walking. To Panama. Other guides went back and found the other 8 and by 5pm, 12 hours after setting off, we were a complete team in Carona, exhausted, on a high, and loving the adventurous start we had had.