Killing the Dragon...

I wrote the following blog about 3 weeks ago but was unsure as to whether or not I wanted to post it. Since then I’ve learnt that one of my nearest and dearest may be quite ill and it’s made me think about things a little more seriously and so I have decided to share the post. 

I had a really positive response to my last blog and for that I would like to say a big thank you. It has been a massive year. Full of ups and downs, ins and outs and for the most part, super positive. We have learnt, grown, made some fantastic new friends and had some downright rad experiences. Looking forward to 2015, I am really excited to see where our path leads us next. New adventures, different places, stronger bodies and minds and my health will be my number one focus this year. 

I have decided that 2015 will be the year I get off my meds and reverse the two autoimmune diseases. If I am going to spend my time on this earth as a dirtbag climber, and believe me I intend to, I can not be restricted by illness and medications. I know that Hashimotos can be reversed and I am just praying that I have not done too much damage to my fingers already to reverse the Raynauds also. It is going to take a lot of work and regular monitoring but I am confident I can make improvements. 

It has always worried me that during our adventures there will not always be a chemist around to fill my script nor a doctor to give it to me so I need to start getting serious about recovery. Ultimately I would love to go to Thailand and do a 28 day fast accompanied with cleansing, yoga and massage. That however would require about $5000 that I currently do not have so I would like to have a crack at getting well here at home first. Unless of course anyone has a spare $5K they want to donate ;) 

My main goal is just to get my fingers in the best condition they can be. Every climber knows and understands the importance of this. We are currently working a training program to increase finger strength which has been awesome and the results so far are insane. All of this is pointless however if I lose the feeling in my fingers mid climb and I can’t even bear down. 

These past few weeks have reaffirmed the absolute importance of staying healthy. Without our health, everything else lacks substance. You can have all the money in the world but if you don’t have the body to hold up to any of your dream adventures, what’s the point? In the same breath, people work 50, 60, 70+ hours a week to go on one great holiday or put away for their retirement fund; but if at the end of the day you don’t even have the energy to enjoy it, again, was it really worth the stress? I urge everyone to make 2015 the year of living for you. It is not selfish to put yourself first and look after number one when it ultimately means that you can then be a healthier, stronger minded, more focused and committed person. It is win win, because the more you look after yourself, the more you can offer others. Do the things you want to do, that make you happy and get you excited. Be productive and proactive. Revel in the good, learn from the bad. You get one body and one crack at this crazy thing called life so use it or lose it. It’s your choice, choose you. 

Changes

It’s funny how life takes you on a journey that you often have no control over. When it does, you have two choices. You can fight it and try to take a different path at whatever cost. Or you can choose to roll with it, see every twist and turn as a new adventure, seek the positives and accept it as an opportunity. It may not be exactly what you had planned but that’s what keeps life interesting right? We have come into this situation many times over the last 2 or so years and while some kinks in our plan have been easy to accept, there have been a few that have tested me personally both emotionally and physically. 

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thryroiditis. Quasimodo what, you say? Well, Quasimodo isn’t too far from the truth. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease that creates an under-active thyroid which means that I had little to no control over my hormones or metabolism. I called it the ‘Fat Dragon’ disease as I was working out like a demon, eating next to nothing and still putting on weight. In addition, I would find myself in the car on the side of the road bawling my eyes out for reasons that I didn’t even know. I was moody, cranky, would snap at nothing and cry at the drop of a pin. At the time I thought it was simply stress due to the fact that I was coming to terms with losing my business and that I would most likely have to fold. Alas, I hadn’t just become a fat mole all of a sudden, there was a much more deeply rooted problem. In fact, my cholesterol, blood pressure and cortisol levels had me one panic attack away from a full blown heart attack. At the time, I was a strict vegan who exercised daily, so things just didn’t add up. 

Being very anti-medication, I tried to heal myself through more holistic options like herbal medicine, nutrition, yoga and massage. This worked wonderfully for me emotionally and I generally did feel much better. Unfortunately my regular blood tests and body scans to monitor this treatment didn’t quite match my boosted spirit. Over the course of 4 months, my antibodies were still much too high as were hormone levels, and I had lost about 200g in bone density due to my slug-like metabolism. Once you have one autoimmune disease, you are unfortunately prone to developing others. Being that Rheumatoid Arthritis is one of those diseases and I was losing bone density, I decided to go on the lowest dose of medication that I could and keep up my holistic treatments in the hope that they would work with each other. A kink I had to accept and...Success! 

