Finally, I get a chance to write again.

 

Day 3 seems so far away, but I'll try to recollect how it went. Let's see, it was supposed to be an easy day, but somehow we took super long to return to camp. We had set out at 8am, but only returned around 8pm, so it was a full day out. The day's route consisted of nice treks through villages, and muddy streams. Everything seemed nice and easy till the last leg, so we took our time getting through the first 30km. By the time we hit the 3rd checkpoint, it was already 5+pm. The last stage was "easy" - we had to trek up a 'gentle' gradient of 600m over 10km. It was a steady incline, but coupled with the steepness, gravel track and heat, it was horrendous. Getty wasn't holding out too good either as he hadn't eaten enough throughout the day. Well, we survived it, and finally arrived at camp close to 8pm.

 

Day 4 was much worse than Day 3, we arrived back in camp only at 10.30pm, despite also starting out at 8am. It was almost getting dark by the time we returned, but our wonderful tent mates and fellow Singaporeans stayed up to cheer us on our return, and to help us with carrying the bags to the tents and cooking our food. Getty and I are sharing tents with another 2 Singaporeans, Kah Shin and Huan Kiat, one Swiss (Sandro), 3 Brits (Sarah, Rob and Alex), and 1 Hong Konger (Teresa) - all such wonderful and friendly and ever helpful people. Anyhow, back to Day 4. It was supposed to be the most difficult day in terms of terrain. We started with a challenging but rewarding climb up to Heaven's Gate. The view from above was amazing, really worth the tough climb. We were then told we had to climb up and down 7 ridges, but it ended up being like 10. Each ridge was probably about 20 - 30m high, and after climbing up the narrow and steep path, we had to walk along the ridge before coming down steep paths. It was really dangerous, with the ridge paths about 2 ft at the widest points, and barely half a foot at some places. It was so challenging and you really needed your full concentration to stay on the path and try not to look down. I heard from a friend that one of the participants almost fell over but luckily someone pulled him back in time. Fortunately Getty had found me a wooden staff while we were trekking through the villages on Day 3, otherwise I would have had a lot more difficulty getting through the ridges. The ridges took a while, and we thought we were done with them by the time we completed CP2, but we were told to get to CP3, we had to get through 3 more!

 

Towards the end of the 3rd leg, Getty was a knight in shining armour. We met a participant, Doreen, along the way who was feeling terrible, and wanted to give up. Hence, Getty carried her backpack for about 2 - 3km to the next checkpoint, and we walked slowly with her. However, towards the last 500m, she really couldn't move anymore and we ran to checkpoint to get help. It sure was a moment when I was proud of my husband! We thought we had an easy road from CP3 to 4, just getting through a village, but after the village path, there was still a whole meadow we had to get through. Tough man.

 

Well, the worst is over. Day 4 was the previous day. Yesterday at 8am, we started on our long march - the 80 km trek. We started at 8.30am yesterday and managed to get back to camp by 10.30am this morning. It was super duper long man.. I've never walked so much at a go before, sleeping only 1 - 2 hours at one of the checkpoints. It went by so fast it's almost unbelievable we did it. 6 of us Singaporeans/Malaysians walked together - Chunyan, Michael, Meng Poh, Huan Kiat, Getty and I. It was just non stop walking and trudging over mainly gravel and stones, but they were kind enough to give us a short stretch of soft grass - a real relief to our aching and blistered feet. We got so bored to one point that Getty and I started singing marching and campfire songs just to keep pace and keep ourselves entertained. We composed our own lyrics and sang about our pain and experiences.

 

This is a sample of one of the songs, it's to the tune of an army song, not sure if those who have been through NS will find it familiar.

 

"Trekking in the Gobi

Once in my life

6 days of my life

Walking with my wife

 

Have you ever wondered

What else can you do

With $2900

Times TWO.....HEY!

 

There were really a couple of really good ones that described our pain, but can't remember them now, creative juices only flow when in pain.. Maybe we should compile some CD. Hehe..   

