Sunday in Australia and I’m trying to adjust to a day that does not kick off with a Boot Camp session followed by banana pancakes, fresh juice and lemongrass tea. It’s not easy.
What a week we’ve just had. The days started with a 6.30am wake-up call from “Sarge”. No-one was late for the 7am starts. Everyone made it through all of the sessions as well as the volcano climb. Existing injuries, fears or limitations didn’t hold anyone back. The group got everyone through the tough moments, no one was left behind. Great stuff.
The first day was a big day. A morning Boot Camp session, a midday jungle walk and then an afternoon pack-march along small paths passing through rice paddies and crossing a steep ravine. In between catnaps were taken. Everyone felt it in their quads the next day.
Gabi’s yoga session at the end of day two soon stretched everyone out. A few of us even managed to move through a shoulder stand to having our legs stretched over our heads touching the floor behind us.
But I somehow don’t think anyone from the group will look at a coconut in the same way again. After spending hours using them as weights, jumping over them, and running a few kilometres along village roads with them, they are now seen in the same light as the dreaded sandbags. The best part was what I have come to think of as the “coconut express”. Everyone in line, passing coconuts along and then the end person gets to sprint to the top of the line and it starts all over again. The object is to get to the gate and back at speed. Drop the coconut and its push-ups, at Sarge’s cadence, for everyone. The group had to hit the ground just once and they were so close to the gate!
The trip up the volcano is a day of adventure for most people. It’s a challenging day, starting off in the early morning darkness to reach the top by sunrise. It’s steep, rocky and slippery at times. The group broke into three, all going at very different paces with their guides. The early group arrived to swirling cloud cover at the top, but by the time everyone else joined them, the sunrise was spectacular. The trek back down is more difficult and the walking sticks were put to good use.
Later, in the hot springs, bumps and scrapes were compared. There were a couple of slips, leaving some nice bruises to the top of legs to take home. Nothing that a couple of hours in the hot springs with drinks couldn’t soothe!
By day four I had a keen reminder of how practical everything in village life is. Over breakfast Wayan told us that some people from the next village had observed our stretcher runs and were wondering if the group were all doctors and nurses and were practising their ambulance skills? They were very bemused by the fact that it was just being done for the sake of exercise!
Behind the scenes was busy for Wayan. Not only were there 10 Boot Campers to take care of, but it was also “Galungan”, a major ceremonial event that happens every six months and stretches over a week. It is an important week for making offerings, preparing sate and lawar, putting up the penjor, and of course going to temple. Wayan had to be back at his family house and temple just outside Ubud every night whilst everyone was asleep in Ayung Sari Indah. It was a special time for our guests to be in Bali to see it all taking place in the village.
In between all of the activities, there was a break in the water pipe so Wayan and a team of men had to walk the 9kms of pipe through several ravines to fix the break. There’s no such thing as calling a government office after hours for help. When the water pipe breaks, the whole village is without running water, so it’s a group of volunteers that go and deal with it. (My suggestion of turning Boot Camp into something practical in the future, such as water pipe maintenance, didn’t go down too well).
But it wasn’t all hard work. A “mandi lulur” in Ubud soon had everyone relaxed. 90 minutes of massage, exfoliation and yoghurt treatments followed by soaking in a bath full of aromatic flowers and leaves left everyone positively scrubbed and glowing. The muddy jungle treks became a distant memory. It didn’t take much convincing that having a massage with Pak Gading in their rooms later in the week in their rooms was a good idea.
Gusti, “the kitchen goddess” gave us all a cooking lesson on day five. We started off with the secrets to making the perfect chai lemongrass tea that everyone had become addicted to during the week.
Then we moved onto “sayur pelecing” – green vegetables with spicy peanut sauce. There was a lot of mortar and pestle work. We all had to take turns as it was like a Boot Camp session in the kitchen. The end result was delicious and we devoured it pretty quickly. I’ll post the recipes and the photos in a separate blog.
We were treated to a spectacular sunset on the last night. The perfect prelude to the final celebration dinner. Time to get out of the workout clothes and into some good gear. The shopping sessions in Ubud came to the fore.
Bamboo flames lit the path to the dining area in the rice paddies. Wayan brought us smoked duck and chicken. (The duck and chicken are stuffed with traditional spicy sambals, wrapped in a skin of the palm tree and then smoked for 12 hours over a smouldering fire fuelled by rice husks). Gusti and the kitchen crew cooked rice, sambals, coconut fish curries and of course traditional sates on lemongrass stalks. Our friends from the village joined us, making up a small gamelan orchestra bringing music to the night. It was a well deserved night of fun. But not too much fun, as there was still one more Boot Camp session to look forward to in the morning. And it was a challenge session starting at 6.30am, full energy required!
Everyone finished strong on the last morning. Time for one more banana pancake and a couple of hours to kick back and soak in the views from the bungalows before heading home.
I always feel good after a Boot Camp or Yoga retreat. It was put to the test today. I have been writing this blog on and off all day today in between unpacking, washing, and dealing with life in general back here in Australia. Late in the afternoon I headed out to my Bikram Yoga class (heated yoga). As there were no beginners in the class, our teacher announced that we were going to have an intense class. “Be prepared to work hard, stay determined and focused”. I was a little nervous as I had not practised for over a week, but I have to say that I had the best class ever. The week of Boot Camp kicked in and I all but skipped out of the 90 minute class. Yay!
Everyone is going to upload their photos onto a flickr site, so stay tuned for the link.
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