South america - Pole to Pole - page 233

there was torrential rain and flooding. The soggy conditions caused
atoeinfectionandotherbitsandpieces.TheDariénwasabloody
tough gig.
KS: Doesitgetanyeasierinthenextfewweeks?
PF: I'm looking forward to Peru next. I'll be running close to the
west coast, so I'll be near my beloved Pacific Ocean. I'll be away
from the high altitudes I've been running in.
KS: Keep charging, my friend.
october 21
Greg Quail and Bernie have devised a schedule for the end of my trek.
The plan now, although it could always change, is that on December
29 I will fly to the ice from Punta Arenas, in the south of Chile. Brooke
and Dillon are arriving on December 10 and will spend Christmas with
me before I depart. The Nine Network is planning to film us as part of
a Christmas Day special. I must be at the South Pole by January 18 and
will fly back out on January 19. That will get me home by around Janu-
ary 22 or 23, just before Brooke's birthday on January 24 and Australia
Day on January 26. Those two dates mean the world to me. That's why
I must run 90 kilometres a day now and a daunting 50 kilometres a day
on the Antarctic ice.
Reading back over this, I worry that I'm sounding repetitive, but
repetition is my lot. I run, I sleep, I run . . . There is no time to do any-
thing else except deal with the pain.
Only one more day's running to go in Ecuador and then we're in
Peru!