YJ International Newsletter 2004 Vol 18 No 01

Author(s): Young Jains (UK)
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 18

Ain't No Mountain High Enough
By Hasmita Shah
aving registered an interest in doing the Jain Spirit challenge as a family, and putting in
some training over the coming months, we felt we were ready for the challenge when the day of reckoning finally arrived. We went up to Yorkshire the day before but the traffic was horrendous all the way and we barely managed to get some dinner before the talk and briefing.
found it really tiring and found I could barely breathe. The hay fever season was in full force and the heavy early morning air led to an acute asthma problem. I was lagging behind the others. I was also carrying lots of drinks having brought lots of fresh frozen lemon juices from home for nourishment. I decided I could not keep up with my group and said I'd join another group. It wasn't really necessary since there were so many walkers from other organisations as well that it was like ants proceeding up and down the hill.
The briefing by Dave, the leader of the Yorkshire Group whose team was to look after us during the walk was a complete shock. He told us that this was probably the hardest thing we would ever do in our lives- harder than the national 3 peaks challenge! He reckoned that around 30% would give up after the first hill and more after the second. There was no shame in this he added since it was a difficult challenge. Small comfort indeed!
I'm not sure how but I finally got up the hill - the view from above was a little disappointing as it was quite foggy but you still got a sense of how high you'd climbed. That motivated me! However, I was seriously wondering how I was going to complete this challenge. When descending I met Dave who walked with me for a while as I was not with any Group. I told him how tired. I was and was wondering whether I could actually do this. To my surprise he told me how well I'd done and told me to carry on. He said he was surprised at the speed at which we'd climbed the first hill and said we were all doing really well. This was the type of motivation I needed!
Outwardly we put on a brave face, but inwardly doubt crept in. Had I trained enough? What if it started raining? We didn't get to bed till around midnight due to the excitement, and anxiety. We were staying in a converted barn and were supposed to be up around 4.30am. No chance of any sleep though as the bunk beds were not the most comfortable and creaked every time anyone tossed or turned. Not the ideal way to start off the hardest challenge of my life! I was relieved when it was finally time to get up. The cold shower did the trick of awakening all my senses and following breakfast we set off to Horton from where we were supposed to start.
The volunteers were doing a splendid job of keeping the motivation going...
We had a refreshment stop at the bottom of the first hill and to my surprise my group came in after me as they'd taken a wrong turn! And I'd thought it was impossible to get lost!
Before we set off, Jatinbhai gave a wonderful motivational speech to spur us on and recited the navkar mantra. Unfortunately the field where we were all standing was invaded by midgets which kept biting us and getting into our mouth when we were saying the navkar mantra. We were literally itching to get away.
There were 80 of us and we'd been put into groups to stagger the start times. There was however only a minute's difference between one group and the next and so some of the groups merged and split differently depending on the pace of individuals. We started at around 6.30am and after about 15 minutes of walking, we started ascending up Penys Ghent, the first hill. This was when my problems started.
I decided to walk at my own pace rather than with any group as there were enough people there that could talk to and meet on the way. The next five miles were pretty much on flat tarmac which I found fairly easy. At the next refreshment stop we were given lots of fresh oranges with salt along with lots of drinks and snacks. The volunteers were doing a splendid job of keeping the motivation going along with providing anything else we needed. Just the kind of tonic you needed to keep you going.
The walk up to Whernside had been described by Dave as a drag. It was around 6 miles of walking up
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