Last week Dale Walker from Bulletproofbodies completed a 5-Day Trek across Iceland to raise money for a charity called I2gether.
He had the privilege of being the expedition Physiotherapist for the trek.
There were several injuries along the way such as an ankle inversion and Illio-Tibial Band compression syndrome (sore knees).
He even ended up providing Physiotherapy for other teams on the trek.
Day One:
An uphill battle to say the least. There were some amazing views along the way, including hot pools, steam vents and rainbow coloured mountains! After the walk, during which we gained some serious altitude, we stayed the night at a small communal mountain hut. On arrival to our huts, we unpacked and together walked up to a stunning viewpoint where we were able to see not only 18 of the 20 glaciers in Iceland, but the biggest glacier in Europe! Sadly, that night the weather turned from beautiful sunshine to high winds and rain.
Day Two:
The back end of Hurricane Dorian made our walk even more physically challenging! We will never forget the experience of walking through, on average, 65 mile per hour winds and the heaviest of rain. We were all battered and beat on the tops and found out that waterproof means something different in Iceland. As you’d expect, we didn’t see much except the floor due to the weather and very loose footing! In the evening we stopped in a Lakeside hut, with gorgeous views we took in the next morning.
Day Three:
Still wet and windy, after packing up and striking out we walked through the Black Desert which was a long and seemingly endless walk. The ground was made from sandy, volcanic materials making it challenging to walk on. However, we were able to numb the walking pains temporarily as we completed a number of river crossings throughout the day.
I was initially concerned about one of the Trekkers whose ankle was strapped and was given poles to assist with walking. We all pushed through to get to our mountain hut. The amazing views once again made up for our sore and exhausted bodies.
Day Four:
With on and off rain, we undertook our longest day of walking. To begin, we made a slight detour to see an extraordinary canyon not far from were we had stopped the night before! Making our way back to camp and then through the mountains, team morale and encouragement was high as we pushed through with the charity constantly in the back of our minds. With emotions running high, we summoned several peaks as the valleys got greener and completed our final river crossing of the trip. Wading through glacial water in the Porsmork valley, we were determined the make it to the end. After not too long, we had our final mountain hut in sight, which laid nestled in a lush valley of birch woodland. Dropping down through the thick vegetation, we had finally made it to our final mountain hut to rest and reflect on the challenge.
Day Five:
After a celebratory sleep, we decided to summit one last breathtaking view point before getting the bus home. With outstanding 360° views, we looked back once again on the challenges, unforgiving terrain, horrendous weather and absolutely breath-taking sights we saw over the last 4 days. Our last view was graced with two beautiful glaciers, two powerful volcanoes and a wide, gorgeous river delta heading out towards the sea.
Day 6:
A well deserved trip to Iceland’s legendary Blue Lagoon was the perfect way to recover from the walking.
What a challenge, what a trek, what an amazing group of people! It is important to acknowledge that we couldn’t have done it without each other, but equally not to forgot the importance of why we did this challenge.
We all took on this challenge to support i2gether – a charity set up to give young vulnerable adults the help they need to become who they aspire to be.
From hard backgrounds of physical, sexual and mental abuse, i2gether give them opportunities to experience new positive challenges to help them improve their lives.
For our group, this challenge was hard and affected us all in different ways, but we still need your help.
Our challenge might be over, but their challenge is not! Any donation counts! We need your support so using the link below, donate today!
