Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it with use.
–Ruth Gordon
A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.
― John Lennon
As has become tradition, as many WOKies (Women of Kilmanjaro) as possible gathered together to climb Signal Hill (the site of much of our shared training) this morning. Five years and four days ago, we shared the summit of Kilimanjaro together after six months of hard training. The memories and bonds from the climb are continued across miles and years. Special greetings to Karen, Nancy, Leslie, and Ann Marie who couldn’t join us this morning.
A little champagne before breakfast anyone…
A view that is always worth getting up for!
This is an honorary Wokies we met on the way down.
If you look very closely, there are prayer flags in this picture.
Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.
― Barry Finlay, Kilimanjaro and Beyond
Happy 5th Anniversary to the WOKies!
The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world.
– Georges Simenon
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
― Emily Dickinson
Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
― Catherynne M. Valente
How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!
– John Muir
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
― Dr. Seuss
Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the stars and the mountains above. Let them look at the waters and the trees and flowers on Earth. Then they will begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education.–David Pollis
Our task, regarding creativity, is to help children climb their own mountains, as high as possible. No one can do more.
–Loris Malaguzzi
One of the highlights of last week was visiting the Grade Four classes at Bishop Abraham School here in St. John’s. It was my second visit of the school year and great fun. They followed along daily on my latest Nepal expedition. I had hoped to show pictures of Nepal but alas, the tech gods were playing tricks, so I mostly told stories and took questions from the students. After the questions, the students gave a recitation of what “TA” stands for and I was deeply touched by the list…
TA is ……….
1. Terrific and Awesome
2. Travel Addicted
3. Team Accomplished
4. A True Adventurer
5. Talks about her accomplishments
6. Terrific Author
7. Trains a lot for her climbs
8. Trained Athlete
9. Uses the Team Approach
10. Had a Thrill in Antarctica
11. Takes a lot of pictures
12. Task Achiever
13. Technological Academic
14. Hope she doesn’t Tumble into an Abyss
15. Totally Awesome!!
As each child stood and read her/his item, I grinned ear to ear and had to demonstrate that I was listening by picking out the “T” and the “A” words. After the recitation, I was presented with some gifts: a stained glass dragonfly, some Pringles, and a book of pictures each class had drawn. All were perfect! We had seen many dragon flies on the glacier as we climbed Mera Peak, I craved (but never caved to having) Pringles on the entire trek, and I so, so, so love children’s art. Here is the picture I’ve currently chosen at my cover photo on Facebook.
It reminds me that life is a series of peaks and valleys and we need to spend time in each…and that there are always more mountains to climb (both figuratively and literally). So many thanks to Mrs. Courage and Mr. Constantine and their students for their wonderful gifts and appreciation. I loved having them along as co-explorers on the expedition and I look forward to sharing future trips along with them again.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
― Maya Angelou
Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
― Henry David Thoreau
You have to do what you can, do your best with what you are. And you have to believe in wilderness. If you do that you can’t go wrong.
– Kirk Albert Walter Wipper
Clouds very high look
not one word helped them get up there.
― Ikkyu
Education is not filling a pail, but lighting a fire.
–William Butler Yeats
Congratulations to all of the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation students who convocate today! Enjoy your day, celebrate your achievements and go light some fires.
Marian and I hemmed and hawed about whether or not we’d bring our sea kayaks to Twillingate this time. In the end, we decided to bring our canoe…a 16 foot Esquif Prospecteur…because we’re doing a canoe trip on the Main River in a few weeks. I checked out the topo maps before leaving the city and thought I’d spotted a few ponds that we could drop our boat into…maybe even a few ponds we could portage between to create a longer adventure…
We set out, planning to check out the first few ponds but it turns out they were signed as “no boating” because they are part of the Twillingate watershed. Fair enough. So were the next three ponds. And the next one. And the one around the corner. We had one option left and expected it to be off limits as well but there were no signs along its shore and none along the little road we used to access it.
A quick carry to the pond and voila…a pocket adventure on Moses Pond. The wind gave us a gentle push up the pond and then we got a bit of a work-out beating back against the wind. We then hung out a bit paddling in the lee along the west edge of the pond.
The sky was blue, the sun was out, the wind kept the flies at bay…it doesn’t get much better than this.
A short, sweet canoe paddling adventure right here in Twillingate! As you can see from the photos, a fine bit of barrens landscape paddling.
No matter how many times, I’ve seen an iceberg, there is always excitement in seeing another…we’re off to see if we can get a closer look or find a pond to canoe in, whichever comes first.
