‘I can’t bloody breathe’ I sputtered, as my lungs closed, my chest heaved and the tears stung my face.
‘Just look at me babe’ my husband said gently. ‘Calm, slow breaths’.
I was having a mini panic attack. Which was strange timing as I’d made it to the top of the very steep hill. You’d have thought I’d have had it midway, or looking up at the feat ahead?
But no. I achieved the goal and then panicked about it. 😂 Kind of my M.O. all over.
I was hiking the Pati Valley in Chapada Diamantina, a huge National Park in Bahia, Brazil. And when I say huge, I mean, bigger than Hong Kong huge, except instead of skyscrapers and crowds, it’s waterfalls, valleys and miles of nothing but nature.
Originally, hubby was going to do it alone. Three days, 35km, waterfalls, canyon views, homestays under the stars. “Moderate” difficulty, according to AllTrails. But I got FOMO, and despite my arthritic knees, decided optimistically that I could totally do it.
(Spoiler: “moderate” was doing some very heavy lifting…
