He had the privilege of being the
expedition Physiotherapist for the trek.
There were several injuries along the
way such as an ankle inversion and Illio-Tibial Band compression syndrome (sore
knees).
He even ended up providing
Physiotherapy for other teams on the trek.
Day One:
An uphill battle to say the
least. There were some amazing views along the way, including hot pools, steam
vents and rainbow coloured mountains! After the walk, during which we gained
some serious altitude, we stayed the night at a small communal mountain hut. On
arrival to our huts, we unpacked and together walked up to a stunning viewpoint
where we were able to see not only 18 of the 20 glaciers in Iceland, but the
biggest glacier in Europe! Sadly, that night the weather turned from beautiful
sunshine to high winds and rain.
Day Two:
The back end of Hurricane
Dorian made our walk even more physically challenging! We will never forget the
experience of walking through, on average, 65 mile per hour winds and the
heaviest of rain. We were all battered and beat on the tops and found out that
waterproof means something different in Iceland. As you’d expect, we didn’t see
much except the floor due to the weather and very loose footing! In the evening
we stopped in a Lakeside hut, with gorgeous views we took in the next morning.
Day Three:
Still wet and windy, after
packing up and striking out we walked through the Black Desert which was a long
and seemingly endless walk. The ground was made from sandy, volcanic materials
making it challenging to walk on. However, we were able to numb the walking
pains temporarily as we completed a number of river crossings throughout the
day.
I was initially concerned about one
of the Trekkers whose ankle was strapped and was given poles to assist with
walking. We all pushed through to get to our mountain hut. The amazing views
once again made up for our sore and exhausted bodies.
Day Four:
With on and off rain, we
undertook our longest day of walking. To begin, we made a slight detour to see
an extraordinary canyon not far from were we had stopped the night before!
Making our way back to camp and then through the mountains, team morale and
encouragement was high as we pushed through with the charity constantly in the
back of our minds. With emotions running high, we summoned several peaks as the
valleys got greener and completed our final river crossing of the trip. Wading
through glacial water in the Porsmork valley, we were determined the make it to
the end. After not too long, we had our final mountain hut in sight, which laid
nestled in a lush valley of birch woodland. Dropping down through the thick
vegetation, we had finally made it to our final mountain hut to rest and
reflect on the challenge.
Day Five:
After a celebratory sleep,
we decided to summit one last breathtaking view point before getting the bus
home. With outstanding 360° views, we looked back once again on the challenges,
unforgiving terrain, horrendous weather and absolutely breath-taking sights we
saw over the last 4 days. Our last view was graced with two beautiful glaciers,
two powerful volcanoes and a wide, gorgeous river delta heading out towards the
sea.
Day 6:
A well deserved trip to
Iceland’s legendary Blue Lagoon was the perfect way to recover from the walking.
What a challenge, what a trek, what
an amazing group of people! It is important to acknowledge that we couldn’t
have done it without each other, but equally not to forgot the importance of
why we did this challenge.
We all took on this challenge to
support i2gether - a charity set up to give young vulnerable adults the help
they need to become who they aspire to be.
From hard backgrounds of physical,
sexual and mental abuse, i2gether give them opportunities to experience new
positive challenges to help them improve their lives.
For our group, this challenge was
hard and affected us all in different ways, but we still need your help.
Our
challenge might be over, but their challenge is not! Any donation counts! We
need your support so using the link below, donate today!
In
the news this week is the remarkable story of 54 year old Neil Parker in Australia who
crawled for two days after falling down a water fall and fracturing his leg and wrist.
"Straight away, I thought,
'I'm now in a lot of trouble because no one knows where I am.”
"What took me 40 minutes to walk up took me nearly two days to crawl back down."
Parker
said painkillers and protein bars he had packed for his hike on the Cabbage
Tree Creek trail had helped him survive the painful and painstaking journey.
He
said he use hiking poles as a splint and then began
"scrambling and
lifting, inch-by-inch"
to get two miles to a clearing where he could be
spotted.
Mount Nebo is
20 miles from Brisbane in Australia.
What should have been a pleasurable hike turned into the fight of his life as Neil crawled for 2 days.
This
is why should you NEVER trek alone and preferably take a Physio with you when
trekking.
Neil Parker, the Bulletproofbodies Team salute your survival skills. However, next time take your Physio.
Dale from
Bulletproofbodies is taking on this challenge to support
i2gether
- a charity set up to
give young vulnerable looked after adults the help they need to become who they
aspire to be.
From hard backgrounds of physical, sexual and mental abuse we
give them opportunities to experience new positive challenges to help them
improve their lives.
One such person is Liberty who is taking on this
challenge, see his story below:
i2gether are a collective of like-minded individuals who have come together to
change the lives of young vulnerable people.
Together we educate, mentor and guide them to the brighter futures they deserve.
We have seen the difference that we can make to young people lives, mentally and developmentally.
This trek of more than
100km over 4 days over rugged terrain will be, self-sufficient, self-guided in
a country we don't know, carrying everything we need on our backs and staying
in basic mountain huts with only the basics to live off.
We aim to all come back
in one piece having smashed our fundraising target and learnt a lot about
our own abilities.
I2getheruk support each individual with a bespoke progression to independence
programme PIP which takes them from where we find them ( homeless, isolated,
abused) and guides them through becoming independent , giving them skills for
life, self belief , confidence and a path to further education and employment.
Please click on the link below and sponsor us with this challenge:
