Foot Woes

So, turns out that hiking the Fish River with just about brand new boots, is a bad idea!!! I had only pulled out my old hiking boots about a month before the hike, and discovered to my huge dismay that they were worn through… done for.


I went off and bought new ones. While walking around the shopping centre, with some “hiking purchases”, I had run into the Prof. What are the chances! He tried to peer around me to see what I had in my packet, and I, like a petulant child, just hid it away more so he could not see!!! This was none of his business. Of course he went to ask the children what I was up to.

Even though I had tried to walk the boots in before the hike– a few weeks is just not enough. My feet blistered so badly that there was not a single toe which did not need bandaging. On day 2 – when my feet where still intact, I bumped a baby toe so badly that the toe had no skin left. There is nothing for it – you have to walk.

My friends from work still joke and say I had such an easy time – I floated through the canyon. In a manner of speaking I did… on pain killers!

After a while, the hiking friends got smart. When I stopped talking, they gave me more pain killers – they knew the pain killers had worn off ! I think I drank more painkillers than I ate food. I popped pain killers the way Jelly Tot Man popped Jelly Tots!

The doctor booked me off work for 2 days when I got back, and for a week I could not put any shoes on my feet. Believe it or not – my feet recovered!


BUT - Walking the Fish River Canyon was one of the best therapies I could have done. Being out there in the wilderness gave space to clear my head. I came back with a soul restored, with new vision and a new way of thinking. My plans of grandeur – had been grand indeed. Best of all – I did it without the Prof. So, another sign of independence.

It might sound funny to say it now, but it was a big achievement. Marriage is like a garment which you wear, it is an identity. Divorce tears that identity away – and takes a piece of your soul with it. I needed to learn to function on my own. I needed a new “garment” . I didn’t much like the “divorce” identity either… so all these processes where part of building a new me – a new identity. I was learning to be an Yvonne apart from the Prof… I was learning whom God had intended I should have become.