Treasure Trekking

In case you haven't been following my blog hiking is my favourite activity, well at least besides football. Since I don't play football as much as I did in my teenage years and early twenties then I try to do as much hiking as I can.

On Monday, Whit Monday; a public holiday in Dominica, I joined some of my mother's friends and co-workers of the Dominica Co-operative Societies Ltd. to participate in Kairi FM's second annual Treasure Trek from Roseau to Macoucherie Beach.

We also participated in the activity last year, although it was a shorter course and last year's team was five strong instead of four persons this year. The cost of the trek was also increased this year and it seemed to be more of a money making venture, although that is another issue.

Just like last year, I enjoyed the trek but this time around I was determined to challenge myself and my team, did I mention that I was nominated team captain this year. The walk start bang on time this year, wish is a welcoming and new occurence in Dominica, nothing ever starts on time. There is this notion of real time and Dominican time and Dominican time is usually 30 - 45 minutes later than the stated time.

Five minutes into the trek we were already at a disadvantage, not because of our own doing but because of one of the other teams. One young lady felt that the best thing to do was "steal" our clue and leave us hunting around Independence Street like the vagrants that normally frequent the area. At that point we were ahead of the pack but we quickly fell to 7th position, an all too familiar position. We did manage to improve on our standings throughout the trek.

We made the longer distance in an even quicker time than last year and I have my other male counterpart to thank because he insisted that we keep a steady pace even when we noticed that our other female teammates couldn't keep up. As usual the tasks were really fun; from the jigsaw and crossword puzzles, the soup dip (mustard and milk with five small balls that you retrieve using your mouth) to carrying the heavy bag of wet sea sand across the beach (just about 100 minutes).

So about four hours after we started it was all over, very much worth it, although we got drenched in rain and didn't recieve any of the energy drinks we were promised. The rain made it possible to complete our tasks without feeling too tired, especially since the Dominican sun has the habit of draining the last bit of power from your soul.

Until next year, have fun trekking. Oh by the way, we placed 6th in the race.

Nesta