How I know I won't die laughing...

I have now accepted an invitation to go hiking with a friend and his friends in the Magoebaskloof this coming holiday. I have a mere 28 days to get myself hiking fit, before I find myself looking at uphill after uphill with a large burden strapped to my back. People do this for fun you know.

I sense this hike is a lot like studying for a Latin exam.You can't really cram for a Latin test. There is no way one can learn all that vocabulary in one night including all the declensions. I know this because I have tried. Puella ...Puellarum...oh heck look at all the Pooh-I -am-in....You see? You can't cram fitness either.

Let me put you in the picture of the physical shape I am in. I am sporting an extra 20 kg's - weight that I have put  on in the last three years, like the extended version of "Eat, Pray, Love..."( Elizabeth Gilbert) I certainly have spend a lot of time at eat...and I figure this hike will certainly set me firmly on the path of PRAY..pray, I make it out alive, pray my knees hold me and I just don't go tumbling backwards down the slope as my backpack unends me. I have never been one for travelling light. 

It will be an austere version of Elizabeth Gilbert's quest for self -enlightenment which finds the author in some Indian monastery having taken a vow of silence and meditating whilst being devoured by mosquitoes. Pray!

I can almost hear you asking yourself , "Why?" Good question. Well? I don't know, but something in me says,perhaps this hike will lead to more and take me closer to the lifestyle I yearn for, an active, cleaner healthier way to be. In other words I feel compelled to do this. It may propel me in the direction of LOVE, not the romantic, love, but a LOVE for life. One step further on the happiness ladder.