The last day of the long 110 km walking expedition in the wilderness of Spain… Exhausted, but joyful and wild, our climbers are finishing their path to Salamanca today – only 18 kilometers are left to the final destination… Was it as easy as it sounds on paper?

On the very beginning the journey seemed like a hell: 30 people were soaking wet because of 6 hours of rain. Cold, wet and hungry they got lost in the nature. It was scary! It was hard, but our walkers had in mind one thing from the very beginning – after all they are there to feel and experience wilderness…!

The second day surprised hikers in a good way – there was no rain, and it did not feel so scary to get sick in the middle of nowhere anymore. Clouds and sunshine were changing the sky and it felt better to walk. Maybe because of no rain our brave „30“ lost again, but only once…

Day 3… With a feeling as if the Apocalypse was coming the team woke up – no one had any strength left, it was cold, it was foggy, it was discouraging… And unexpectedly one healing recipe came up: people started hugging each other exchanging their body warmness. Even through the fog they got a destination point and enjoyed a breathtaking view on the mountain, from where the climbers saw: the fog was covering both sides of the valley.

The next day our TOP 30 was joined by another 30 of their twins – shadows – the weather was sunny and warm sunshine was absolutely cheering up our walkers. „We were flowing like the legions on the ancient Roman route, fulfilled with silence, only hearing the voices of our footsteps. Maybe we were preparing ourselves for our longest path,“ – wrote a team member in the blog walking2wild10.wordpress.com

On the very pre-last day our walkers faced another obstacle: the strong wind was following their steps and sometimes attacking in front. Also the team was going through places with cliffs, so even one small stone could turn out in a really bad outcome – downfall.

 Today is the last day… „I think we are good. I feel sort of alive and very excited with the result we’ve made… After such a long walking, my body got used to it, in spite of the pain in my muscles. Now we are walking the last 18 km which seems nothing already,“ – said Milena Zaharieva, the leader of the Bulgarian group.

Finally! In a few hours our brave „30“ will reach Salamanca! There they will have a recovering rest, after which the conference about experiencing the wilderness will begin! We all keep our fingers crossed for them to reach successfully the final destination!

This article is written by Oles Gardzhuk, 21, from Ukraine.
He is part of the SMART Foundation’s team
as an EVS volunteer for the following 9 months.

You can read about this project and the role of SMART foundation here: http://smart-f.eu/get-back-to-life-be-wilder-or-revival-in-the-middle-of-nowhere/

Or you can follow the walkers on http://walking2wild10.wordpress.com/