2003/10 Karamu walkway lesson .

One Saturday I phoned young Jeremy and asked him if he wanted to try the Karamu walkway at the top of the deviation heading for Raglan . 

 

I asked him if he had water and he told me that he didn't need water on a day trip . I told him he should carry some and he refused . I offered him my spare water bottle and insisted he carry it and he refused . I said to him " Ok , but don't ask to drink any of my water !" , he told me he wouldn't need to .... see where this is heading ??

 

It is also known as the "4 Brothers scenic reserve " .

We had made the false assumption that it was a loop track that would take us back to the car .... not so .
We had walked for about an hour when Jeremy asked for a drink of water .... I answered " But you don't need water on a day trip !? " .
Half an hour later he asked again and I said to him  " You told me you don't need water on a day trip !" , he said to me " I lied " - I told him "Now you're going learn what happens to liars  ..... if you don't carry your own water you endanger everyone else on a trip " ....

The second half of the walk has good scenery , after "old mountain road" , the bit before that isn't so good .

At this point I noticed Jeremy edging toward my pack .. and the water so I quickly grabbed it .

It was two hours now and we realized it wasn't a loop track and decided to keep going to the end of the road . Jeremy had started begging for water by this time . I told him " If you are on a trip with a group of people and don't carry water everyone suffers " , he told me "Ok I believe you , now give me some water " . I told him "No , you'll never learn to listen if you don't find out the hard way " [ since he argued so much in the beginning ] .

 

  I told him to go and drink some of that water - we had seen a dead cow nearby , and he refused . I showed him some cows footprints with water in them and said "there's some water " . He said " I'm not drinking that !" so I said to him " Then obviously you're not that thirsty '' and had a last mouthful out of my water bottle and slowly poured the last bit on the ground ....... 

We could see we were near civilization anyway .....

After about three hours we came to a stream - he asked if I thought it was safe to drink . I told him " Look at it this way - if you drink it and get sick you can take tablets later .... if you don't drink it and collapse I'm not carrying you home !"

You should have seen him dig in to that water !

Anyway we ended up on a farm road and found out that we had about 20 km to go to get back to the car . Eventually we found a  farm close to the road with some people at home - we were given some chocolate and orange juice [ quite a combination! ] . The guy there kindly gave us a lift back to our car and saved us about 15 km of walking ! 

Just for the record - ever since that walk Jeremy carries water with him , especially when he goes with me !