Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
camping and fishing with my father at Bermagui on the south coast of
New South Wales when my siblings and I were kids. The stars were vivid
then, too, and over us in the deep-blue, unpolluted sky was the sauce-
pan. My six brothers and sisters and I would lie on the beach around a
fire, happy and tired after a day's fishing and swimming, and we would
drift off to sleep, safe and secure in our father's love.
november 20
On this run there have been good days and there have been bad days—
and today was one of the worst days. I stopped running at 11.30 pm. I
am beyond exhausted and have been burned to a crisp after seemingly
endless hours under a desert sun blazing out of a cloudless sky.
I began the day at 4.30 am and was feeling terrific. I was determined
to save maybe 30 or 40 kilometres by leaving the highway and taking a
shortcut across the desert. The bliss that lingered from last night's star
gazing did not survive the first couple of hours of running.
I set off wearing an old fishing hat with protective flaps on the
back and sides (I don't give a damn
about how I look anymore) and
scrambled for an hour and a half
up a 1500-metre mountain to
reach the desert plateau above.
The terrain in this part of Chile
is different from that of Peru: it
is still desert, but instead of sand
dunes there are mountain ranges
of biblical proportions—the types
of mountains Moses would have
climbed to collect the Ten Com-
mandments! When I reached the
plateau, I began running.
The sun came up and I
knew it was going to be terribly
hot. I wasn't unduly concerned,
though, because I would be
rendezvousing with the crew in
the vans on the highway after
