SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th / DAY 10
What’s in store for us today? 30km on flat ground at an altitude of 4300m, then a vertiginous slope towards Ocros(3200m), then Chumbers (2700m) and finally Ninahamba(2160m) where we’ll camp. Today 2000m variation in elevation under a blue sky with some rainy spells.
Serge feels pain in his hip, Ludo, the kine, relieves him, Fabrice, the chiropodist is quite busy as well, the succession of climbs and descents seriously damage his toe nails.
Here the days are getting longer, night falls at 6.15pm instead of 5.45pm and it’s light at 5.45am instead of 6a.m.
Anecdote: At 4.30 Serge decides, after 70km, to take a shortcut, he’d rather go straight down a mountain track than take a winding road for miles.He goes off with Fabrice, equipped with a GPS and a detailed map. The Sangsue (the Leech )will wait for them at a definite spot.6p.m night’s falling but no one within sight. Time’s dragging.
Three possibilities:
They got lost and they turned back to the road.
They got lost and have decided to sleep in the mountain.
Serge is hurt, it’s a disaster.
It’s pitch dark, we call the camp so that a car comes and meets us. We can be seen for 5km around thanks to our revolving light. After an endless waiting, the car arrives, 5 minutes later shouts can be heard in the dark. Here they come, more frightened than hurt. The track being inacceessible, they had to turn back, it took them an hour to find their way back to the road. Once they’d found it, they walked 10km .
A good lesson of humility for who plays tit for tat with the mountain.
