Fish River Canyon Day 4

There is something about sleeping under the stars, something Primal. That's another Primal Rule: get lots of sleep and I think we did on the hike. Other than the light of the campfire, your body lets you know that you should go to sleep when it gets dark. I love that!

Progress!!

I think day 4 was the day we all realised it was going to be ok and we were going to make it. Perhaps it was the big 40 and 50km signs we walked passed, or the fact that nothing much had gone wrong, and we were fit and strong, but by day 4 we were more relaxed. The scenery was amazing, as was every other day. The food was working mostly well for Renalda and I. At this stage the canyon had widened out nicely, and if you took the inside of the bend it felt like you were taking big shortcuts and making massive progress, but each one of these bends also took you far away from the river and reminded one once again that this is a desert! But when you got back to the river, it always invited you in for a swim!

More Progress!!

Amazing intrusions into the rock, like God was mixing playdough

I just had to take a pic of a dead tree...not a terribly good one

Signs of Humanity

The river clay is baked hard into blocks that can be lifted, neither of us had seen it like you see in the movies.

This is definitely a desert

By then end of day four and after sleeping in the sand for the first three nights, we had learned that cold hard rock is better than warmer sand. So when we got to the campsite for that night we decided that the best place to sleep was on the cement weir. And I think I slept the bast that night so far. It's interesting how you get used to sleeping out, in a sleeping bag with nothing but fresh air around you. But the hard ground definitely helped and there is no question about it in the future. If there is no soft grass, hard ground or rock wins hands down.

Our bed for night 4 in the bottom right

Hiking with Central Serous Retinopathy

I've never thought of myself as a stressed out person, but it seems that perhaps I am. I thought I'd put this in between the Fish River posts because I had it while hiking and I had my second test today. More on that later.

I'd had a really busy few months running up to the Fish River, with trying to be fit enough, organising suitably primal food, travelling for work and travelling for friends and family weddings, I hadn't spent much time relaxing in the passed 6 months. I'm not complaining about having a busy time, I quite enjoy it, but on some level it seems my body does not like it.

I arrived back from my cousin's wedding in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday and left for Namibia that same Saturday. Truth be told I had noticed a visual oddity on Thursday or Friday and "watched" it move slowly from the bottom left of my centre of vision. I briefly considered going to a doctor, but with the possibility of not being able to hike I decided to chance a week in the middle of nowhere with an eye that was misbehaving. I thought it couldn't be particularly bad.

As the hike progressed the visual impairment grew over my centre of vision, but I didn't allow it to worry me too much, I'd deal with it when I got home. I didn't want to leave all the diving back to Pretoria to Renalda, so I didn't tell her about it. The Monday I returned I went straight to a doctor, who referred me straight to an ophthalmologist. A barrage of tests later, I was diagnosed with Central Serous Retinopathy, which is a temporary detachment of the retina due to fluid build up behind it. the laser profile picture are quite revealing, when comparing the normal eye to the bad one. It's like there is a blister where my retina should attach to the back of my eye!

Anyway, the doctor said it was stress related and that it should go away in about 3 months, but that I should come back in 6 weeks. Today was that return visit. I'm quite sure that before last week my eye was on the heal, but one relatively rushed proposal later and I noticed the shape of the disturbance changing again, growing. So today the laser profile pics confirmed that, while it has improved significantly it is far from fixed. The doctor feels that laser surgery is an option as the fluid leak originates away from the centre of vision, but he wants to wait for another 6 weeks before going that route. So in 6 weeks I will know more.

In the mean time I've asked my boss if I can work from home, and I guess I should speak to someone about the way I handle stress...

Fish River Day 3

The third day started at the Sulphur pools. As I said in the previous post, some of the group relaxed in the pools in the morning. Renalda and I decided to head off early and have breakfast at the first stop, but we kept ahead of the group for way too long, so we stopped in the river bed to make breakfast and wait for people to join us. Not before we saw some more fantastic scenery and some wild horses!!

