The life I lead is usually pretty exciting. Even when there are down days, there’s usually at least one epic adventure or exciting opportunity over the period of a week. However, this week was about as bland as they come for me. After arriving back to Skardu early from our successful summit of Spantik, I then made it back to Islamabad with no delays. This left me with eight days in an AirBnB in Islamabad. Chris ended up leaving early as his flight changed so for six days, I was solo in the apartment.
Part of me knew the rest was good but after catching up on all of my work for the first day or so, I had almost a week of good old plain boredom. I could tell my body, mind, and soul were fatigued after a few months of at-times difficult travel throughout Pakistan. I didn’t have the motivation or the energy to start any new projects. I settled with myself and simply finished my current projects and articles.
The only salvation from my boredom in the apartment was an outdoor gym, which was a 25-minute drive away. With nothing else to do, each day I would take an Uber (very cheap) to and from the gym and wander around a little after. I couldn’t afford to have a positive COVID test so I was really limiting my interactions with people. Netflix, gym, Youtube, home-cooking, skype calls and sleep-filled the week. It was honestly one of the most boring weeks of my life but I feel rested and ready for travel again, which is sometimes not the case.
Often with non-stop travel and this type of lifestyle, you don’t really crave the next adventure. You simply survive the transit and begin to enjoy it once you are there. However, a lacklustre week like mine in Islamabad has you looking forward to the next trip more than normal as you have something to compare with. Of course, I could have been out sightseeing in Islamabad to fill the time but I wasn’t too interested in a city tourist outing so I just made it through the days.
As always, there are no complaints just observations of different situations throughout my nomadic life. This week was an introspective seven days but the action is coming back. I’m about to head to Nepal for one of my biggest adventures yet.