Back on Track: 35 DAYS TO GO

After a long, unhealthy break from training, I am back on track...hope that I will keep it up as well.
I feel it in my bones that this week on (and it better be a right feeling), I am going to hit the track. Began with stair climbing this morning. Well, I had done quite well with stair climbing while training for Kilimanjaro last year, but I think keeping away from the stairs has had its toll on my heart, coz when I go back to climbing after months of using the elevator, my heart beats faster and breath comes in gasps. This wont do...with less than 40 days to go (I have been seeing pics of the track and trust me even pics so easily bring out the steepness and hardness of the walk), I cant afford to waste time getting my breath together....it better come together fast!

Oddly enough, I already feel lighter. I guess, its the thyroid tablets that have done half the trick, making me lose a lot of the bulkiness I had added on suddenly, so thats an added advantage. Looking leaner somehow makes me feel happier and more focused.

Happy training Me!!

Of late mornings and no training...

Quite like the title of the post, I have been having late mornings...meaning, I do wake up at the correct time, ie between 4.30-5am and have enough time to step up on my cross trainier for atleast half hour but then I wake up, count the days and happily curl up and sleep for another half hour. This is however most disturbing and quite unlike my earlier self when I would jump out of bed and waste no time in puffing away on the CT, now, even with such limited number of days, I simply dont feel up to it. Well, not something I am particularly proud of, because I happen to know just how tough Kokoda can be, seeing that the High Commissioner himself has warned me of the extremties I would face on the track.

Then there is the meticulous packing. Fortunately years of experience has shown me that I can live on very little, clothes and stuff dont matter too much in the jungle and am not finicky when it comes to looking pretty for the trees...so I guess I would be able to manage in far less than is recommended.

Good luck to me, I say!

VISA at last

Finally after months and months of wait and struggle, I got the PNG VISA. So well, I do suppose patience and prsistence pays! Now I can resume dreaming of the Kokoda Trail and continue my preparations to walk the jungle tracks.  Very few days left to even begin or end a count down and unfortunately for the last two weeks, I havent even been able to train for this...its been trying. Health etc have been worrying and then I catch the freaking flue...there is little time and that little time must  hence be employed in looking after the physical health.

Well, finally Kokoda seems a reality!

Visa issues

Imagine that my visa application is held up because people in Papua New Guinea think that India is "High Risk Country" and therefore my application is pending review.

Now, I can understand that if a PNGian must feel this way, there could be only one reason. They are blissfully unaware of India and her thousands of achievements. I am not going to write down all of that, naturally, but it has amused me no end (and also frustrated) that PNG thinks that because I come from India, it is risky business for them. I am not surprised that there arent many takers for this place...but for reasons unknown to me, I am still hung up on going there. Well, Kokoda is still a dream and in 'few days' as they assure me, I will know whether I am still under the 'risk' category and would be allowed entry into the only country in the world that practises cannibalism and has the highest crime rate in the world!!

Such is the irony!

Another phase of training

Another small step.

Visa application has been logged and I have been assured that I would know something, something in about 2 weeks. Well, since I am paying an agency to look into this, I suppose I can rely on Jack's words!

The second phase of training began today with a 5 kg backpack while working out on the cross trainer...well, I didnt manage to complete the half hour mark, byt minute 23, I was dead :-) Well, tomorrow is another day...or there is still the evening, might give it another go. The weather is getting worse, humid and hot, but if I want to sound happy, then I might add that it is just the kind of weather that I can expect under dense tree cover...so humidity, come on!!

A step forward

Finally, after FIVE nail biting days, the money has been delivered in PNG! Well, tomorrow, ie March 11, the visa approval papers will be logged and apparently, it will take 15-30 days to get an approval!

I suppose till that happens, its going to be quite a tensed month! But hey, now I know that money can be sent to PNG :-) Strangely, it was the first transaction to PNG from the exchange here!

Time ticks away

Oh boy, how quickly the time passes by and where am I? No training for last 3 days! THREE DAYS is too much time wasted, especially since I have about 84 days left!


But I have been busy pushing papers, well the visa papers atleast. Darn, it is a bit too tiresome, why cant it be a little easier? Spent a lot of money on international calls...and calling PNG isnt cheap either. See, am complaining a lot...this is what fast approaching deadlines do to you, coupled with the fear that the ruddy thing called the visa is still like the sword of Damocles, never knowing which way it will fall...

Anyway, back to training. Today even attempted to get back up on the CT but gave up 10 minutes before the set programme timed out. Well!