Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
my bag, which contained clothes and precious letters from Brooke and
Dillon, and my reading glasses. It's distressing to have been robbed,
and losing the letters breaks my heart, but I'm philosophical about it.
People here have nothing. To them, our bashed-up old Winnebago was
a luxury vehicle, and they wanted to help themselves to whatever was
inside. It happens. I expected to be robbed in Mexico, El Salvador or
Nicaragua, not in Peru, but there you go.
We have no police escort in this country, but the cops show up at
the end of the day to make sure that we camp in a safe area. Last night
we parked on the side of the road, but they told us to do so would be
dangerous and made us move to outside the police station.
october 25
Occasionally the road veers towards the coast, and I see the Pacific
Ocean, which always does my heart good.
I learned today that Peruvians eat guinea pigs. Pork is also a
favourite dish. In the towns, we've seen pig carcasses hanging from
hooks in the street, and locals are allowed to come along with a knife
and hack off a chunk of flesh, take it home to their shack and cook it
over an open fire. Weirdly, for all the raw meat out in the sun, there are
no flies.
Doing 90 kilometres a day is tough. I try to get 30 kilometres under
my belt as early as possible, then have a short rest before launching
out for a further 50, which I try to achieve by late afternoon. The final
10 or 15 kilometres are killers. Sometimes I eat dinner while running
the final 5 kilometres, so I can crash as soon as I stop running, sleep for
as long as possible and get up and do it all again the next day.
Greg is flying from his base in Los Angeles to meet me in Lima
in ten days' time. We'll be having a crisis meeting over the South Pole
transport. The organising company, ALE (Antarctic Logistics and
Expeditions), guide Eric Philips and the cameraman are insisting that
we have a big expensive six-wheel drive ice vehicle that they can fol-
low me in as I run. It would undoubtedly make their life easier. The
problem is that the particular vehicle they want will cost as much
as $350,000 to rent, I've discovered. For God's sake—you can buy a
Maserati for $350,000 . . .
and keep it!
My idea is to use skidoos, which
will be hard work but cheaper and available in late December, when
