Wow… What a night! The warm, humid weather of Sunday generated a memorable, epic, raging and particularly violent storm. Here’s what happened.
For the very first time this week, the clouds appeared late Sunday night. The mosquitoes were out earlier signalling the barometric pressure was much lower than normal. By 3 AM the wind started blowing, followed by increasingly frequent lightning. The wind increased, I should write INCREASED. The rains came at 3:25 AM. Heavy, disgustingly heavy rain. For a full twenty minutes, there was at least one bolt of lightning a second, if not more.
Imagine the thunder that came with this… It was like a horror movie. Again the wind… Ouch! We estimated the winds hit 70 km/hr. and we wondered if our tents would withstand all of this. Fortunately, we had set up camp away from the prevailing winds for the tent poles didn’t hold in the wind and for a few seconds the nylon canvas crumbled on us… Around 4 AM, the storm slowly abated and half an hour later, it was over. For many participants, this was the worst storm they had ever encountered. For the youths who had set up their tents some distance away from the adults, Mario’s arrival was a comforting presence during the storm.
At dawn, everything was quiet. For a ninth day in a row (!), we got up under blue skies and the sun helped dry out the tents and our equipment before our last kayak trip. Our arrival at Kilcoursie beach was grandiose to say the least. Like a Spanish Armada (you should be humming the main theme of the movie 1492 as you read this) or like a swarm of helicopters as in Apocalypse Now (do you hear the Valkyries?). The vacationers on the beach seemed a little overwhelmed by our arrival. When 18 people arrive on a beach after an 8-day expedition, there is some shouting, some signing, a lot of shouting and singing!
Because of the favourable winds, we reached terra firma earlier than planned. So we had time for one last game of Frisbee in the lake. Much to my chagrin, I must confess the youngsters clobbered the adults. Well, we were facing the sun and the wind, so that explains it. (Don’t look so doubtful! I swear it is true!)
Later in the afternoon, after setting up camp and cleaning our equipment, we treated ourselves to a forgotten luxury: hot showers and unlimited cold drinking water. Pure bliss…
The last circle meeting, a must in every expedition of the Foundation, marked the evening. Each participant, including the adults, had to summarize their experience in one word and explain his/her choice. Real. Growing. Grateful. Teamwork. Strength. Energy. Rebirth. Wonder. Audacity. Love. Sunray. Luck. Powerful. Beautiful. Inspired. Smiles. This circle meeting, like all others, was a very moving moment.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, the kids will be with their next of kin. We dare believe that the expedition took them one step further in their recovery process. As some participants stated, if the hospital was the scene of their physical recovery, this outdoor adventure – in a sometimes-hostile environment – allowed them to recover from their psychological wounds.
In closing, I would like to thank our readers who followed us in our adventure; a special thank you to those who took the time to send in their comments.
And to you, young participants in this expedition, as you read this on your return, thank you for the privilege of rubbing shoulders with you and, most of all, to share openly with you. You are true fighters. You are an inspiration for me, for all of us. Thank you.