May 13 cont...
I decided to follow the white bands because I didn’t want to get cold waiting for the possibility of someone else and at least I could follow them back if they went nowhere. They were very clear and regular, and even though the forest was getting denser, I still felt confident I was going in the right direction.
After about 20 minutes, the white bands were taken over by older yellow ones, then they too stopped. I then noticed pieces of blue plastic tied around the trees that took over from the bands.
By now the forest was really dense with not so many trees but a lot of underbrush and I soon discovered the underbrush was a little tree with huge barbs so I had to be careful what I grabbed on to.
Ironically, after The Saint paying for my whizzy 3G phone, I now found out I didn’t have cell phone coverage.
Suddenly the blue ties ran out. The last one was around a small tree that had broken off and was lying on the ground. I looked and looked and ventured about 20 metres in a potential direction and was relieved to find a track, however, it led nowhere in both directions so I had to return to the fallen tree.
Shit!!
By now I was starting to get frustrated.
I bent down and pushed my through a dense bit of underbrush then saw a blue tie a little way off.
Yay!
I headed down the side of the ridge following the intermittent and very hard to find blue ties which were taken over again by white bands.
The side of the ridge started getting steeper and steeper and I was literally having to hold on to the current tree, balance precariously then let go and lunge toward the next one. I kept getting caught in vines and the prickly underbrush, being bound by them.
Then the white bands stopped.
I searched and searched, holding on the tree and leaning out trying to see through the thick underbrush. By now it was too steep to venture far because I couldn’t get back to the last tree easily.
Now I was getting worried.
I had no more food. I didn’t have cell phone coverage and I was wet. Also, the prickle bushes had been snagging my plastic poncho so water was starting to seep in.
I asked Kobo Daishi out loud for help
Please, please, please give me a sign...
1 comment:
Dear E,
I've loved reading your account of your trip to Shikoku. I've been reading it all day. Don't take this the wrong way, but reading about your struggles, getting lost and making mistakes--but ending up with many lucky successes--I don't feel as stressed that I'll be totally unprepared for this trip myself. Yes, I'm going on this pilgrimage (hopefully) this month. It's been in the works and repeatedly falling through for the past 2 years. I know next to no Japanese, but have the Lonely Planet phrasebook and the survival Japanese off of Turkington's site.
Thank you for persevering with the pilgrimage itself and for documenting it here. Most to all of the accounts available on-line are written by men. Being female, I was glad to read such a detailed account from a woman's perspective.
If you would like to get in touch, my e-mail is ninesiddhis@yahoo.com
Any advice you could give me would be invaluable.
Your account ends in the middle of May--half-way through your trip. I hope you will post the rest of it.
Gambatte!
Mary Lynn
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