„The Path of Shugenja VIII (Revival)“ was held

The eight edition of the legendary seminar known as „The Path of Shugenja”, created another feat that will forever be remembered and retold by the future generations of warriors from Bujinkan Macedonia. In 20 hours of nonstop marching through varied terrain, two of the participants in the event managed to walk a road 100 kilometers long.

The starting point began in front of TC Biser in the municipality of Aerodrom, while the end goal was to arrive at the Homby Dojo of the Organization  „Taiyou e no Michi“ in the valley under the mountain of Lipac. 

For the seminar there were declared 10 members of Bujinkan Macedonia, who under the leadership of the instructor Igor Dovezenski exactly at 07.00 began their journey.

The first 35 kilometers went by almost routinely, thanks to the great stamina that the members of the dojo poses, of course reached through the strong psycho – physical training during the year.

During the climb on the hills above the village of Vince, in a few participants the first signs of a crisis started to appear, caused mostly by a lack of drinking water.

To clarify, what is being discussed is an area that is quite dry and devoid of water, and the main obstacle to the Homby Dojo is the Gradistanska Mountain which is nine kilometers wide, and 30 kilometers long. Those that are familiar with the terrain in the Kumanovo area, know that although it’s a question of low mountains, climbing them is quite hard because of the terrace like hills that the mountains are made of. Or simply said, behind ever hill walked, a new one looms, with regularly deep and impassible ravine, and all of it filled with a dense, low and thorny impassible vegetation, which often causes walking on all fours.

Exactly during the climb of the penultimate hill in the area of the village Kolicko, with 43 kilometers conquered, in one of the participants cramps appeared, after which the movement of the group was severely impaired. In that moment, the leader of Bujinkan Macedonia – Igor Dovezenski, had to make a seemingly strange decision meaning to change the direction to the west or rather to go back in a wide arc to the nearest village where there was transport to the nearest city.

After a short briefing about the nature of the decision, the group descended to the village of Pcinja, from where onwards three participants continued: Igor Dovezenski, Sanja Simonova and Taki Gakovski. With a strong march, in a couple of hours they reached Kumanovo, where Simonova had to cancel any further travel because of wracking pains in the muscles and a fever caused by the huge strain.

At 03.00 hours in the morning, exhausted, but with a bright spirit, after 20 hours of constant walking, at the end line before the door of the Homby Dojo arrived Igor Dovezenski and his close student Taki Gakovski. At the same time they toppled the previous record of 80 kilometers passed, set during “The Path of Shugenja III” in the year 2009.

In the end, we want to congratulate all those who participated in the seminar, regardless if the finished it or not, for the bravery to sign up meaning to be a part of such an unusual event, which is nearly unfathomable for the majority of the population of world.