I have a bad leg, so Jeremy and I opted to take the tram as far as it would take us and walk the rest of the way, bringing it down to a 2 mile walk. What we didn't know was that this walk was not on pavement, it was a hiking trail. Now mind you I'm wearing boots, as in the decorative kind, not the hiking kind, a light sweater, a scarf, a heavy coat, and an umbrella as it was raining off and on. I was not prepared for a hike. As I started sweating through my layers, poor Jeremy quickly became a pack mule.
We were only a third of the way there when I started thinking I might not be able to make it, but what were we to do? We were climbing the whole time so the way back was a steep, slippery decline. My leg actually does better with ascension than descension, so we pushed onward. I think I would have done a lot better were there benches or rocks to rest on. The trees were covered in sopping wet moss so I couldn't lean against them, either.
We finally reach a sign that says we're half way there. I am now started to make goals for myself, like "Okay, I'll reach that tree and stop" or "Just to that bend in the road". We should be reaching our destination soon. I'm thirsty (we hadn't brought water), wet, my bad leg hurts, and the rest of me aches because, let's face it, I'm no athlete so even without a bum leg a 2 mile hike is good exercise, when we spot another post mark. We still have 0.6 km to go, or a little over a third of a mile. My heart drops, we had felt so much closer than that! I felt so defeated. Jeremy walked ahead a little bit to check something out and lo and behold! Another post saying we were actually only 0.1 km away!
With that encouraging news, I plod onward, thinking about the cute goats, water, goat cheese, music, and whether farmer Moustache has an impressive mustache. The path brings us to the back of the fort, so we head 'round front to find . . . an empty parking lot and a closed off fort. They must have cancelled due to inclement weather which we wouldn't have known since we didn't go to the original meet-up at the farm. No goats, no goat cheese and goat meat, no music, and no mustachioed farmer. This also means no shuttle back and more walking to do.
The outside of the fort looked pretty neat, except for the fact that people treat the empty moat as a trash bin, and the view of the city was amazing. After absorbing it all in for about 5 mins, we looked to our left and saw a huge storm coming our way and had to book it. We opted for a longer 2.5 mile walk that would keep us on asphalt and a steady, slow decline and my leg actually held up fairly well on that all things considered.
At the end of the day it wasn't fun, but it was definitely worth it. That was the most I have been able to walk in almost 2 years and being able to accomplish it, though poorly, made me feel really good about myself and hopeful for a future when my disability doesn't define me.