Hey this is TA calling in from day 63 of the great big walk. We are at an elevation of 1895m in a location called Karing, or at least thats what we think it is. We’ve had a day of heading down from Simi, about 800m walking along a road. An actual road with actual large vehicles that could try to kill us, that heard horns and things, unlike the cows that we’ve been seeing (inaudible) and then we headed back up those same 800 m on the far side. That river that we walked down to was the Tamakoshi natti and we walked by ganja which is the site of a very large hydro project being built by Sin Hydro, a Chinese company we believe and we’re hoping that that hydro, the electricity will actually stay in Nepal and not necessarily all be exported. So that is a city construction site there.

We are staying at the Lamabagar women’s camp site. So that is pretty cool. They built that camp site and it has got beautiful stone work as a way to raise funds for their community. So it is great to support a local development project. We saw water buffalo for the first time today. Two young waterbuffalo. We have come out of a sherpa area and we are now in a tetri and tamung cultural group area. We walked today through many, we climbed up through many wheat and potato terraces and lots of the terraces had goats and cows as a way to provide fertilizer to the crops. The winter wheat crop or the crop of wheat here is just about ready to be harvested and we got to try some interesting yellow berries that were a lot like raspberries that came off a tree

It was a pretty good walking day. I had 21 197 steps. Cam had 21 152 steps and Marian had 20 681. We are crossing in at about 14 km and just to show that we actually went up hill, 254 floors for me, 248 floors for Marian. I realized in yesterday’s excitement to talk about reaching our million step goal that I hadn’t  given you our totals for yesterday. Yesterday Marian had 16 960, 88 floors. I had 16 962 steps and 90 floors and Cam had 16 849 steps and we were all in at around 11 km.

It is Friday which means it is find your fit Friday and we definitely found our fit today, walking our 14 km and I decided to go back to some of our hint for doing the great big walk for I think what is our final find your fit Friday of our great big walk. One is to start slowly and build strength and endurance over time and we have definitely done that over the last 63 days. Today coming up those 800m felt much easier than they did 60 days ago for sure. Walking is an excellent way to find your fit. We walk anywhere between 3 and 7 hours everyday and basically for health reasons it is recommended that people try to get 10 000 steps per day and so you don’t have to walk it all at once. You can build it up through the day and you can build it up over time. Definitely comfortable shoes and boots make it more comfy to walk and hike and we’ve been taking very good care of our feet. Giving them a good bath everyday and I like to put lotion on my feet at least every second day to keep them all supple at night but not during the day time.

If you can find your fit outdoors research shows actually that you will work harder but you will not notice and there’s lots of other benefits like making vitamin d and enjoying fresh air and things and find a fit that fits. There is lots of different ways to be physically active. What works for you may not work for your neighbour and what works for your neighbor may not work for you. So try lots of different ways to being physically active. You can visit the recreation of Newfoundland site for more ideas on how to find your fit and it has been great being the ambassador for the recreation of Newfoundland and Labrador find your fit here along with the great big walk.

So we’re here on day 63. We’ve got about 3 more days of walking and it is interesting to be in a new area. Definitely much lower so the walking is easier for us. We have a little bit of view still of some snow covered peaks but we’re missing a little bit of that mountain time but we are enjoying each and every step and as our leader Judah used to say, we are not taking any tension as we can.

So that is the report from day 63 of the great big walk. Hope you had a great Friday or hope you’re about to have a great Friday. Make sure you get out there. Have a great big walk. Roll stroll or anything that makes you find your fit. So that is it from here. We will catch you from tomorrow. Take care! Bye bye!

Total Steps for TA: 21 197 steps, 254 floors

Total Steps for Marian: 20 681 steps, 248 floors

Total Distance for TA: 14 km

Total Distance for Marian: 14 km

Great Big Walk acknowledges the support of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Quick Start Fund for Public Engagement in making these updates from the field possible.\