On The Road And In The Bush

One of my tests was to see how easy or hard it is to exercise while travelling.

During a month-long architectural tour of Turkey it was more a question of time, as I was rarely in my hotel room except to sleep.  It was impossible to exercise during the day as we were driven here and there, then walking here and there, then sketching ehre and there.  I did a bit of stretching when I could, but it was difficult.  I had worked out a routine before I left witih advice from the Scoliosis SOS physios as to how to adapt several of the exercises, but few ended up being practical or possible.  No doors, tiny curved hallways and aisles, a wide double bed, and no surfaces at the right height (or strength) for pressing or hanging.

So I lost a bit of ground there.  But then I journeyed to Southern Africa for 2 months,and that was a real test, because I was camping in the bush under the stars, so no bed, no doors, no walls, and no room.

nothing to push or pull against here!

I tried to get creative while on safari and was delighted to find our truck had two (extremely uncomfortable) handles from which I could hang for the odd moments when the door was open and no one was entering or exiting the truck. 

I did find sympathetic landscapes, particularly in the harshest of locales, the Namib desert.  There's a spot there that seems bereft of life and hope, but I was able to connect my inner goddess to the petrified trees and salt ground and actually had perhaps the best workout of the entire trip!