When people say they have got the worst hangover ever, you rarely believe them. So with this is mind we will try to find another way to describe how we felt the morning after the Poo party. Without swearing that is!! Ummmmmm...Well...Like...Its impossible cause we actually DID have the worst hangovers ever, even the legendary morning fry up didnt help. We had to lie on each other, in the grass, whilst everyone else looked round the Bushmans Museum at Possoms. Who cares about Possoms when youve drank a concoction of herbal smellying alcohol the night before. We kept being told snippets what happened. Not good!! We prefer not to remember and remain comforted by our ignorance. As we get back on the bus our driver high fives us for our drunkeness. "Sweet as Witches" Translation excellent drunken behaviour girls!! and continues to congratulate us over the tannoy system as we sink lower and lower into our seat.
Our next stop is Franz Josef where we do the Glacier hike. Thankfully we are staying two nights here and wont be doing the hike till the following morning. Time to recover!! We stop at a few places on the way and take photos. Eventually we arrive at our hostel and spend the night resting our aching bodies.
Early morning rise for our hike up the glacier. We arrive at the base and get all suited up in some sexy boots, trousers, jackets and even a little bum bag thingy containing our teeth to go on the bottom of our shoes. All fun so far. The boots are massive and poor Laurie cant find any to fit her tiny cheds. She ends up having to Wear 10 pairs of socks.
Dressed to kill we board the bus, Destination: Franz Josef Glacier, Mission: to hike. At this point we are a little apprehensive, we wont lie, the snake bites have taken the edge off our usual top notch, sprint 5 miles a day, fitness. So when we are told to split into 2 groups, 1 being really fit, 2 not so. We decide 2 is safe and less chance of death. (Joke...We hope)
The walk to the glacier is long and we are already tired. Doesnt look good for us. Our first glimpse of the glacier and it is not what we expected. We had images in our heads of it being bright white and shiny, when in fact it was brownish and covered in some dirt. Our guide assures us that it is much shinier at the top. We split into four groups now and accept our fate in group 4. We put the funny teeth things on our feet to make it easier to walk on ice and prepare ourselves for the adventure.
Every morning the guides go out and hack steps into the ice. This makes it much easier for us to climb as it is 500m high. Our first steps are a little scary, getting use to using our boots. We become use to it and start feeling comfortable walking UP and DOWN the ice steps. Its a very strange experience as you expect to fall over at any point. The ice is constantly melting so its permantly wet. We see some really beautiful things on our way up eventually stopping for lunch on a flat surface near a little ice cave. We get the opportunity to climb through the cave and take some pictures.
So far everything is still fun and not too challenging.
Its gets a bit scarier from here as the guide takes us further up the glacier and into the 'ice waves'. There are no steps here and we go wherever he feels like. The steps are hacked into the ice as we go along and some are so small its impossible to see where you have to put your feet. The group we are with are full of really nice people and we all help each other out when someone is struggling. There are a few slips and tumbles as we go deeper into the glacier as its getting much harder. As this point Laurie and our new friend Gareth were winning, taking it in their stride and laughing with every fall.
The tiredness started to kick in around 2 and there was a layer of fog making it difficult to see. We were later told that they had never seen fog like this on the glacier before. The stubbling and slipping started to get more frequent and Laurie incurred a few minor scrapes on her knees. The drops which we had to climb down got more and more extreme, even the guys were getting scared. It was getting to the point where we felt it would never end. There is only so much falling over you can take. At one point the guide had to hammer in a bit of rope so we could swing over a massive drop. Both of us had difficulty with this and had to get our guide to pull us across. The eventual breaking point was when we squeeze through a small ice corridor to find a 12 foot drop. The steps were there for us but we had no idea where. Laurie bravely goes first and unable to find her footing is stuck on the wall. Panic kicks in as she can not see away down for herself. We are the last two with the guide trapped in the tiny corridor behind Cheryl. Everyone else tries to help but the ice is so slippery one wrong foot and you have a boot in your face, or worse you fall 12 foot. Laurie is getting slightly more panicy as time goes on as no one can help. The guide manages to squeeze past Cheryl almost pushing her over the edge as well. At this point Laurie is hanging on for dear life on the wall and Cheryl is hanging off at the top. Funny now but not at the time. Thankfully our guide comes to the rescue and helps us both down safely. The rest of the journey we spend stuck to him praying it will be over soon. Finally after a few more falls we make it to the end and the group gives themselves a pat on the pack. If that was group 4 what the hell was group 1 like!!
Although it was challenging at the time, we can look back and be proud to have done it. Some parts of the ice were so beautiful it was breathtaking. The photos dont do it justice.
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