Head First

"It is because they have so much to give and give it so lavishly..that men love the mountains and go back to them again and again" Sir Fracis Younghusband

This must be me, you would think after the amount of times I have fallen that I would not go back and hike but for some reason I keep going back for more, and more I get!
I am in slight pain today as yesterday Megan, Nithasha, Terri, her 3 friends, My dog Jessy and of course me went walking in Cecilia Forest.

I was tired yesterday and did ot feel like walking, I had to push my thoughts and my body aside and concentrate on moving up the mountain. After about 10 minutes I found my rythym and slowly we got up the first few hills of our walk. I had decided that walking on the big jeep tracks was good but I needed to walk on the more harder places as easy walking is not going to cut it for me, we need some challenges. The amazig thing is that the harder tracks are getting easier which does mean my walking is improving, Megan can vouch for that, its a process of walking past my mind and seeing what is ahead.
We had to turn around eventually as it was gettig late and we still had to make our way back to the car, but deep down I wanted to walk on and on and on.......

Heading back down was a head first experience. Megan and myself were just strolling along this little single track with lots of rocks, the next thing I knew I was sliding down the side of the mountain head first into more rocks below me. Somehow my trekking pole had lodge itself into the sides of where I was falling and I held onto that which saved ,me from a head on collision with the rocks below.

Megan hauls me up onto the path and in true Cath style, she kind of just sits there for a while on the path and eventually gets up and keeps walking, Megan was wondering whether she should take some lessons in how to pull Cath out of situations like that. We had a good laugh about it, but I guess it could have been more serious if I had fallen further.

We still had a way to walk to get to the car but on we pioneered, through the pains in my calf and my shin, we eventually made it to the car. It was encouraging because even though I was sore and finding it hard to walk, I still kept up my training in walking like I am suppose to walk. I think my brain was on over drive!!!

I was relieved when we got to the car, yet sad that I had to leave the mountain, the mountain has grown on me in ways unbelivable and all I want to do now is climb. I have been reading a book..."Facing Up" Bear Gylls and he sums it for me in one part of the book. The book is about him climbing Everest. He had broken his back in 3 places 2 years earlier.

"That evening talking with Scott, he told of the years of preparation he had done for this climb. Being out here, seeing the mountain but with a weak ankle, his ambition now was just to get to the Western Cwm. That was all he wanted. I felt humbled. Why was I aiming for the summit? Scott was training for this climb while I was still at school, yet he is only hoping to reach the Western Cwm. Maybe I was reaching to high. This troubled me that evening as I sat alone in my tent. But I knew that I had to stretch myself further and reach beyond my grasp. I felt this burning urge to go higher and I longed to witness the summit. The beauty of the places on the way there was unquestioned - what I had seen so far had stunned me in its sheer scale and beauty, but I felt there was more. My eyes and heart were for the summit and my dream was to reach it with the Person who had created it. I wanted this to be my journey" 

My eyes and heart are for the summit of Kilimanjaro and my dream is to reach it with the Person who created it. The amazing thing is I am reaching summits of different places in my life not just physical mountains and Jesus is with me! God is teaching me through my physical moutain walks what spiritual moutain walks are and how to walk them till you reach the summit!

Love
Cath