Volcano boarding. DONE

Leon.

Not a great start to a place when you have to walk around in the rain with your rucksack on your back. 20 kilos of personal belongings that at times I have to say I hate. Not the items themselves but the bag as a whole, traipsing around from town to town, city to city, country to country with this massive, heavy burden stuck to my back.

I want to burn it and dance around the flames drinking and singing, thinking about the freedom I would have if only this monkey were gone, burnt to a crisp. Allowing me to manouver quick of foot and nimble through the crowds at the bus stations, down the streets at the market, oh to be able to glide in and out of the stream of people, like quicksilver I'd go, left foot, right foot, dodge to the left, spinning gracefully around the shifty looking local who starts his banter with "where are you from", slide to the right around the small boy with his ever begging hand outstretched.

But no. I am forever encumbered by this bulk on my back, hating it with a passion yet desperate to ensure it's safety.

Wow, I didn't realise I thought so much about my rucksack, I just thought I wanted it to be a bit lighter every now and again!!

So anyways, walking through Leon in the rain wasn't much fun but then we found the LazyBones hostel. Which was fortunate because we were with another English couple (who's names I have now forgotten - if you though my memory was bad at home, hell it's much worse when you meet so many people, I do try to remember names, I'm just no good at it. By the time I have asked someone it's as though their reply just goes in one ear and straight out again, literally, I can't remember what they say within seconds of them telling me!!) and I was kind of in charge of reading the map and getting us there, I thought I'd got us lost for a little while but my superior map reading skills paid off and there we were.

So the big thing in Leon to do (other than the usual drinking, lounging in a hammock, reading and going to eat things) is Volcano Boarding. You get to sledge down an active Volcano, cool. After poking Lava with a stick in Guatemala it is now kind of a challenge to see how many things we can do at Volcano's.

Have we told you about the Germans? I think not. When we were on Utila doing our diving we met a group of Germans who were diving too, and a Kiwi. We started hanging around as it's always more fun to drink and travel with other people, Katarina, Sebastian, Johannes and Biggie are German and Dave was from New Zealand.

Anyway in Leon we met up with them again and went for some drinks, the hostel that organised the Volcano Boarding also offered 25cordoba Mohitos, at 40 to the pound thats 62pence for a cocktail. So we had a few.

Right, next day, Volcano Boarding. Now I've mentioned before that Gini and myself are not the healthiest of people. And it should go without saying that volcanos are pretty big in their hilly mountain nes. These factors being the case I don't really know what I expected, not much thought went into it, which was something I was starting to regret as we were hiking once again up the side of a very steep volcano, but this time we were each carrying a big piece of wood that was going to serve as our sledges. IN 35degree heat, and we didn't bring enough water. I think it's fair to say that we were sulking. However once we were up there the view was amazing, the volcano was cool and I knew the trip down again would be much faster and involve much less walking.

So I am looking at what is essentially a plank of wood with a bit of rope attached to it and a piece of plastic stuck to the bottom to make it glide across the volcanic rocks that are the ground.

At this point I am thinking of the fact that the fastest recorded descent was 22 seconds and the guy travelled at 68kmph. So thats what I wanted to go for, obviously.

Our guide pointed out as we were looking down the volcano that we were about to throw ourselves off that the bit that looked like the bottom actually wasn't, that was just where the bottom half was too steep to see from the top!!

The girls went first and I must say Gini put on a damn fine display of volcano boarding for the first 10 seconds, much faster than the other girls and with no attempt to slow herself down. But alas gravity was just too much and off she fell, struggling to get back to her board as she just continued slipping down the slope. She did however get back on and continue at a good pace the rest of the way down.

Then it was my turn. I think I did very well considering. I'd got off to a good start, I reckon about 20mph or so but then the piece of rope that was my handle snapped and I was flung off my board. I was quite unhappy at this unfortunate incident, so I grabbed what was left of the rope and set off again. No braking and no slowing down (coz thats what the girls do!).

Now imagine if you will lots of tiny volcanic rocks being sprayed into your face, I was happy for the goggles we were given dont get me wrong, although they did a good job of trapping said rocks inside so they get right in your eyes. At the same time the same rocks were spraying up the backs of my legs, stripping the skin away as they did. It was like getting sandblasted.

So blinded by rocks and bleeding from the calves I accellerated down the volcano, this time I think I must have got to a good 30mph, or thats what it felt like when I came off in a spectacular fashion near the bottom. As I'm speeding down the board starts to spin sideways, I try to counteract it by shifting my weight slightly but it's too late, the edge of the board sticks in the rock and I highside off, landing on my face and shoulder, then rolling head over heels a few times before my bruised and bleeding body comes to a rest at the foot of the volcano.

Oh how I laughed!! It's a shame the top was so far away because with that practice run I think I could have done much better a second time!!

This happened about a month ago. My shoulder still hurts :-)