Hit the Snooze button
I did not want to get out of my sleeping bag today. I really didn’t. The pain in my neck and left shoulder wasn’t great and I just felt a bit tired. The 5am alarm went and was dismissed pretty quickly. The 6am alarm insisted on returning as I pressed the snooze button, so by 6.30am I finally got out of the bag. Still, with a heavy heart, a couple of hours later, I found myself packing up the tent. The pain being annoyingly persistent and making me feel just miserable, wishing I could have a rest day. While I had that half day off a few days ago, it has been a while since I had a proper rest.
Yet, it turned into my second-best day, distance-wise, with 29km.
Better conditions
Fortunately the painkillers began to take effect within the first hour of skiing. At the same time, the weather was pretty nice. Light high cloud, but nothing affecting visibility. And the wind was nice and calm as well, more like a breeze. More importantly, the snow was much better then yesterday, when it was like skiing on sawdust. And… incredible as it may sound… it was almost flat! With just the occasional sastrugi! Reaching lunch completing 16km was already a surprise, so it was great being able to maintain and even increase the pace in the afternoon sessions. In the last hour or two, the clouds descended and it became semi-whiteout, but fortunately not too many obstacles to avoid! I was still happy to put up the tent though and get some food in me!
Jokes, songs and messages – please keep them coming
I have said in my audio posts to the map how much I really appreciate all the support and comments from everyone, but just wanted to say that here! Thank you all so much for your wishes, jokes, thoughts and songs! Some great songs to get in my head – Our House (thanks Simon!); definitely a great one! Love Big Wheel by Massive Attack as well (thanks Mark!) and the others (though much to my shame, I don’t know how See Emily Play goes… i know, terrible!! (Sorry JoJo!)
As I say, it’s tough here; the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, so your support means so much to me and is helping me go on. Sorry I can’t reply to everything and everyone in my map audio messages and blog posts; and sorry there can be delays before being able to respond, but please keep it all coming!!
Cheers!!
Song of the day
Ear worm of the day… credit to Simon for the mention..! Our House! (Inspiring the photo for today’s post… my house in the middle of uhmmm nowhere!) oh and yes little China girl and Echoes still made guest appearances but it was nice to have something different as well!
Please support Ben’s chosen charity Cancer Research UK https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ben-weber1
Visit Ben’s blog site to hear Ben’s audio diary from his overnight camp. https://polarweber.com/