No traffic, no meetings and no rush. It is a place where the wild rainy weather we are having is described as a ‘soft day’. There is time out here. Time to think. And it seems, time to get excited about life’s incredible possibilities.
Since my accident, and the paralysis, I’ve been busy trying to accept the day to day realities of life in a wheelchair. The effect on me personally is, in a sense, easy to imagine. But this injury has also hit Simone in a way that I suspect I don’t truly understand yet. I am not sure if I can acknowledge the pain my accident has given my family and friends. It has taken such a long time to deal with the initial phase of this life expedition.
I just read Jessica Salter’s article int oday’s Daily Telegraph Magazine. ; I first met Jessica in 2008 when I was in London at the launch of the South Pole Race. At the time she worked in The Telegraph Online, which covered our part in the race. Recently I spoke to Jessica at length about the accident and ensuing difficult times. Reading her article has fanned the flames of my desire to get back into the adventure arena. It has made me conscious of the importance of actively deciding how we fill our lives. (The article)
The article reminds me of how important the South Pole experience was. Of putting myself in an environment where I risked failure, where I had to push beyond my expectations of what is possible in order to succeed.
Ross Whitaker has just released our documentary about The South Pole Race, called “Blind Man Walking”, which is available on Amazon
And my point? Since this accident, I have had no desire for adventure. I suspect my mind has been cluttered with the drive to survive. But, in the last few weeks it has been full of memories. I’ve been in deserts, inside the Arctic Circle, and on angry seas. A collection of memories that I didn’t see with my eyes, but experienced through adventure. I’m feeling that I need to step outside the routine of my life to focus on the simple day to day of an expedition.
I have lots of work to do to simply survive this. I have lots of work to do to try to walk again. But the perspective that expeditions bring to life might just be what I need.
Let me know if you have any adventures planned? Or better still if you are in the middle of one now.
