The Climb of Death

One of my dreams has been to go for a walking trip along the Coastal Path in the south of England.

So yesterday, Jacob, Julian and I set out from Land's End. The Coastal Path is beautiful, but challenging as a path. It winds up and down, along the edges of cliffs; we climbed over, through, and up and down rock outcroppings.

In a couple of places it was unclear as to where the path was...One of those occasions we have named the "Climb of Death".

We had come to a small cove. Their was a place for cars to park and a few people wandering around. The path seemed go travel along the large (3-5 foot tall boulders). There was, in fact, a man made cement pathway on top of the rocks which we took to be the path.

There was an older couple that looked like they had been hiking the path (they had walking sticks) going the opposite direction we were. I asked them where the path was. They said something like... "Tide is coming in, can't go that way"...But it was unclear exactly what they meant so we pressed on.

By this time we were climbing over huge stones that had fallen over the path. To our left was the Atlantic Ocean. The tide was coming in. To our right was a high steep hill. At one point, we realized that there was no getting over the rock we were on; we backtracked, found another...

By this time we were at the foot of the hill/cliff. It looked like, if we could scale it, we would be able to meet with the coast path at the top of the hill.

Jacob said, "Let's do this."

Julian started up. Julian has a fear of heights so I was amazed at how fast he was moving up the hill. Later he said that the "fear of death" makes one perform at a "high level."

Halfway up the hill I looked back. It was a long way down. A slip and we were dead, smashed on the jagged rocks far below.

Finally, Julian scrambled over the top. The last 10 yards or so seemed like a 90% angle (even though I'm sure it wasn't). At that point I made a major mistake. I looked back and thought to myself.

"Oh my goodness. What have I done. One of us is going to die."

Jacob said, "Dad, stop for a minute." We rested. I was worried that the backpack he carried was making it hard for him to stay close to, grip the grass.

He said he was ok.

There was nothing to do but go forward. My legs were shaking. I grabbed the turf, sunk my fingers deep in the soil, and scrambled, up, and over, the top of the cliff. Soon Jacob followed.

The worst was over. But we found out that we still had a climb ahead of us. Our legs and hands got torn by the blackberries and gorse (?) prickly bushes. But, we didn't care, we were alive!

Finally, we came to the top of the hill. There was the path. Two hikers were walking past; they had a strange look on their face as they saw us coming towards them, sweating, bloody, chests heaving, etc.

I turned to Julian: "You passed the test, son; you faced the greatest fear of all, death. You looked it in the face and went on."