Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
will disband. Katie and Bernie will return to Australia with Brooke and
Dillon, and Gustavo and Juan to Mexico. I'd like Bernie and Katie to
return to be with me for the final running leg to the southern tip of
South America in late January, but that will depend on whether I can
afford to pay for their airfares back. I may have to hire a car and do the
seven- or eight-day run with local Red Cross volunteers. We'll decide
all that in the coming weeks. First I have to make it to the South Pole.
That will be no mean feat. Many before me have tried and paid the
ultimate price.
december 4
In the past few days we've passed through some cities and towns—
Copiapó, Vallenar, Coquimbo—then worked our way back into the
desert. Happily, this desert is not as barren as the others I've run
through recently, although there's still a very strong wind blowing,
and I have to shield my face from the dust. Here, there are green
shrubs, goats, wild donkeys and tiny villages of farm workers and
miners. There are copper mines everywhere. The mines are a bless-
ing, because they make serious money for the country, but the way
the companies are allowed to dispose of residue, dumping it in the
ocean, is a disgrace.
lucky 33
Some 45 kilometres north of Copiapó, in the Atacama desert,
was the site of the mining accident of August 5, 2010, when 33
miners and support crew were trapped 700 metres underground
after a cave-in. At first no hope was held for the men, and the
nation, still recovering from the terrible earthquake and tsunami
of five months earlier, was plunged into a new round of mourning.
Then,amiracle:after66days,oneoftheexploratorydrills
returnedtothesurfacewithanoteattached:'Wearewellinthe
shelter . . . The 33.' After 69 days in the depths of the earth, on
October 13 all of the men were rescued. As I looked at the site of
the now-abandoned mine, which was closed by the government, I
thought what a resilient lot the Chileans are, and I draw strength
from them as I run through their country.
