I’ve always considered myself a bit of a coward, afraid to take myself out of my comfort zone.

When I was a child and there was a full-on snowball fight I would often take myself home, not wanting to experience cold snow down the back of my neck. On the other hand, I did teach myself to swim (eventually) and even swim underwater, although I have lost the confidence to do that now. Therefore, the challenge of a gorge walk both frightened and inspired me, especially after having been to Crete 7 years earlier and attempted to walk the Samaria Gorge – ten miles down steep, rocky terrain which I then failed to complete, my husband, Angus, challenged me to do the Imbros Gorge instead – five miles of rocky terrain which he thought would be much more level to descend. Here we both are at the start of the gorge, when the reality of it sets in!

As you can see, Angus is fairly confident, having already conquered Samaria a few days earlier, but I look rather tense and uncertain.

And the terrain isn’t that level in places with rather large rocks to negotiate.

Some of the ground, in the first image does look more level with smaller rocks but these parts were sandwiched in between much steeper and larger rocks, as the strain starts to show….Towards the end I had to take Ibuprofen for the pain in my back and legs. I was also so tired that I fell against a rather large rock (I still have the bruise on my hip). Angus, at the time, was a bit ahead of me studying the map, when, a large, muscly German man put his hands under my arms and winched me upright. That was quite an experience!

Then at last the end was in sight and we could see the sea and the road….

As you can see the relief and sheer joy on our faces is tangible! After three and a half hours we had conquered the challenge. Sore and exhausted, yes, but I was delighted to think that I had pushed myself beyond my usual comfort zone and triumphed. It was one of the hardest 5 miles of my life but also the most encouraging. Sometimes perhaps it is good to push ourselves beyond our usual milestones just to prove that perhaps we are a little braver than we thought we were.