Monday, June 17, 2013

Take a hike….

Over the last year I’ve been trying to push myself out of my comfort zone on occasions, determined not to let me vision issues get me down... climbing Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur… going for a Swim in a rocky Waterfall area, and this weekend I added another something…

I went up Bukit Saga , a trekking spot near Kuala Lumpur.. 

Purely to see if I could physically and mentally do it…, it wasn't very high, but still I wanted to see if I could do something like this and if it was something I could or should continue doing…….

I was kind of inspired by a  friend of mine who recently climbed Mount Kinabalu, a mountain on the Borneo side of Malaysia and she provided me with some amazing pictures and stories that got me kinda hooked and intrigued now…  knowing that that probably wasn't something I could ever do, It did make me think if hiking itself was possible…

Was it possible?

Well, see below…
 The “going-up” bit was a wake-up call as towards my overall fitness….  I was with someone from work and 2 of her friends they were all my senior in years, they were regular gym goers, and runners etc, (they even had hiked and climbed before, including Mount Kinabalu) … in other words …. healthy…

Me? Well, I’m a many things, but not that… I have indeed shifted approx. 35kg since having figured out that I had KC, and that it was manageable and that I can live with it very well, but that was without being fit, or making an efforts as such towards the weight loss….. and for sure I haven’t started any proper sports as such, apart from a small attempt at rowing last year in the UK before moving to the Asia Pacific region and a little bit of swimming and a tiny bit of Yoga…

Someday soon I will have to start some regular exercise for sure , but just now, I need to deal with the “storm” in my head that has been this roller coaster ride that my life has been since having had my Contacts fitted and ive been able to pick up my life again…

So halfway up the hill, my body was sending me shocked message as to what the hell I was suddenly doing, and yeh, it hit a stage where I did have to sit down for a while and recover… but so far, no visions issues, just climb and use my hands to gauge where i'm going…. All good…



By the time we finally were on top of the hill, and were joyous to find we got there, we discovered that another hour further we would be able to reach some great waterfalls…. However we decided to set that task for next time, as it would be a good motivator to come back soon….

The bit going down was next… and eh.. .that was eh fun….

As i've explained before with a lot of the people that have KC there is a common thing where we don’t see depth very well, Stairs and steps, and even pavement curbs become a tricky thing to navigate, as it will either become in our perspective a ramp or even as bad as a massive ski slope.. depending where you are ofcourse… in any case, a tricky thing to navigate, so just imagine how this would look to us…..





Scary!!!!!!

But that’s why I was here, to conquer that fear and move on and push beyond my comfort zone….

One thing to highlight aswell is that my travel companions all knew the score with me on this, so they were very patience and took their time when needed, pointing out where to be extra careful etc…

In any case, here I found my overall fitness not to be lacking whatsoever, it was just a very tough mental thing, where things came down to a lot of, what If I go right, or left, what about this drop, would that be as high as I think it is… but by anticipating and gauging these uneven grounds with a solid hiking cane it became a very intense but pleasurable thing to do… 

I definitely want to come back and maybe even aim for something more extreme, like the previously mentioned Mount Kinabalu…
(let’s see if my friend is up for taking that challenge with me next year, or if she (and others) will talk me out of it…. )

Maybe, just maybe....








Sweating like mad, but happy as a child..... (-:





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