Cambodia trek 2022...the countdown

So, it's just over a week until we jet off to beautiful and mystical Cambodia, to complete a long, hot trek, in aid of St John's Hospice. We have, through jumble sales, hampers, helicopter raffles, working a day in a nursing home and the wonderful support of all our donors, reached our fundraising target of nearly £4k! Every penny of which goes straight back into the Hospice, to provide outstanding care for patients and their families across our local communities.

Thank you everyone 😊 (although I may never fundraise again as its been the most stressful thing I've ever done)

The trek, starting in Siem Reap and covering nearly 100km of the stunning and varied landscape of the region, will (fingers crossed) see us limp in, six days later, to the largest religious building in the world, the incredible temple complex of Angkor Wat.

Most of you will know by now, that since first setting foot on a plane in 2014, and despite a life long fear of flying, I've caught a bit of a travel bug. If you've ever spoken to me you'll know I love wildlife, camping, the great outdoors, trying new food, going new places and generally low-key adventuring. But if you know me even in the slightest, you'll also know I am also absolutely shit scared of everything. 

About a year ago, when Jack and I signed up, we were full of misty excitement. Visions of lush jungle and fauna (namely gibbons) and culture and wistful meandering in a beautiful, faraway paradise. We have now reached the familiar (and in this case intensified) waymarker of abject terror. The flights (no I haven't gotten over my fears) the heat, will I get sick, oh god, will we get Covid and end up locked in some squalid goverment facility? What's going to bite me, sting me or crawl on me? There's people on this trip, normal people, I have to be sociable and not have a mental breakdown and drag the entire group down with me. They're going to hate me. What if I offend a monk by accident?What if a monk offends me?? There's no toilets. There's no beds. Can you die of the heat? Can you die of jetlag? I'm going to get the runs aren't I? I mean it's inevitable...oh god, THERES NO TOILETS. 

This list is essentially endless and I'm conjuring up new ways to torture myself every hour. My current line of thought is that I go to relieve myself in the jungle and stand on a landmine, and im stuck there squatting, with my pants round my ankles for hours whilst a crack team hoist me to safety, I mean, I'm driving myself mad. Think of poor, patient Jack.

In the last 8 years, I've been fortunate enough to cram a fair bit of mileage in. We've been all over Europe, to Mexico, to Cuba and earlier this year, to the most incredible place on earth, the beautiful faraway paradise of Costa Rica. I've driven myself to distraction in the lead up to all of them but this time, without the comforts of nice hotel, a safely organised package deal and the knowledge that trails we were treading were well worn, the anxiety for this trip feels very real. There's no air conditioned room to escape to, there's no free bar, there's no rep and there's no WiFi to Google what to do if you stand on a hornet (turns out you get a boat to the nearest town, find a Tico chemist that sells bite cream laden with lidocane, realise that doesn't even work and just walk with a limp for half your holiday)

Cambodia is a fascinating country with rich history and culture as well as a stunning and diverse landscape. Our end goal for the trek is the world famous Angkor Wat Temple, just outside Siem Reap.

Although the temple and the city it lies outside are used to the heels of many thousands of tourists (and quite rightly too) our trek takes us completely off the tourist trail and into the paddy fields, jungle and mountains of the surrounding region. A path very few, sunburnt and bewildered northern Brits have walked. 

This was, of course part of the allure. A real adventure, a real challenge. A chance to see somewhere properly. I am intensely excited as I know when we have travelled and taken a bit of an off road excursion, these have been some of the most joyous experiences of my life. As a life long anxiety sufferer, the most effective medicine has always been, doing the things that scare me the most and coming out the other end knowing that despite the fear, despite every cell in my body telling me to sack it off, I still did it and my badly wired brain, can absolutely do one!

So, as I lie here, unable to sleep, thinking about whether I've bought enough immodium, if the niggling shooting pains down my hips and legs I've been getting since training are going to mean amputation in a field hospital and if I can survive 20 hours travelling without a fag (and crucially without diverting the plane somewhere over the middle east and promptly being arrested for air rage) I haven't backed out, I'm bloody well going and to hell with myself!