Well almost. Last Monday the Covid Rules in Portugal were relaxed so that it seems like we are allowed to have a saunter with a couple of friends. The Lagos Bubble will ease back slowly, hopefully, but not the first week!
Of course the title of this post is a gratuitous excuse to play my favourite country singer and the song made 'popular' with the walkers on the TrailWalker event between 1989 and 1996, as the Marching Song of my team - Joint Effort! Trailwalker is/was an Annual Team Walking Challenge, for teams of 4 over a 100 km course across the New Territories in Hong Kong. You are given a maximum of 48 Hours to complete the course. Of course it is not all flat, so I have marked it NSFW!
This is a shortish but well made video of the modern Maclehose Trail in Hong Kong .
Those were the days! My team of 4, Joint Effort. which was basically a Police Team changing some personnel each year, composed of All Ranks, participated in the the event 7 times from 1989 to 1996, missing 1994 as I was in UK attending my father's funeral. A back up team in a car, carrying spare boots, socks water and food, Voltaren gel and painkillers was essential but was supplemented by Gurkha support at the check points. They provided Med Tents with massage facilities and 'Blister doctors' as well as strong Gurkha tea in huge urns supplemented with condensed milk and wedge sandwiches.. Amazingly restorative after about 12+ on the Trail.
In fact the first year we decided to stop overnight and eat, sleep and carry on at dawn. Conveniently I had a flat at about the midpoint so we came off at the Lion Rock Checkpoint (there were 10 checkpoints on the way to obviate cheating), grabbed some nourishment and slept for about 6 hours. We ended up with a Team time of 31 hours and 41 minutes, and concluded that it was not a great idea as we had stiffened up and felt so groggy that I had a job whipping the team back to the Trail.
Second year was a disaster as 3 of the 4 in the team dropped out for various reasons and I limped in on my own in 25 hrs and 45 minutes. Needless to say, the team was disqualified. in 1991 we all finished but at different times, as some were suffering over the second half of the course which really has to be jogged if you want to go under 24 hours. I made it in 23 hours 27 minutes, but our Team Time was 25 hours and 48 minutes. Very easy to have tiffs along the way as walkers tire.
In 1992 we all crossed the line together in 21 hours and 5 minutes.
1993 was our best year ever, and with a fairly senior all-Expat Team and we all came in together in 20 hours and 45 minutes.
All sorts of talent took part in many categories
As I said, in 1994 I was back in UK, and I can't recall if the others carried on leaderless as I have no record.
In 1995, I built my team from myself and 3 local Chinese officers and we all finished in a Team Time of 26 hours and 19 minutes.
In 1996 I was recovering from bronchitis, so I couldn't participate but as I said, I co-opted my eldest daughter, Tanya, who was 16 at the time, and despite having not participated in much training, with the advantage of youth I dragged her over the line sobbing, in 23 hrs and 59 minutes. Recently she sent me the video above and it is clear that memories of the pain have faded and she said " Would love to walk the Maclehose Trail again - Are you up for it?"
It was with the Maclehose Trailwalker event in mind that I came up with an event, suitably modified for the AWW. At one stage I was tempted to make it a One Day, 24 hour competition, but when we had done the first one in 2002, I decided it would be too embarrassing to come in last in our own event! That was how the RTC was created, a nice 50 kms over 2 day with a good dinner and a few beers thrown in.
The Trailwalker event was established in 1981 by Brigadier Mervyn Lee in Hong Kong as a training exercise by the Queen's Gurkha Signals, part of the Brigade of Gurkhas of the British Army, which was at the time based in the British colony. In 1986, teams of civilians were allowed to take part and Oxfam Hong Kong was invited to co-organise the event.
In 1997, with the handover of Hong Kong to China, the Gurkha regiments were relocated to the United Kingdom. The Trailwalker event followed the Gurkhas' relocation and was organised over the South Downs in Sussex, with Oxfam in the UK acting as partner since 2002, alongside the Gurkha Welfare Trust. Oxfam Hong Kong continued to organise the original event without the Gurkhas and the event has grown with 17 events now taking place across 10 countries worldwide.
The event was inevitably won in the early years by teams of Gurkhas,(using taxpayers money for training purposes) who ran most of the way.! Their crack teams used to come in at round 14 hours. the best times before they put in some additional check points to prevent shortcuts. In most races other competitors were too far behind to see the routes they took, but they used to go straight down steep mountainsides with their short muscular legs pumping like pistons instead of taking the circuitous but safer official paths.
Once the event became more established teams would fly in from outside Hong Kong to take part. I believe the Team record for the original Trail (it was changed at the end after 2008.) was 11 hrs 52 minutes by G4S. The new Trail, post 2009 record is held by in 2013 by some US athletes called Team Columbia at 10 hrs 58 minutes.
The fastest time for an individual (unsupported) is held by WONG Ho-chung, a Hong Kong ultra marathon runner in 10 hrs 38 min in December 2020.
In 2017, Ian Crawford of Petersfield, Hampshire, continuing his support of the Gurkha Welfare Trust and aged 74 years old, completed a record 19th UK Trailwalker in a time of 29hrs 34mins.
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
and that was a nice piece of nostalgia for me.
And now what is Trending across WAGS WhatsApp from Myriam!
In the 70's and 80's, egg yolk was thought to be the cause of high cholesterol. Egg white was the good guy which supplied proteins. I remember first time using egg whites in tetra pak containers which we had in Vancouver/
Amaryllis
Here is a story worthy of a Disney movie. Perhaps the Oracle of Delphi can replace the Wicked Witch as the dispenser of bad advice. In Greek mythology, a nymph named Amaryllis fell in love with Alteo, and why not? Although a mere shepherd boy, he had the strength of Hercules and the beauty of Apollo.
But, Amaryllis, although a lovely young maiden, could not, like, get his attention, you know? So she went to the Oracle of Delphi. And, wouldn’t you know, the oracle was a high priestess in a sisterhood of seers who guided the kings of Greece. So not that far from, say, witches.
In any case, the Oracle of Delphi, who, for all we know wanted Alteo for herself, told Amaryllis to knock at his door and present him with the thing he wanted most: a beautiful flower he had never seen before.
How would she do that? The Oracle said she should dress in maidenly white and then, using a golden arrow, pierce her heart if he did not answer the door. And do this for 30 nights. As a storybook this would get repetitive, unless you are teaching a child to count to 30. But on the 30th night, Alteo opened the door and Amaryllis stood there, transformed into a beautiful red flower, created from the blood of her broken heart.
Well. Somehow, in Victorian times, giving someone an amaryllis was a reward for a job well done. Now it is better known as the Christmas lily, and brings joy to the home as a forced bulb. Two final points. It is not a lily, even though, like a lily, it has three outer tepals and three inner petals.
And what people display and give and grow at Christmas is not a true amaryllis. Sorry. A Botanical Congress in 1987 settled the matter with a ruling that the very small tribe of Amaryllideae consists of one true Amaryllis: the one from South Africa. The “Amaryllis” sold at Christmas is actually a Hippeastrum, which is from South America.
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