Turning the clock back on epic trip
Last week I returned from racing 130 miles on foot across Cambodia, ending up at the amazing Angkor Wat temple complex.
It’s hard to contemplate the genocide that went on in the country in the 1970s when we started the first day of the race. We were sent on our way by monks and nothing felt so full of peace and nature than the trails we set off on.
Every day had its challenges, from 18 miles of mud one day, followed by 20 miles of baking hot exposed sandy road, to full-on jungle with lung bursting climbs discovering hidden temples of enormous magnitude on another.
I love races like this, not just for the course but also the people I meet. We passed villages where little has changed for hundreds of years and the young children play seemingly without a care in the world, always waving and using the only English word they know, “hello”.
Most children are uneducated and once old enough will typically join their parents working in the fields. I frequently passed early teens herding water buffalo or cows along the roads, but there was always a smile and a wave as they walked past.
The people in the countryside are extremely poor with most families having just a house on sticks, a cooking pot and the clothes they wear, but the acceptance of their situation seems to leave them at peace with the status quo.
On two occasions we slept in these basic homes, then outside a 1,000-year-old temple, inside a temple, a school and even cabanas by a waterfall. No two days were the same, but everywhere expanded our understanding of the country and the challenges that it faces – consistently wrapped in natural beauty.
Sitting back in the UK writing this with little decompression time, it seems impossible that life can still be that way for so many, but it also makes me feel grateful for what I have here and accepting of life as it is with all its joy and challenges. I hope that you too focus on enjoying the simple things.
‘‘ Little has changed in Cambodian village life in hundreds of years