Reminiscing never ends

Dan got reminiscing about Alaska,

His msn personal message reads:
A year has passed. My heart is still in Alaska =)

Kat says:
A little bit of an emo eh?

Dan says:
Of course la…
It’s like an anniversary leh..
Still remember
Dan the meat man
Kat the vege and pasta girl
Yukina the salad girl
Bryant the food stealer
Snoring in the tents

And we proceeded on to talking about who snored the loudest (Dan won hands down, by the way).

And then… I got to reminiscing. As I have been doing for this past 2 weeks, thinking: exactly a year ago, we’re already in Alaska. 

It must be the anniversary thing.

This is how our typical day would have ended. A crackling wood-fed fire will be burning somewhere near, tents set up, bikes stowed away and locked up, and all of us will be sitting around, waiting for dinner to be ready and trying to keep warm. Drinking our Gatorade powder + water mix.

Camping outside a backpacker’s lodge because they didnt have enough rooms for us. This was our first hot shower in days. You can imagine how long everyone took in the shower!

It’s not really Alaska that I missed the most, honestly. Alaska won’t be the Alaska to me if not for this expedition. I know, I’ve been going on and on and on about how I miss it, but… I really do!!

It was such great memories, not only of Alaska, but also of our training and planning stages in Singapore; the period when our entire lives just revolved around this expedition alone. Looking at the stillness of the photos struck me as how inadequate a photograph can be in capturing a memory sometimes.

If I close my eyes, and willed hard enough, I see Alaska clearly. It’s like someone hitting the rewind button in my head and I just transcend back in time. I can see the mountainous vastness, I can feel the wind hitting my face and rippling my clothes, I can smell the cold Alaskan air.

I printed our team’s entire blog and binded it as a momento, just in case our blog got closed down one day. Now I know why we wrote, it’s a fantastic way to remember.

An expedition is distinctly different from any other forms of travelling. It blends team camaraderie and, to an extent, a sense of exploration with travelling. It allows you to discover new grounds with the team you’ve been working with for a substantial amount of time.We share a bond, we share a connection. Even though we might have gone our own ways once this expedition ended, we still shared a significant chapter in our lives together.

They say that this is a ‘once in a lifetime’ chance, I’m hoping for this not to be.