Saturday, 18 October: It's the morning after the night before and time to write the last instalment in the story of the sponsored walk which reached a successful conclusion at the Foundation at just before 3 pm yesterday. Here's how it went yesterday;
Now the final leg was supposed to be a nice leisurely affair with a lie-in to sleep off the beer that I'd consumed the night before at Ros' friend's house. But that was until I was informed by Nie during said drinking session that her house was actually 15 km away from Doi Ti which was a further 5 km or so from Northern Region Industrial Estate where we were going to visit one of our sponsor companies before I had to walk another 5 km or so back to the Foundation. TWENTY-FIVE KILOMETERS!! Well, this was not good news and certainly spoiled my evening by putting an end to my drinking. An early night was ordered for all. If I can't enjoy myself then no-one can either, right? So it was that reveille was called at 6 in the morning and I was on the road before 7 with the two boys, Guide and Eve in tow, Beer having wimped out with 'girly problems'. And Nie was spot on about the distance and the big hill we had to climb as well. Fair play to the lads; they kept up with the pace throughout though Eve would have done better with a pair of training shoes instead of a cheap pair of flip-flops! What was he thinking?
On arrival at Doi Ti, we had a short break for a belated breakfast before we made tracks to the industrial estate, arriving there at shortly after 11. We didn't have to wait long for Ros' sister and brother-in-law to turn up at the entrance to the estate with all the other kids in the back of their pick-up and we then headed off to Driessen for some lunch that Alex, one of the managers there and a good friend of the Foundation's, had laid on for them. Having eaten and after a short photo session for their magazine and website, as well as having been presented with seven cardboard boxes containing money donated by the staff from the various departments at the factory, all the small kids were loaded back onto the pick-up and driven back to the Foundation, while myself and the four eldest, having now been joined by May, started the last part of the walk home.
I distinctly remember saying to one of the expats at Driessen that this was going to be a breeze when he asked me why I didn't just get into the car and drive the last bit home. After all, I'd already walked well over a thousand km to get there, right? But I really did struggle and had to stop a couple of times as my feet felt like they were on fire and my ankles, calves and thighs were all threatening to let me down at the last minute. It was remarkably warm all of a sudden, no, not warm, very hot, and it took a lot longer than I'd anticipated but we did it, even though Guide and Eve barely made it out of the industrial estate before jumping into the support vehicle and Beer's 'problems' re-appeared and she hitched a ride for most of it. Thankfully, May, with a fresh pair of legs, stuck it out with me to the end and we re-grouped at the entrance of the road that leads to the Foundation to arrive home together hand-in-hand. And that was it. No brass bands. No press. No yellow ribbons. No fuss. Just as Ros and I had left Banglamung six weeks and over 1,200 km earlier. If you hadn't have known what we were about to embark on, you wouldn't have thought anything of it. And so it was at the end too.
The kids all enjoyed the 'home-coming' party we laid on in the evening yesterday and half a dozen of our friends showed up too as well as a couple of Ros' relatives to help out with the cooking. All our guests left at a reasonable hour so we could pack up and have an early night ourselves. After a good night's sleep, it was time to pick up where we left off nearly 7 weeks ago and a children's home to run. My feet are a tad tender but they don't hurt any more. Nothing hurts. I'm on a high but not one that can be induced synthetically. It's 100% natural brought about by having completed something that , at one stage, I seriously doubted I could, and I have proved all those who also doubted me, and there were many of them, wrong. This morning, we have already had one lady here to see if we can take in a local boy and his sister and we need to follow up on another young boy in Lampang that we were asked to help while we were passing through on the walk. All of which serves me as a reminder as to why we did the walk in the first place; there are many, many children out there who need a helping hand and we here at Croston House Children's Home, can help them if we can find good people who are willing to help us do it. Anyway, got the car to clean up as well as the store room to look at and go through some of the things that have been donated while we've been away. And a couple of beers to finish off that some kind soul left for me last night. I'll keep you posted.
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