2008 November 14

A big day for me word wise, probably in part because the games on offer were of little interest to me and the temperature kept me wanting to go somewhere a little cooler than the main areas of the house I was in. Being able to just walk to my laptop and type for a few minutes at a time also helped. - Today will be the only double day of posting as I've written nothing on the 16th.

Words today: 1839
Total for the month so far: 14543

A couple of the guys started telling stories of how such trips went wrong in the past, with the later confessed purpose of worrying me. The first story had been worrying but the subsequent tales made me realise what they were doing and I also looked at Veronika's face and saw a complete lack of worry there so I relaxed and begun to enjoy the stories for what they were.
It ended up taking a couple of hours to get to the house we stayed in the first night and by the end of that drive each of us was happy to exit the vehicle and walk around a little. What amused me afterwards was the fact we all took our stuff inside and then proceeded to sit for most of the evening as we talked and played a couple of games.
Apart from the two that weren't going to be joining us in the bush we repacked our bags the following morning and put them in the vehicle again. After only a few minutes drive we were at the start of the track so we said goodbye and starting walking in. I had until that walk considered myself reasonably fit and healthy, after an hour of carrying the pack while walking through bush I changed my mind. I wasn't particularly unhealthy but I could see that the others were having a much easier time of the walking than I was, and even Veronika seemed to be struggling far less with the weight of her pack than I was with mine.
The rainfall that I'd been worried about seemed to have had no effect upon the track we walked, when I pointed that out Veronika corrected me by showing where there were points that had been exposed to the rain through breaks in the shelter above them. I also obtained proof positive at one point as I walked under a tree, accidentally knocked on of it's branches and managed to dislodge what seemed like a litre of water down upon me.
The walking didn't last all day, we were in fact at the first days rest point after a matter of about five hours which made me wonder if the others had been pushing, possibly to test me. Regardless of why we were there so early I took the opportunity to go lie down for about an hour and stretch everything I had in the way of muscle. The three guys looked at me when I returned from the bedding area and asked how I was doing. Veronika just came over to where I'd sat down and snuggled into me.
After a few questions I realised that we had indeed been pushing earlier in our walking and the next three days were going to be less strenuous, if only because they didn't mind me slowing them down. I was glad of the permission they thus granted me but felt a little bad that I might end up slowing them down. Having arrived so early (comparatively anyway) allowed us to just sit around and talk again like we had the previous night, this time with the added factor of playing a card game that was owned by one of the trampers who had arrived at the hut about the same time I returned from my rest.
Cold water showers are something I never expect to never enjoy, I might get used to them but I'm always going to pine after a constant stream of hot water when I'm cleaning myself. After that shower I wrapped myself in a couple of extra layers of clothing and found my designated sleeping area. Veronika came to talk with me for a few minutes before she went to get herself ready for bed and was kind enough to spend most of the time we were talking massaging my shoulders.
Getting up the following morning was difficult because of how my legs felt, after swinging my arms a little I regretted not asking Veronika if she'd mind massaging my legs instead of my shoulders but mentioning it that much later seemed ungrateful.
Working it out I came to the conclusion I had slept more than was normal for me, especially when I hadn't been able to stay up late wasting time with the internet and hadn't been reading a book. Breakfast was simply find something simple from the food in your pack and eat it. That allowed us to eat while other people were still rising and apart from one person that had seemed to be ready to leave before we rose the five of us were the first to leave the hut that morning. Even with the extra rest though I felt tired, and a little bit sore, but it didn't seem likely to get worse. In fact, after an hour walking I felt normal again. Each break we took seemed to put me back as far as progress was concerned though, getting up from whatever I had sat upon was a little painful and my legs felt creaky for the first five minutes or so after we started again. I wasn't wanting to not take the rest though, I could tell that I needed it.
The next couple of days and nights were much the same, although it did become easier as I became more accustomed to the walking and the reduced weight because we were eating the food we had with us.
Somewhat fortunately as far as timing was concerned it was on the way out during day four that I slipped down a hill and basically landed in a tree. Getting me out was awkward but not impossible, I did feel like a fool for having not realised the ground was unstable though. Up until that point I'd never really done any physical damage to myself so I couldn't compare the pain to anything else but I did know it didn't hurt as much as I would have thought a broken foot would. The scrapes all along my right side (the one that had been against the ground as I went down the hill) felt almost as bad when I bumped them as much as my foot did when I was resting. That made me feel there wasn't any serious issue with my foot, but it did still hurt.

The trip out of the bush was subdued, helping me hobble along wasn't fun for the others and we had to wait a while for our ride to show up. Getting into the vehicle was hard as well but once in I was able to sit with my foot up and rest it the entire time we were driving. Veronika was worried that I'd have been put off going tramping again some other time but I figured that apart from the accident I had had a good time.
Treatment at the doctor's took only a few minutes, basically all that was needed was wrapping in bandage after checking that there wasn't any permanent damage showing through. That and being given a pair of crutches which I would avoid using as much as possible by staying sedentary most of the time. I had to go see a doctor again during normal hours but was told that I'd likely just get x-rayed to check on the condition of my foot, have the bandage replaced and given more painkillers if it was deemed necessary.

Cancelling work for the following week didn't go down very well with Kevin but when I asked if I could just do the reading from work he seemed far less annoyed. He also sounded mildly amused at my story of falling on the hill as we were walking out of the bush, sympathetic but amused.

The next couple of weeks were enough to make me restless, I still wasn't wanting to put a lot of pressure on my foot so I wasn't wanting to walk around and ended up just sitting around at home most of my days. I did ensure I walked out of the house for a little while each day, mainly for the mail, but apart from going around the house for various things I probably didn't move enough to help my foot repair itself.

Veronika was feeling a little guilty about me being injured doing something that she had wanted me to be doing. I told her not to worry about it but she still went shopping for me and helped clean up the things that would have been particularly difficult for me while I was trying to stay off my feet. I also got a couple of visits from the guys we had been tramping with, one of whom had managed to get a couple of good photographs as I was lying in the tree waiting to get myself 'rescued' and he gave me a print of one of them that I proceeded to hang on the wall in my office.

The continuing effort I was making regarding the research notes allowed me to walk back in to work (after my foot was recovered) with a couple of big questions. Kevin had already dealt with both of them after they came up about three months earlier but he told me that I'd done well to see the issues.

There was a lot more of the notes making sense to me since I'd started taking the time off, probably helped largely by the fact I was spending so much extra time reading. Back in school I hadn't really bothered spending a lot of time studying as I wasn't interested in the subjects I should have been studying. Since I was interested in the wormhole stuff it was easy for me to spend an hour or so engrossed in reading without realising that much time had passed.

That first week back I also spent a lot of my away from work time with Veronika helping her arrange some personal things relating to work. We had both talked about our jobs to the extent she knew I was enjoying the new thing that I couldn't really give any details of and I knew that she was finding her boss and a couple of her colleagues quite annoying. Being aware of more financially worthwhile jobs that she could likely get we had talked about her applying for something somewhere else. One of the somewhere elses was my work and we had spent hours over a couple of weeks coming up with positives and negatives to her working at the same place I was working. Obvious benefits were the fact that she could potentially shift into my home and we'd be sharing expenses as well as seeing each other more often. Not having to drive to work would also be a big benefit to her. It hadn't yet been an issue for us but we both saw the possible negative of us getting on each other's nerves but not being able to go home and get away from the other.