Tons of dead still water in the river, reflecting the cliffs in the morning

The illusive wild horses apparently descended from German occupation forces

This is what a real pothole should look like

  We were able to cook before everyone arrived and were visited by some baboons while waiting. When Cath, the doctor joined us she experimented with our “Staal drupple” home remedy for blisters… it was apparently agony! I fined Ian for leaving some oats-so-easy packets at the camp site.

Another thing I should mention is that I’d planned to hike most of the river in my Vibram 5 Fingers, but I carried 1.6kg worth of boots in case! I have a pair of Bakila LS’s and they were awesome. Mostly excellent grip and no blisters, it gives an added dimension to the hike. I had done a significant amount of training with them and my feet were tough enough. Please don’t just go and hike in them, rather ease into barefoot hiking. You get to feel the terrain underfoot, sand is soft, sharp stones poke you, your feet curl around round stones. After a day of walking it feels like your feet are tired, but the next morning they are fine again. Sand did bother me a bit, and I wore my boots one of the days because I got the Vibrams wet. But after a while the sand didn’t bother me much, I just stopped and emptied them.

Baboon prints

Ian doing pushups for his fine

At this stage some of the group, including us, were worried about getting to the end on time, because it seemed like we were dawdling a bit, so we pushed really hard that day. With two people struggling bad boots and most people having some blisters we were exhausted at the end of the day, but found a fantastic campsite in between a bunch of wind breaking trees. 

We had our dehydrated supper, and watched in amazement as Cath brought out ingredients for a fantastic Thai curry wrap meal! And Liquorice alsorts dessert.  

I guess the next primal rule we can mention is to move a lot, but slowly. What could be better than hiking to live up to this primal rule, but I’ve realised I have 5 posts to talk about Mark Sisson’s 10 primal rules, so I’ll throw in, getting some sunlight everyday as another rule. Unfortunately in my daily life it is very difficult to get this right. Office life does not allow....I'd rather be hiking.

Fish River Canyon Day 2

Unfortunately it does get a bit fuzzy as the hike was more than 6 weeks ago, so I'm using the pictures to jog my memory. Day 2 was still deep within the canyon and there were many rocks to clamber over. It was slow going, but if I'm not mistaken, it ended at the sulphur pools, which was not recommended in the guide, but it was actually awesome. What wind there was, was merciful in its direction so we didn't smell much of the sulphur while camping.

If anything the spring water was too hot making it necessary to sit at the interface between the cold river water and the hot spring water. But it was luxury for the tired bodies. Some of the group woke up early the next morning to lie in the hot water before we set off.

I'm trying to follow Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint, so all the food we packed was high protein and high fat, with a lot of dehydrated veggies thrown in. I mentioned Primal Rule 6: Play in a previous post, but this was Primal Rule 1: eat lots of meat and vegetables (and avoid starches). It worked very well, I never felt the need for energy drinks or sugar sweets.

We had dehydrated eggs and bacon, which we rehydrated and ate for breakfast to the cereal eaters dismay every morning. Some mornings we ate eggs with canned mussels, try it! Fantastic! Lunch was fatty biltong (dried meat) or droewors (dried sausage) with nuts and dried fruit, it never gets tired. Supper was mixed dehydrated veggies with either dehydrated mince or tuna from a sachet. These menus could do with some work, and knowing how much we are capable of carrying (and what our fellow hikers carried) may make the menu choices a bit more exciting next time.

Four of our fellow hikers held an internal cooking competition! Night 1 was filet steak. I think night 2 was macaroni and cheese. I'll try to add their meals in in the next posts, but it was really yummy fresh food.