I was calmer, healthier, much more nice to talk to and the weight was slowly coming off. I was happy with the decision I had made about treatment and it also made me reevaluate what I wanted out of life. I decided that if we were going to make some big changes in our life, then now was the time to do it. Rich agreed. We were so sick of saying, “One day...” and just thought, “Today is that day!” The next day, we started selling up everything and made the plan to follow our dream of becoming dirtbag climbers in Europe. I paid all my suppliers with what little money I had and decided to walk away from Dynobars. That company was my baby and it was a very hard decision to make but I needed to concentrate on getting my health back and culling the stress from my life. A kink in my monetary future but definitely the right choice for my health. Within 3 months, we had booked tickets and soon were living the dream in the Fontainebleau Forest!

Being away was immensely positive for my health. I was sleeping better than I’ve ever slept, feeling ridiculously healthy both inside and out and was stupidly happy! I did have one little set back when my meds script was wrongly filled and I was taking 4 times my medication dose for 2 months but I got that sorted once we returned home thanks to the help of my amazing naturopath Amy. The only thing that did bother me was the fact that I often lost all feeling in my hands, to the point that they would burn and throb with pain, go yellow and purple and rock hard. This maybe happened a dozen or so times and so I had it checked out as soon as we got home. Another kink.... 
Along with Hashimoto’s, I now had a second autoimmune disease known as Raynaud’s Syndrome. Raynaud’s affects my circulation and causes an excessive reduction in blood flow to my extremities. It comes on quick and painful and can take up to an hour for my fingers to come back to normal feeling. Needless to say, working in the outdoor industry as a climbing and kayaking instructor has been a (painful) game of trial and error. I have more pairs of gloves than anyone would deem necessary living in Queensland, the Sunshine State, but as I have learnt it is better to be safe than sorry. 

On our first morning in the Bluies, I had a really severe attack that took me a long time to recover from. We stayed positive, went into town and waited until noon and full sunshine to go climbing. I got half way up my first climb and lost them again. I was devastated. We had planned to do as many multi-pitch climbs as we could whilst we were there and now had to make the call to not do any at all. Rich actually made that decision for me. I have a tendency to just think “She’ll be right.” As he explained, while I tried to deny anything was wrong, if we got half way up a multi-pitch and I lost my fingers, I would have no way of escaping anything as I literally lose all function in my hands. It would not be fair to either of us. So we chose our crags wisely for the rest of the week and stayed in the sun at all times and I wore gloves EVERYWHERE! 

Upon returning from the Bluies, I have done a bit more research into what I can do to help myself and have just spent another $350 on new gloves that I can wear while I sleep that help to repair the damage I have suffered in my tips. The scariest part about Raynaud’s is that if you have too many attacks (and I’ve had a lot) it can create ulcers under your skin which can go gangrene. So I have my new gloves, I have had to give up coffee (GASP!) and we have decided to concentrate more on bouldering so I can have a bit more control over keeping myself warm at all times, especially my hands and feet. 

This kink has been a super positive one. Rich and I are both super excited to throw ourselves back into bouldering as we haven’t done a lot since leaving the forest last year. We are training even harder and working to get even stronger. I’m so stoked that there is a still totally an option for me to keep climbing and more so, that Rich has been so unbelievably supportive and has embraced this change as something awesome too. My biggest problem now is the fact that I have had to switch to decaf which is heartbreaking. I almost feel less of a climber because of it. Many of you may be rolling your eyes right now thinking “Pffft, that’s not a real problem” and to that I would like to quote the late, great Wolfgang Güllich - “A man doesn't go to drink coffee after climbing, coffee is integral part of the climbing.” I rest my case....

Good Times, Bad Times

Ok, so it has been a while since our last post and for that I apologise as a LOT has happened since Verdon. First of all, we realised I had misunderstood my rights in Europe and I had to be out in a month or risk deportation. So we promptly headed back to Font to tick some ‘unfinished business’. On the way we got got robbed. The single most violating experience of my life. Luckily, Rich happens to be a ninja mastermind and he managed to scare the living heck out of the guy and leave him with a very sore head and all he scored out of it was an iPod shuffle. Lesson here was no matter how full the truck stop is and how brightly lit, you can still become a target. Consequently, we now have a van that is rigged up like Fort Knox... No one is getting and no one is getting out. (Thus no more bedtime tea for me...ha ha) We were just very lucky he didn’t find our wallets or phones before Rich found him. 

