100 km  27 Hours (Our Trek to Semonkong)

1. Estimated time of Departure = 3pm, Actual Time of Departure = 6pm
2. Flat tire in the middle of pitch-black mountains—never knew the flashlight my dad so carefully picked out at Target would be such a lifesaver (that and the men with a new jack who stopped to help).
3. About 10pm: with 25 km to go (of a windy dirt road in the mountains, so about 1 hour time), we cannot proceed any further . . . a semi-truck is jackknifed in the road and partially hanging of the edge of the cliff.
4. Since no one will be moving the truck tonight, we head back to the nearest lodge about 30 minutes back—it’s full.
5. So we backtrack about another hour, to a lodge in Roma. We are lucky, and they have rooms available because people cancelled at the last minute. We get in bed around midnight.
6. We head out the next morning because the lodge heard word that people were trying to move the truck. The truck, however, had not been moved, and we have to back track to get to cell phone service (at the top of a different mountain) to update them on this predicament.
7. The lodge plans to meet us on the other side of the truck, and we will carry our luggage and all the frozen meat and groceries (did I mention we were traveling with the lodge’s chef?) around the truck and up the mountain and leave the car behind.
8. This is successful, but by the time this all happens, we need to wait a bit more for a few more guests.
9. Rafe and I have a couple beers in the mountains and appreciate the view while we wait.
10. We all pile into the back of a very large truck bed, and finish those last 25 kilometers as the sun is setting beautifully over the mountains—As tired as I was, it was beautiful.
11. About 6pm: we pull into the lovely Semonkong Lodge and have a wonderful time pony-trekking, hiking, meeting fun people, and eating delicious food.