 

We moved pretty fast for the first 5 CPs, reaching CP5 (the 50km mark) by 9.30pm, just 11hrs after we started. We rested there for a while, had dinner, and Chunyan and Michael decided to set off first, leaving at 11pm for the next leg in the dark. The rest of us decided to get some sleep and leave at 1am. We had to reach camp by noon the next day, and so we thought 9hrs would be more than enough for us to get through 30km. The next leg really took us by surprise, it was a trek through a riverbed, which had uneven gravel, big and small stones and pokey shrubs. It would have been challenging already in the day, but we were doing it in complete darkness! We replied solely on our lousy headlamps and torches from

Beach Road

. Advice to anyone thinking of attempting this - get brighter torches, no point stinging and buying cheap stuff, they don't work very well. After 4 miserable hours of stumbling over rocks and near twists/sprains of the ankles, we reach CP6. The volunteers and medical staff there were really great and they told us to rest till daylight before we attempted the next stage as there was more riverbed. According to regulations, the only CP we could sleep at was CP5, but we were glad they allowed us to sleep for about an hour at CP6 before setting off. Chunyan and Michael were also at CP6 resting as they figured ti was too dangerous to attempt the next riverbed in the dark, after finishing the last leg also in about 4 hrs. Such riverbeds would usually take about 2 hrs in daylight, but in the dark, it was so slow and frustrating coz you couldn't see very far and couldn't see the route markers clearly.

 

So, we set off again at about 6.40am from CP6 and hurried on as we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to reach camp by noon and not earn our finishers' medals. The last 2 legs were ok. Our feet were screaming from the blisters and trudging on stones but we perservered, knowing the end was near. Surprisingly, we managed to cover the remaining 20km in just under 4 hrs and reached back to camp at 10.30am. Finally! we've nearly completed the race!!!! Tomorrow, we only have another 14 km to go, so today it's just eat and rest - a luxury man. We've heard that after the 14km tomorrow, there's going to be pizzas and coke and the end!! =) A real treat after days of maggie mee with sand. hehe..

 

Alright, not sure if we will get a chance to blog again tomorrow, but the journey is pretty much over already. Will be sharing the photos and videos when we get back, then you will really be able to understand the pain man, it's really painful.

 

Eleanor Chia, l

Hi all, yesterday was rough! Was so tired that we didn't even bother blogging, just ate our dinner and went straight to bed. It was really pure toture - the terrain was super rough, it was like walking for 10 hours over foot reflexology paths! Everyday, we have 4 checkpoints (CPs) with approximately 10k between each checkpoint. getting to the first 2 CPs weren't so bad, but getting to CP3 and finally CP4 (camp) was pretty bad. To make it worse I twisted my ankle after the 1st checkpoint (CP1), and strained my calf muscle becase I was trying not to exert pressure on the ankle. After CP2, I think I didn't eat enough food and didn't drink enough, and so had a terrible headache. Getty was doing better yesterday, he could still return to camp (CP4) with a smile. I returned to camp feeling nauseous and aching all over.
Today was much better, ankle's feeling better. Calf muscles have also stretched out, and I returned to camp feeling pretty good. Getty wasn't doing too bad either. Today's route was difficult though, up and down countless hills, super hot sun, didn't even have the mood to take many photos. But at least we're done with Day 2. Will try to update again tomorrow. Tomorrow (stage 3)'s supposed to be a relatively easy day, but stage 4 is going to be tough. Not looking forward to Stage 5, the super long march of 80km. The 40km per day is already killing me! Well, will take a day at a time, a checkpoint at a time.

We have 2 hours before we set off for the campsite. Kashgar was interesting, we had arrived early so we could spend a day looking around and eating some local food.

We're having some trouble uploading our photos so will try to do so at the campsite.

See you at the Gobi Desert!! =)

 

Hi all,

This is truly the beginning as I have never blogged about anything before. But the Gobi March is definitely a good place to start.=)

Many of you have asked me, why decide to put myself through such torture. Well, I'm always up for a challenge, and think that this is something that you should do before you're tied down with kids. I was also greatly inspired by my friend and teammate who started walking for the Sahara Race, ran and came in 11th for the Acactema Race, will be running in this Gobi March and has already signed up for the Antartica one! Kah Shin, really salute you man!

Anyhow, hope all of you should know by now that we are also trying to raise funds to support a couple of charities through this race. You may find out a bit more by visiting http://www.whatisthesight.com/gobimarch/. Do continue sending in the donations as we are marching through the Gobi, your support is very much appreciated!

Well, nothing much to show at the moment, except this pic of me and my teammates training at Bukit Timah.

Stay tuned for more pics of me and my teammates on the Gobi March. We'll show you our tired feet and bursting blisters! =P