We met some great new mates back in Font. Our last couple of weeks were spent ticking problems, slacklining, talking until midnight, chasing wild boars, sipping on wine and just having a generally rad time. We headed to Germany. We drove to a picturesque little winery town. We showered for the first time in weeks. We got engaged. Happiest day of my life. Headed to Amsterdam and got nailed by seriously bad weather. Such a shame as all I wanted to do was ride my bike everywhere in this famously flat country. We hung out for 3 days then decided to head to Belgium. Arrived in Brugge and the weather was not too different to Holland. Had a great day walking the small town, hindered only by the masses of British footballers who thought it imperative to chant in chorus everywhere they went. Funny for all of 2 seconds then just down right annoying. We shared mussels “Brugge Style” and then had possibly the most amazing desserts of all time. We walked past a random patisserie school that sold their daily masterpieces very cheap so decided to try something each. I don’t even know what Rich had and to be honest I didn’t even care, as I was in a sugar trance from my own delectable treat. A chocolate and pear torte that surpassed any dessert I have ever had, flavours that will stay with me forever. I know I sound like the biggest fatty right now but I don’t even care. This thing was ridiculous, nothing will compare and I no longer need to try any other dessert. Ha, until I walk past my next patisserie! 

We headed for the border and got stopped in Calais as it is apparently unbelievable that two people could have travelled without working for 4 months. Confused yet happy to finally have my stamp we dove onto the ferry and headed back to Wales. It was so nice to come back to a lovely clean house and have long hot shower that I didn’t have to wear thongs in for fear of some mad bacterial infection. We popped a bottle of Verve with La and Carl to officially celebrate our engagement. Now it is time to try and get some work and extra qualifications to better prepare ourselves for our next european stint. Oh, and I have a wedding to plan...... :) 

Font Castle

Getting my Crush On!

Rich pulling on.... tiny.

Paul getting his slab on

Heel hook

Getting too cold for the 'Aire Shower"

Crushing... monkey style!

little bit of slacklining

My favourite jeweller....

At a local winery in Bernkastel 

Yay to us!

I look slightly 'special' here but you get the picture....

Pretty flower, gorgeous ring :)

Mussels 'Brugge Style'

The only way to celebrate....

Run to the Hills

Leaving South Wales, we were full of emotion. Sad to be leaving La, she had been so patient and generous during our time there and it is always hard to say goodbye to family. Relieved to finally have the van finished yet anxious to see how well it will actually hold up. But most of all, just super excited to be on our way. 

The drive to North Wales was really pretty. We went via Hereford so that we could stop at Banana Fingers, a totally rad climbing store, where we picked up new boulder pads, a new rope and some clothing that you just can’t get in Australia. Totally stoked, we continued our journey to North Wales. We were headed for Plas y Brenin, a mountain training school near Snowden where green summer mountains roll as far as the eye can see and streams and rivers flow out of little valleys in the woodland. A truly picturesque place and one the most beautiful places I’ve been. 

The training centre was insane. I don’t actually know what I was expecting but it exceeded everything! It was mind blowing. Smack bang in the middle of the mountains on a gorgeous lake with bar that over looked it all! I couldn’t believe how amazing it was and how lucky we were to be able to train there. We signed up, then walked into town and bought a new pair of trail shoes each in an outlet mountain gear store just down the road. How convenient. We wanted  to try them out straight away so went for a hike in the hills behind the centre which was a great way to explore the surroundings a little before the course started the following day. We finished off the day with a cider in the bar that night and were feeling pretty chuffed. 

