A Girl in a Canyon - Part 7

Waking up on the last morning in the Canyon was best described as "bitter sweet". Before this I had never really appreciated what that expression meant, but now I do.

It is sweet because you know you have achieved something you never thought possible and bitter because you know that life is supposed to return to normal - with all the expectations and complications.

Cellphones, TV's and computers will once again become part of my life, and no matter how hard I try, I still have to accept them as part of my life. I have to find out about plane crashes and children raped and murdered by their uncles. I have to be at certain places at certain times, listen to people I have no interest in.

So it's with a heavy heart I packed my bag one last time.

The last day was an anti-climax. It only lasted about 3 hours and the last hour you are very aware of civilization as you walk along a water pipeline.

Much of the way we spent talking about cold beers and cheese burgers. But while we were excited to finish, we all had a feeling of - "What now?".

How do we explain the beauty? We were all different people to what we had been just 6 short days ago. I was scared that I would not be able to express myself to people, to show them just how wonderful the absence of civilization is!

Instant gratification is not how life is supposed to be. You supposed to work for things, you supposed to stop and rest, you supposed to listen to silence. It's not about finding yourself - it's about loosing yourself. Just being happy that you have lived another day, not made another million!

I realize that this all seems very "airy fairy" - and until you have gone to places that are totally out of your comfort zone, you'll keep thinking that. It's actually so on the ground and real - there is nothing mystical about it at all.


I end with a quote from Bill Bryson:

“. . . I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town.”