This Is My Secret: The Blog and Website of Writer Kristin Cashore

We started up a fairly steep, winding dirt path, wanting to see if it led to a beautiful and isolated spot where we might make camp for the night.

After a while, we realized that given the steepness of the terrain, we should really go back down to the car and get our gear. Why do this climb twice?

Shortly thereafter, with packs on our backs, we started up the path again. Our packs contained food, a tent, two sleeping bags, two Thermarests (camping mattresses), a lot of water, and warm layers, and let’s be honest, Kevin was carrying most of it. I can carry a decent pack, but I don’t have a lot of experience carrying a heavy pack up steep terrain.

We had a map to our hoped-for destination, but it quickly became clear that the map showed a pretty straight representation of a path that was actually composed of steep switchbacks. Occasionally, a section of the path was covered with clumpy snow. Ah yes, we thought. We’ll be encountering occasional snow. 

We reached an unexpected stream that…

I'm no longer in Rwanda. Can you guess where I am?

In my new location, it would be offensive to take recognizable pictures of people, which means it's also hard to take pictures of, well, anything, except in more isolated areas. So, before I get to the pictures, I'll start by saying that I might have taken a picture of the guy who cut open a coconut for us to drink. I might have taken a picture of cars driving on the left, through narrow, sunny streets. I might have taken a picture of a small, beautiful mosque, surrounded by cows that each had a distinctive hump behind its neck.

In this location, I cover my shoulders and upper legs when I'm in public, out of respect. The population is mostly Muslim and many men wear a fez. People keep trying to match Dave up with me or Stephanie, assuming one of us must be his wife; it doesn't occur to them that we are simply three traveling friends, maybe even with significant others at home. A cheerful man asked me yesterday, whe…