Next day we met our group and instructor Dino. He was a boss. Hill walker, mountain leader, rock climber, ice climber... the works. We were so stoked to have someone taking the course that had so much experience. For the entire 3 days, Rich picked his brain, borrowed all the local climbing guides and got as much info as he possibly could. Our group was very diverse in age, sex, occupation, experience and agenda but pretty cool all round. Having never even looked at a map, let alone navigated a hill walk, I felt quite out of my league but let everyone know from the get go and they were all very helpful and understanding of my continuous questions. Day two was my favourite day of the course. We navigated through thick woodlands and then out onto an expanse of hills. I never understood why so many air fresheners were scented ‘Pine Fresh’ until then. Standing deep in the middle of a pine woodland and taking a massive breath in was just amazing! The moss looked so thick at times that it seemed you could have peeled it back and lay down to use it as a blanket. I was sure that I would see a little forest faery at any moment. 

By the end of the course I felt pretty comfortable with what we had learnt and I am very keen to staring consolidating everything. We have to log 40 days before we can sit the assessment and move onto mountain leader. I’m super excited to move forward and so is Rich. We were extremely impressed with the training centre, its course, the instructors and all the facilities. They offer a four month intensive training package where you train to be an instructor in everything they offer which includes climbing, mountain leading, mountain biking, kayaking; pretty much everything outdoors as well becoming an International Mountain Leader. If it wasn’t £10K we would both do it in a heartbeat but unfortunately that is totally out of our budget.

Now though, our journey continues to France to get spanked in Fontainebleau. So excited to be back on the rock and ready to build some serious strength. 

Highway Star

So if you are planning on buying a van in the UK there’s a couple of things you should know. 

1. When you call and ask if it is mechanically sound and if there is any problems be they minor or major - the second they say, “No known problems.” Hang up the phone. Just because you don’t ‘know’ about the oil leak doesn’t mean I’m going to forgive you for allowing us to drive 3 hours to see your crappy broken down van along with the massive oil stain on your driveway. 
2. If they answer the above question, “No she’s cracking she is, never had a problem.” Remain on high alert as again, oil leaks, dodgy clutches and super sticky gears are apparently things that one can “just get used to really isn’t it, I never really noticed.” Really, you never noticed that you have a left arm as jacked as the Hulk  from having to almost bend the gear stick every time you change gears. (And yes, Rich did use those exact words with one lady and her VW, hilarious!!! Well we thought so anyway.)
3. The guys at the car yards will try and tell you that oil leaks are completely normal and its just residue really. 
4. Above all 9 out of 10 vans will have an oil leak. 

We literally drove all over Wales and England searching for something in our price range that wasn’t going to break down the second we hit France or cost us a fortune in a couple of months. We tried private sales, dealers, fully kitted campers and shells that we can convert ourselves. We went from wanting a VW T4 to a Ford Transit to a Sprinter back to the T4. We spent five 12 hour days in the car and on the net sourcing vans. On Tuesday we decided that today was the day. We had one super kitted Sprinter to check out in Herefordshire and then as a last resort head yet another 3 hours north to Derby and check out a couple at a Mercedes dealership. 

The drive to Hereford was amazing. One of the prettiest drives I’ve even been on. Single lanes for the majority of the way through hills and farmland, acres of flowers and little farm houses everywhere. It was like driving into the set of Lord of the Rings. I know that sounds cliche but it really was just so cute. We took the turn for the little town where this guy lived and I felt like I was in a fairytale. Stone houses all dotted with pink and purple flowers, ivy covering half the buildings. It was beautiful. We pull up the guys house and I was already giddy with excitement. There was the sound of a running creek right next to his cottage and flowers everywhere, lush green forest surroundings. We look at the van and I instantly fell in love. It was massive, wood lined, heaps of storage space; I thought we had found our perfect van. We take it for a test drive and it drives quite nice. Then Rich gets underneath to have a look whilst I skip around around the van in circles like a school girl. We got back into our rental and Rich looked at me, “So do you want the bad news?” My heart sank. Not only did it have an oil leak, but a heavily rusted chassis and a passenger seat that can only be described as a death trap. WHHHYYYYY!!!! 

So off to Derby we go. It felt like the longest drive ever. By the time we got there, we were tired as heck, hungry and just plain over it. The guy, who was super nice and friendly shows us a 2007 LWB Sprinter. Its amazing. It’s clean. It has no oil leaks. The gear box and clutch feel normal for once. I turn to Rich in disbelief, “Why didn’t we come here 4 days ago?” We had found our van. We jumped back in the car feeling relieved that the search was finally over and I realised, “Hey Rich, we just bought our first home!” Ha ha. Now all we have to do it fit it out, and that will be another tale to tell I’m sure. :)