So, if you were wondering what all the fuss in the last article was about, here goes....

We awoke and mobilised. Crossing the river wasn't easy, the water was rapid and the gear made it tough work.

After an hour trekking north we both knew something was not right. It became clear that the Lonely Planet map was not accurate and we needed to swing more west.

And so, we left the path to climb a large hill, with what looked like a separate path going up.

This was not so, but we had made some progress until we realised. Half way up it began to get difficult, as stones departed from our footholds.

The more we climbed the higher the hill seemed to appear, and I was realising this was more of a mountain.

Three quarters the way up and my energy was sapped, i was sweating heavily and panic had entered the fray. We paused to catch our breath and rued our colossal error.

It was too hard to go back down, too far, too easy to slip. We parted company, I was breaking the only branches and stones were falling on Pauline. I traversed left and found myself in danger. The bushes I had gone towards were on a really steep section. At this point the peril became real, there was no phone reception, and we hadn't seen a soul in over 24 hours - our lives were in the balance.

Where was the second wind? I couldn't see Pauline anymore and there was no replies to my shouts. I threw the tent from my bag, as the heaviest item it had to go. After two more rushing climbs I was still struggling. I threw my sleeping bag, mat, army knife, salt and pepper and Lonely Planet.

The bag was lighter now and so I grit my teeth and went for it. Ten minutes later I was crawling toward the top seriously dehydrated and lips blistered badly. I couldn't collapse yet - I walked across the top and saw Pauline about 15 minutes below, stopped at some bushes. She threw out some oil and water and started to climb again - I abandoned my plans to run for help and waited anxiously. She hit a snag at two bushes but squeezed through before I scurried down to the last rock to grab her bag and we scrambled to the top.

Emotional and expended we could finally rest. As soon as humanely possible we checked our location. We had to walk for 20 minutes before finding a sheer canyon drop at the other side. We were nearly out of water and there was no way down...