40 Days of Running - Zap!

For six years now I've been playing an annual pre-birthday game where I have to run everyday for the consecutive number of days of the age that I'm turning; with the last day on my birthday.

With organising Forest Run in May (and spending 10-hour days cutting trails in the week before the event and sleeping three hours a night) and then jetting off to Chile for 3.5 weeks, nailing my game this year was unrealistic.

I returned from Chile on Thursday last week and began my '40 Days of Running' the next day.

With five days done, my legs are settling in. I've been so erratic in my running training this year and thus my commitment to these 40 days is really what the running doctor ordered.

Yesterday, Day 5, also included a few kilometres of paddling on the Vaal River from our paddling club. Clear sky, good wind, vegetated islands, sparkling expanse of water... beautiful and uplifting.

In addition, I'm constantly beating myself up about yoga, which I love but rarely do. A number of years ago I got into Ashtanga yoga and loved the difficulty and challenge of it. When the studio closed, I would occasionally self practice - but never much and never enough.

So I've added sun salutations, standing postures and finishing sequence to my post-run programme - not every day, but most. After all the driving and flying, my body was craving a good stretch and after only a few days I'm already feeling better for it.

Doing a shoulder stand in Chile was the kick I needed to make yoga a regular part of my training again.

Forests and fairies

How is this for a hoot!

Chris Hunter, a Forest Run follower on FB, wrote this post this morning: 

"Ok folks, I'm the village idiot. Can you believe that for a number of weeks now I have tried to understand the relationship between the Forest Run and people dressing up as fairies.

So, on Saturday morning, while eaves dropping in on a conversation between a mum and her 4-year-old daughter, I realised my mistake... "Fairies live in the forest mum... dah!" 

Need I say more? So now my world is a perfect place once again and saved by a 4 year old..."

And there I thought that everyone knew that fairies lived in forests...

Fabulous turning forty

We celebrated my 40th birthday in style today with a wonderful walk around a volcano crater (Raihuen), through the crater and with views of volcanoes all around. It would be hard to get better than this!

We stayed on Friday night (and tonight) in a cabaña on Lago Puyehue, near the town of Entre Lagos.

Late morning we drove to the Antillanca ski resort through the most spectacular forests. From about 30km before the park we could already see the clouds clearing and as we climbed upwards and upwards we were graced with blue skies and wispy high clouds. Below it was 2°C but up at the resort, in the sun and above the clouds, it was probably 8 or 9°C.

There is next to no snow around at the moment - no skiing is happening. It is a walker's paradise.

The area around Volcan Casablanca is complex - a bunch of cones and craters as well as the volcano itself. There must have been a lot of volcanic activity here at some stage.

We walked the 3km road to the Raihuen Crater and then enjoyed trails to the top of two 'cones'. From both of these the views were spectacular! We saw Volcan Orsono (the one that looks over Puerto Varas) as well as Volcan Puntiagudo and Volcan Puyehue. From this angle I'm not sure if we saw Volcan Calbuco too, which we saw beautifully yesterday when leaving Puerto Varas. There were some other snow-capped peaks visible but I'm not sure that they were volcanoes. Still, seeing and identifying four volcanoes on a birthday afternoon... what a win!

We walked halfway down the crater, descending down what looks like old lava flow from an eruption of Volcan Casablanca. And then we walked across the crater. Absolutely magical experience.

We had a delicious dinner at the small restaurant attached to the place where we're staying.

We haven't eaten out much so this was a treat. We've found restaurant food to be very expensive but also very good. Celliers has really spoilt me for my 40th birthday. 

Tomorrow we continue heading northwards and will pass through the small 'cities' of Orsono and Valdivia. We'll probably stay near Valdivia for Sunday night and then closer to Santiago for Monday night. We fly out Tuesday afternoon.

Ferry riding and northward travelling

We've had two days of travelling to get back from Futaleufú to Puerto Varas.

The first leg of our journey started with a 150km drive from Futaleufú to Chaitén. It was a bit rainy and very overcast - fine for travel. We took it slowly on the slick roads and enjoyed what we could see of the scenery through thick cloud. We love how small bands of cloud just seem to sit in the middle of a slope or a patch that just hovers above trees.

We got a puncture! Totally fluke as the dirt roads are so good here. A sharp stone - shaped like a stone tool flint - pierced through the tread. We used the skinny spare, one of those smaller ones that you can't do more than 80km/hr, to get us to Chaitén. We found a mechanic in town. Interestingly, he used a patch on the inside of the tyre and not a plug. Maybe they don't  know about plugs out here? The patch seems to be holding up just fine.

We had the late afternoon in Chaitén so we walked along the massive and wide beach, checking out stones and driftwood. My theory about the wood is that this part was actually vegetated and maybe the vegetation died in the volcano explosion of 2008? There is so much wood lying around there.

I'm really glad we had clear weather to see the volcanoes and glacier on our trip down when we first hit Chaitén. This time there was such thick cloud we would never have known they were there! 

On Thursday morning we presented ourselves at the ferry at 08h30, as instructed. We're really impressed with the efficiency and punctuality of the ferries. And we love watching huge articulated trucks reversing on to them.

This was a cushy ferry and we grabbed front seats with massive windows looking out. I did some reading (busy with 'The Seed Collector') and some snoozing. We also enjoyed seal sightings - lying on the surface in small groups with their flippers visible and also 'dolphin-diving' ahead of the ferry. No dolphins. Loads of birds. Before we set off from Chaitén we enjoyed watching large pelicans on the water. They are so big!

We had spectacular weather and calm sea so the trip was a smooth nine hours directly to Puerto Montt (a brief stop in Aycara to offload and onload people).

From outside of Puerto Montt we had cell signal so we found a place to stay in Puerto Varas for the night. Turns out it is owned by a South African guy (from Bassonia - Jhb south) and his Chilean girlfriend. He came here four years ago for a software development job and stayed. We recognised his accent after a few words. Hahaha

We are heading a bit North (once we get ourselves moving!) to a place on Lago Puyehue. It is within close distance of a town called Entre Lagos and some great hiking trails in the nearby park. There is also a ski resort closeby. We've booked for two nights.

Tomorrow is my birthday. My lips don't quite want to form the word f.o.r.t.y... Yip, I  am turning 40 tomorrow. It used to seem so... old... and yet I still feel 24. That is certainly what counts more.

My 40 days of running has not been. We've had great days with long hikes and other days full of driving. I'm going to do a restart when we get back to really enjoy my annual game.

From my last day in my 30s... see you on the other side.