Running Cambodia day two

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January 29

Day two started off right were we had left off the day before. Ate a couple of bananas and headed out. The crew was to meet us back at the guard post to the entrance for the Beng Mealea sector. Our first 10km done, complete with early morning haze, a beautiful red sunrise partly explained by what was to become know to us as the local atmosphere replete with unending smoke from cooking, waste burning and grass fires it was time for breakfast of bananas, peanut butter and bread.

The day started off wonderfully, temps not too hot and the humidity not yet at a full steam. For Jeff however, the day would not stay that way....Each moment of a running day brings its own surprises. One minute all is well and perfect and the next could bring angst and drama, all for no apparent reason. So it was, Jeff spent most of the morning and a good part of the day battling the voices and attempting to overcome the dehydration of the day before. You never really think about it normally but in our situation, dehydration was something to avoid at all costs. Not having to pee might sound like a wonderful thing when you are running on a very busy section of blacktop all day long but this was not the case for Jeff. Yet another voice to contend with. Our boy was well in touch with his multiple personalities that day... Thankfully most of them are quite charming.

Lunch was on the side of the road at a house where HC had installed a well 2 years before. The owner gone off to places unknown, we settled in for lunch and to wait out the hottest part of the day. This was the plan for our daily routine. After a snooze and another wonderful meal it was time to filter water for the remainder of the day. We had set out to not use bottled water and this was our first 'field' attempt. We had been filtering water in Siem Reap but the bewildered surprise of our entire crew was amazing. As Jeff and Mr Slim filtered the well water, the pumping action for the filter became more and more difficult. We decided to check the filter for a possible cleaning but honestly we didn't think it would be necessary. What we found when we opened up the Katadyn which was a once pristine white ceramic filter, now looked like the monster from the Bog and had turned to a very dark brown, almost black cartridge! Our three support crew at that moment swore off well water unless it was filtered. Lesson learned! A well is access to water but it does not by any means mean it is potable. Filter cleaned, we set back to work. Already we are drinking about 15 liters of water a day not including water for cooking and the support crew...We started getting ready to continue the run, filling water bottles for Gatorade and filling our water bladders that we carried with us. Actually only Nathalie's needed a full fill. This is when Jeff got the 'dehydration eyebrow'. For those of you who've spent any time around Nathalie, you know what those eyebrows are capable of conveying. Well this one said 'if you don't start drinking more water, dehydration will be the least of your concerns!'. Another lesson for Jeff to work on. No wonder he was a cranky SOB all morning!

The afternoon continued with the heat never letting up, just imagine running inside a sweat lodge wearing a snowmobile suit... We struggled our way through the rest of day actually walking the remainder of our mileage, Jeff agonizing over the fact that we would have to rename our adventure, Running but really mostly walking Cambodia... Forty two kilometers completed, we stopped by the side of the road for the night. The pictures don't tell the real story about the where we stayed. It was in a very small village of ramshakle huts and mostly nothing else. Not even water in the near vicinity. The village had a limited and dwindling supply of water left and they do not know what they are going to do when it runs out. Needless to say that evening we all went without a bucket wash, happy to have water to drink and cook and the ability to get more. This is actually where we have decided to put in the well we have all donated towards. We met with the commune elder who did not speak English but did speak some French so he was able to communicate with us and helped us understand the dire situation they faced. Life in rural Cambodia is very harsh. Something that I think will continue to help drive us on, helping where ever we can.

Another day completed, more lessons learned....

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Photos

The village
this is the village where we camped and is the location for the well.