Our afternoon’s intrepid adventure started out from the Anchor Inn and Suites. We set out, smart phones/GPS in hands, ready to treasure hunt/geocache in both the urban and wilds of Twillingate. Bright colours and bright smiles adorned us as we head down the main road looking for our first set of coordinates. Geocaching.com lists 51 geocaches when we search for Twillingate so we thought it best that we get busy trying to find and log some.
We had some early success and here we are logging our first find. One of the joys of geocaching (using GPS coordinates to find hidden caches with log books) is that you get to see lots of fun and interesting sites along the way such as the pooch below.
The restaurant at the Anchor Inn, Georgies, is named after Twillingates’s opera diva, Georgina Stirling. One of the town’s story boards offered the image below of Georgina.
You can see another picture of Georgina at Georgie’s above the mantle in the dining room. We’ve had two fabulous meals at Georgie’s thus far (the Chili and Lime Seafood Pasta and the Orange-Maple Glazed Salmon with roasted root vegetable salad that was wildly divine…see their spring menu here). Geocaching offers the fun of discovery to both young and old, friends and families.
Here Wilma pulls out our second geocache of the day. Anyone with a GPS enabled phone or separate GPS can participate. It’s simple to find geocaches on the website and then head out for the fun of finding them.
Our third geocache had out heading out along a trail near to a local campground and RV park. A short hike got us close to the cache. Marian used the geocaching.com application for her Android phone ($9.95) and we used the compass and map tabs to hone in on the three geocaches we found this afternoon.
Each geocache has a logbook where you can leave a note saying you found the cache and you can both take a treasure from the cache and leave one of your own.
Here Marian contemplates how Georgina Stirling might have used this treasure in her opera costume. Ultimately, Marian decided to leave it for another treasurer hunter to find stating that “pink is not my colour-now if it had blue baubles-we might have a different end”.) OK…she didn’t really say that but I couldn’t resist.
Geocaching in Twillingate provides an excellent way to explore both the towns and coves and woods. We shared many laughs and had fun seeking out our first three (of many) geocaches about T-gate as I like to call it.
A great pre dinner walk checking out some root cellars in Twillingate. They have many of the geo-tagged but we found this one on our own and had a lovely coastal bushwhacked back to the Anchor Inn to boot! Another fine Twillingate adventure.
Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.
― Pat Conroy
There are several ways to react to being lost. One is to panic: this was usually Valentina’s first impulse. Another is to abandon yourself to lostness, to allow the fact that you’ve misplaced yourself to change the way you experience the world.
― Audrey Niffenegger
It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.
― Ursula K. Le Guin
That’s what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.
― Simone de Beauvoir
All things in this world must be seen with youthful, hopeful eyes.
– Henry David Thoreau
Technique and ability alone do not get you to the top; it is the willpower that is the most important. This willpower you cannot buy with money or be given by others..it rises from your heart.
–Junko Tabai
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.–Carl Sagan
If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.–Steve Jobs
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The greatest competitor you’ll ever come up against is self doubt.
– John McGrath
I hope you have enjoyed following along on this expedition and that you tried out some of the suggested activities along the way. The activities were developed by students in HKR 4210: Teaching Leadership through Physical Activity class that I teach in the winter semester at Memorial University of Newfoundland. The activities and “Did You Know” facts were assembled by three groups of students. I want to extend my gratitude for their hard work to all of them and I hope you will too!
Many thanks to…
Taylor-Lynn Marsh, Michelle Rideout, Whitney Mullett, Dawn Tulk, Jonathan Powell, Joel Murphy, Michael Button, Nikita Strickland, Kelly Parsons, and Justin Grainger
We made quite the transition this morning transferring via twin otter from the small mountain village of Lukla to the chaotic metropolis of Kathmandu. We also moved from simple tea house to former Raj Palace-the Shankar Hotel.
After 24 days on the trail, a hot shower was much appreciated as well the salad and pizza and ice cream at the Roadhouse Cafe, one of my favourite Thamel haunts. Marian and I did a bit of shopping and visited with Raj, my Nepali brother and drank plenty of fresh lemon soda to combat the heat of Kathmandu.
It’s a huge switch from a simple life of sleep some, walk some, eat some… to the multiple choice life of the big city and I think each in the group dealt/deals with such a change in their own way. Some are eager for home and some can’t wait to get back to the trail, some are planning for the beach and some to walk the entire spine of the Himalayas.