Morning in the canyon, dead still river pools of sweet water

Me and my bokkie, Renalda and I'm wearing boots... more on that in the next post

Ebony and Ivory living together in perfect harmony

But don't forget this is a desert

Fish River Hike - Run up and Day 1

I should have posted about this ages ago, but didn't so here I go. Hiking the Fish River Canyon in Namibia has always been a dream for me. It is the second largest canyon in the world, after the Grand Canyon in the US. The hike is only possible during the winter months when the river level is low enough and the temperature is cool.
Before late 2011 early 2012 I would never have thought it possible that I could do it. It's a very inhospitable environment. For much of the hike the only reasonable exit possibility is via helicopter, so you need to be quite certain you are fit and strong enough to complete it without putting your fellow hikers at risk. Having the medical condition I do I never believed it safe for me to do it. That has changed.
When a friend from Cape Town put out the call on Facebook that there was a possibility, I decided to do it, no questions. As it go nearer to the date of the hike in early August, Renalda (my girlfriend) and I started doing regular day hikes around Pretoria to make sure we were fit enough, taking heavier and heavier packs with us on the hikes. I also hiked most of the training hikes in my Vibram Five Fingers, which were awesome.
As we drove to Namibia the weekend before the 5 night hike, I started to feel like I had a head cold. This did not go away and with people talking about others not going because they had a cold, I got a sinking feeling that I should not do the hike. However, having a doctor and a pharmacist on the hike had it's perks, and they convinced me that I would be fine and should come.
We decided to take the bus to the lookout point and make the decision at the point of no return. As we got closer to canyon country I caught glimpses of the cliff faces we would be walking below. Once we arrived and after seeing the majesty of the canyon, there was no choice. We started down into the canyon.

So 10 of us started the treacherous descent climbing down to the bottom of the 550m deep canyon. It took us just over 2 hours and we had lunch at the bottom, being pleasantly surprised at the volume of water still in the river. There was already a boot casualty when we got to the bottom and I learned why duct tape is a hiking essential. I was feeling mostly good, elated that I'd come, hoping that I hadn't been stupid and wondering if I'd have to use the exit.
There is an "exit" on day 2 which is actually a massive hike back out the canyon. If I got really sick either I, or someone else would need to hike out to get to help. I hoped it was not going to be needed.
We hadn't gone very far by the end of the first day because the terrain was rough with lots of boulders. Of course the sun sets below the the canyon wall quite early, so by about 5pm it was getting quite dark and it was very dark by 6. I was given antibiotics by the medics just in case. We found some firewood, had some supper, made a sandy bed and got to know our fellow hikers better over a sip of whiskey or whatever else got passed around.

Just an update

Since January my BMI has droppped to 23.2 and I weigh in at about 67kg. I've been ill for the past few weeks so I've not really done much exercise and have probably not eaten quite as I should. Before that I was up to 9 pullups. I'll need to do a bit of work to get there again, but I'm having no trouble slowly shedding the last bit of weight.

I'm dancing 2 or 3 times a week now, depending on socials on Fridays and I'm about to start playing a weekly game of Volleyball (Primal Law 6 - Play).

Vibram sprints

There's something about running uphill as fast as you can. I did some weekly sprints last year, but this was the first one I did this year so far. It was AWESOME. I bought myself some Vibram Five Fingers at the end of 2011 and I must admit I had some misgivings as they didn't fit perfectly to start with. My feet are really square and my small toe was really tight, however after a few walks they seem like a perfect fit now.

I was a bit ambivalent about using them today, but I'm glad I did. My previous sprints were done on flat ground, which is probably less safe than running uphill even if it takes more effort. I'll do hill sprints next week again.

I'm vaguely following the Primal Blueprint exercise program, but as encouraged, I'm not being very strict about it. It's been the most natural way to keep fit I've ever tried, I don't feel bad if I skip a workout. I only workout when I feel like it. I don't go to gym, I do pushups, squats, pullups and planks at home. I don't let myself get tired, when I start getting tired I stop. I don't do ANY distance running anymore, which I realise now made me very tired and was probably not suitable for someone with a cardiac history.... or anyone for that matter. I walk lots, and from yesterday, I dance once more. Can't think of any better way to keep fit!!

