Achilles ping!!
Day 8 of my Burn Creek Bivvy measure-up and just half an hour’s walk from my exit from the forest. I’d crossed Nardoo Creek 14 times, and the drizzle was just starting.
Curiously, after all the energy expenditure of the previous day, I was just cruising across the flat terrain of a river flat, the easiest walking of my trip.
Ping!!
An Achilles tendon tear. Only 4 mm across the tendon as it turned out, but it also had a 5 mm longitudinal tear.
Best to pop up my tent and reconsider options in the morning. It was now serious rain.
In the end, I hobbled out to the car park with the two-hour walk taking five hours.
It was clear that despite me thinking it was a calf strain at the time, my summer would be altered.
Plans? Well, those can be changed.
Eventually, a cast for a couple of weeks, then a moon boot for another six weeks.
It takes nine months for an elite athlete to resume training, and while I would never be described as that, my desire to carry a heavy pack in difficult, if not trackless, terrain would clearly be at least a six-month rehab if everything went well.
I’m okay with it, because there’s no alternative.
Maybe I can get some of my writing organised instead this summer.