We’ll enjoy a city tour and abut more Kathmandu tomorrow before facing the challenge of stuffing all gear back into the duffels for the 24 hour trip home on Saturday…another adventure lived and learned from…
Expedition Itinerary Plan for Day 25:
We hope to take an early morning flight to Kathmandu
Fun Fact of the Day
DID YOU KNOW?
The jet stream buffets the top of Everest with hurricane force winds for much of the year.
Today’s Activity: Follow the Leader
It is important to be listening and following what your head expedition leader is saying to insure the safety of the entire team. This warm up will get students aware of their surroundings and listening to their group members.
Have a student volunteer to be the expedition leader. This student will be the leader and the rest of the class will follow them. The leader can do any kind of movement that they wish, some movements including running, hopping, crawling, rolling, etc., and the entire class must follow. Switch up the expedition leader after every couple minutes.
Expedition Itinerary Plan for Day 24:
Our final days trekking following the Dudh Khosi mostly downhill but with a last climb up to Lukla. We say goodbye to our support crew in traditional style. We stay in a tea house.
Fun Fact of the Day
DID YOU KNOW?
From home and back again, most trips to the top over Everest take about two and a half months.
Today’s Activity: Mountain Height Fitness
Equipment:
Introduction: Climbing to a summit of a mountain takes a lot of strength and conditioning. Climbers spend hours of a day skiing or hiking up a mountainside while carrying a heavy backpack and sometime even pulling a sled as well. They must be fit and ready for the expedition therefore this activity will be base around fitness.
Activity: Pick out 6-10 peak heights (depending on class size and equipment on hand) and set up stations around the gym. At each station the students will have to complete the height of the peak but doing 4 fitness related activities. For example, the height of Mount Everest is 8848 m therefore, the students can complete 8 jumping jacks, 8 sit ups, 4 burpees and 8 high knees and then move onto another station. You should pick out 4 activities for each station but let the students decide what activity they want to do for each number of the height. Continue rotating the students through as many stations as you wish.
As you can see from this picture, we’re still in Lukla. Heading off to visit the Gompa and hoping for clear skies tomorrow morning.
Expedition Itinerary Plan for Day 23:
Trekking via Thyangboche where we stop for a visit to the Monastery, and via the settlements of Phunki Tenga and Kangjuma, we reach Namche Bazaar. Camp (3440m).
Fun Fact of the Day
DID YOU KNOW?
Musk deer, wild yak, red panda, snow leopard and Himalayan black bears inhabit lower altitudes of Mount Everest.
Today’s Activity: Expedition Team Line Up
As you are making your way across a glacier, you and your expedition team are tied into a climbing rope so everyone can travel safety. For this ice breaker, we are going to form our expedition line by doing a simple task.
Pass out a card to each student in which they cannot show anyone else around them what card they have. The students must arrange themselves in numerical order as well as suit order i.e. all hearts, then diamonds, spades and then clubs along the climbing rope/line on the gym.
Rules:
Note: To make it easier just give everyone a number or they first letter of their name. To make it harder get them to order themselves by birthdays.
We made our last big climb into Lukla this afternoon and enjoyed a treat at the German Bakery that is attached to our guest house. We had “pig’s ears” as Oma called them or butterfly Wing cookies as they are known here.
We are hoping to fly to KTM tomorrow after we appreciate our Nepali staff this evening. We fly home on May 11-12.
More soon
TA
Expedition Itinerary Plan for Day 22:
Descending the Imja Khola Valley via Dingboche we reach the main Khumbu Valley and pass through the village of Pangboche to our halt at Deboche. Camp (3710m).
Fun Fact of the Day
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1975, a Japanese woman named Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Mount Everest.
Today’s Activity: Zero Zero Clear
Equipment: None
“Zero” and “Clear” are two words that are commonly use for mountaineering and for expeditions. “Zero” means stop and “Clear” means go. Communication between members is extremely importation for the safety of each group member. This activity will help introduce group members to one another as well as practice their communication skills.
Split up class into as many groups as needed. Get students to sit in a circle on the floor and get one person to stand up. This ice breaker is similar to “Duck Duck Goose” in which one person will start tapping heads saying “Zero”. Once they say, “Clear” that person will get up and run the opposite way as the tagger. Once they met each other running they must stop and shake hands and say “Hello teammate how are you?” and then continue running to try and beat the other to the spot. Whoever arrivals last then will be the tagger.
TA Loeffler's Adventures that Move 