...pretty intense.
So I forgot this key story. Day one at Mazumbai. We had an "introduce yourself to the forest" exercise involving a Tom Brown reading and a Mary Oliver poem, followed by 2 and a half hours to do a solo hike in the woods. You didn't have to hike, you could sit by the stream, take a nap in a tree, swing from the vines, do anything. For me, anything involved finding my way to the top.
The other part of this activity involved losing as much of the "stuff" that usually weighs us down: like watches, jewelry or, for those crazy one in the group, clothing. Count me in as crazy.
Once in the woods, I followed a small footpath that looked like it went pretty much vertically up the mountain. It was a good move considering I wanted to get to the top, but I didnt think it was an option for my descent, because it was so steep i would just fall. So I was determined to get to the top and find a different way down. I dont know why I thought this was all going to be possible, but for some reason I just went along without really doubting myself. The path was pretty well cleared of big brush, but I was the spider web clearer of the day. As someone who still needs her dad to come in and deal with any crawling spider/bug ive ever seen, I was pretty proud of myself for staying completely calm as i wiped spider weds and spiders off myself. The whole way was like this, and at many points I just gave up and let them crawl. It grosses me out now, but I was doing okay. I went along, not seeing anyone, singing sometimes, running sometimes, stopping to take closer looks when anything grabbed me. It was a pretty amazing experience to just go like that. I've never hiked without a purpose. Never hiked alone. Not like that...
There were many times when I thought I had made it to the top and was on my way down when suddenly the path would go up again for long stretches. I think I was on a ridgeline, but had no idea where I was at the time. I tried to be resourceful and judge the time by the sun. It was definitely past the hour we were supposed to return. But-- i figured this would happen to everyone. How can you set 19 people off into the woods without watches, maps or knowledge of the forest and expect them to make it home on time? Impossible.
So every now and then I would look down at myself and be shocked at the oddity of the situation. Here I was a white girl from new york city covered in dirt and nettles and spiders and webs and who knows what else running along, singing lame 90s pop songs. I saw an awesome plant with pink leaves, a cool hornbill (yay i noticed a bird!), and some amazing butterflies. At some point I was definitely going down. Straight down. Just as steep as the way I had come. Pole to my legs (pole means sorry). And then, I made it to a road.
I threw my clothes on and started walking. But-- unaware, I was walking in the wrong direction. It took me a while to figure this out. When I did, I was too exhausted to keep going. I lay down in the middle of the road for a good 10 minutes and watched the clouds. It was definitely the highlight of my day. It felt so good to just be there- in the road. And dont worry, there arent really cars in this area, in fact you are lucky to see a bicycle. At some point I heard people coming and so I got up, not wanting them to think anything was wrong, and I started walking back towards the chalet. When I finally arrived, lunch was long over, and everyone was getting ready to take off on our afternoon hike. The afternoon hike that to my surprised (and exhaustion) retraced my footsteps exactly-- up until the wrong turn.
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