Different Goals

After my last post, I went for a cadioversion to fix my heart rythm and was put on cordarone again, a nasty rythm modifying drug. However, in conjunction with that a friend pointed me to a website about a different lifestyle idea. It's based on the premise that we should try to live as closely to how we lived before the agricultural revolution. No grains, processed foods or sugars, but copious amounts of organic vegetables, meat, fish, nuts and fruit. Basically, if you can pick it or kill it, it'll be good to eat.

Also ones exercise patterns would have been different, and this way of keeping fit seems to suit me well. Lot's of "slow moving", some heavy lifting, and some occasional sprinting. Guess what, I don't feel tired after workouts/runs anymore. I've been in sinus rythm since (currently with a much lower dose of drugs)

I did a body composition test in January 2010... I know a long time ago, but my weight hadn't varied much until I decided to lose it on purpose. At that stage I had 22.6% body fat, and a BMI of 28 which makes me obese. Currently I have 13.1% body fat and my BMI is 23.8. I'm feeling much stronger and fitter than I have in years as I'm carrying 12kg less weight around.

However I think I'd still like to loose some more fat and put on more muscle, what that means for my weight is difficult to say, but I suspect I'll settle at about 65kg.

Current goal? Have a picture of Mark with a six pack... just once in my life!

Cardiologist visit

I went to the cardiologist yesterday after feeling relatively crap for the passed few weeks. My heartrate went through the roof when I went for a run a few days ago, 200bpm through the roof. I thought that meant that my heartrate monitor was wrong, but yesterday I did a stress ecg on a treadmill and there it was 200bpm.

The doc has changed my meds, I'm now on 4mg coversyl daily, 5mg concor twice daily and 125mg digoxin daily... not to mention the ubiquitous warfarin.

It's such a pity because a month ago I was really feeling very strong, and was losing weight pretty steadily.

June Weight Chart

I thought I'd share my weight loss chart, thanks to the "Hacker's Diet" online tools. I always thought losing weight quickly was a bad idea, but actually, now that I'm busy trying to lose a significant amount of weight, I want to get this over and done with asap. As you can see I'm losing, on average 590g a week, which is significant. There is still a long way to go though.

On the road again

I stopped going to gym when my contract ran out. I didn't do much exercise for a while after that, except for a little walking and running around work. Anyway I'm thinking of training for another 21 with my girlfriend, except this time I'm gonna do it with about 10kg less wait. I've been losing weight for about 6 weeks now and am down by more than 5kg from 79.9 to 74.2, I'm hoping to get to a goal weight of 77.5kg. We are currently doing an 8 week program to running 5km. I'm hoping with new meds and less weight I will actually be able to run for longer at a time. We'll see how I feel, I'm still being very careful, watching my heart rate and listening to my body.

Not quite a mission

Over the passed few months I've gotten really unfit. Gym is really boring, but necessary. It was easier when there were people to talk to. So I've decided once more to cycle to work 3 times a week, it helps that I can now shower at the work gym. I had wanted to do the 94.7 but have a clash so I can't.

I'm also going to go to gym twice a week to do weights. I'll see if I'm alive by the end of the week, but I'd also like to swim once a week, so that would have to be on Saturday morning I guess... a few laps of the pool at gym.

I started the cycling yesterday, to work it took me 32 mins, the return trip was torture as I seem to live quite high up. That took me 45 mins, but I felt pretty good afterward. Of course when I got into bed at 9:30, which is earlier than usual for me, it was lights out. On the brighter side, waking up at 5:45 isn't so hard anymore.

I want to say things like "I hope I can keep it up", but I should be saying things like "I will keep this up". I just need to find another tangible goal to work towards, but losing 8kg is good enough for now. When I ran the Two Oceans I weighed about 74kg's. Now I weigh 82!! When I get back to that weight, I'll think of riding the Argus or doing the 94.7 again. So now it's going to back to boring blogging of exercise sessions I'm afraid.

Yes I did go to gym this morning, and I feel good for it. I only did two sets of my "full body" workout, I'll take that up to three next week, when I feel stronger.