Written by: Sara
Friday, 14 September 2007

I got back on the horse (so to speak) for our 5000m pass. Kelly and I, still recovering from illness, explored our Woman from Snowy River fantasies to the full as we rode mountain ponies through the Andes. Trotting on ahead, nay (neigh) galloping onwards, we left the others for dust and got lost.

Powered by potent pony farts we raced to the top and gazed in awe at the adjacent glacier and then realised that the slope was too steep and slippery to descend on horseback. We slid our way down, spurred on by the arctic blast in our faces and the thought of hot soup at camp a mere half an hour from the top of the pass. Jenario and Gladys waited for us at the bottom and then the four of us sallied forth to respite from the wind. I imagined setting up the beds for the others and a relaxed afternoon as they traversed the difficult pass on foot, happy that we had ponied ahead.

We followed the distant cloud of donkeys for an hour and a half before our team realised we were in fact trailing the wrong crew. Jenario, intent upon discovering the whereabouts of the crew, took a horse and set off leaving the rest of us to savour our dimishing taste of a lazy afternoon huddled behind a rock to escape from the icy wind. After pondering for some time on the details of how to create an overnight shelter with two horses and a mule, one of the crew came running up to tell us that the camp was back in the other direction. We eventually rocked up to camp to find the reast of the team basking in the sun in the gorgeous sheltered valley. Go team.

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