Sunday saw the last "practice" climb for the
Nepal team, lead by the intrepid Dave's C and B over at Kinder Scout in the Peak District.

As we
drove up into the Peak District, it
seemed we sailed besides the oceans of past millennia as the land pulled
the shrouds of mist densely and
protectively against her - all very mystical and beautiful until we
hit a descent and ended up driving through
the "sea" - cue songs from The Little Mermaid (in our car at least - poor Jan!)
and lots of perplexed peering with the
SatNav advising of turnings no one could
see!
Within a few hours we had arrived and with a few last minute toilet trips, the team were assembled we began our climb
- gentle and rolling unlike the initial steep ascent of Snowdon (my only other
climb). At least this one was going to be fairly hassle
free...
Lesson there in speaking too soon!


Assured by
Dave C that it was now "all down hill from here", that really should be
the end of the adventure - we climbed down, had a cup of tea, and went home!
However, our off road adventure was far from over...

The first time I went down to my ankle, there was at least solid rock underneath. The next time there was nothing beneath and that feeling of not being put your foot on something solid, not even really having anything solid to push against with your other foot is disconcerting to say the least. Let's just say Mark F had more than his fair share of having to pull me out of things and up things. It was about to get boggier. When we crossed the flats (all quite pretty) my left leg sank to the ankle and my right leg sunk to the thigh. Bog goblins had captured me. I wasn't actually sure I was ever getting out of there, or that rescue was coming. When you're thigh deep and have to yell "Seriously, I can't get out!!!!" at your team, hope fades and the goblins giggle. With much hilarity and photo's from my team, Mark and Jan finally came back for me - pulled me up a few inches and then I stuck again. The fact that the land is so soft means no one really has anything solid to pull against, and if you get too close to the really bad bit, you're going to end up with three people in the rescue plane, not one. Not sure I actually would have been willing to share at that point, other than with my bog buddy April. Fortunately, with their strength and my barely concealed panic, we got me (and a large amount of bog in my boot) out. April and I now had matching muddy legs!
The journey
across the top was a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous - the views and
the sinking's. It's the kind of thing that could ruin a day's walk but
thanks to the camaraderie (mainly expressed through laughter and ill-timed
photo's) and team spirit, it weirdly seemed to make the day. If we can get
April and I across the Bog of Eternal Stench then Nepal should hold far less
fear for us together. We might have been dirty, but we were all in high
spirits when we finally reached that very epitome of happiness and security -
solid rock!
Apparently you
can tell when the walk got easier based on whether the girls chat was about
"oohhh it's hard", "aagghhh", "how much farther" or "ohh what are you packing",
"are you taking straighteners", "how much luggage can we
take?"
Important lesson
2 - "all down hill from here" is code for only at least two more climbs!
However, having escaped the bogs, the last climb only received a modicum of
whining and moaning from me, mainly about my sore knee's - and not so very reassuring reassurances that they'd hurt even more by the time we'd done the
final descent!! Turns out to be very true. I actually missed the
bogs as we came down what I at least consider to be sheer
rock.

We had a really
good day, hard work at times, hysterical (not always the laughter kind) most of
the time and definitely bonding with all the bog rescues.
The journey home
(bless poor Jan) with me, Sheleen and Julie was a medley of Disney Princess
songs (to say Jan was singing along would be mean, but not entirely untrue) and
enjoying the views that we missed thanks to the swathes of mist in the
morning!
Home at last, a good scrub in the shower, iced peas on my knees and lots of photo uploading later, I was ready for an early night.
Home at last, a good scrub in the shower, iced peas on my knees and lots of photo uploading later, I was ready for an early night.

You can donate towards the 50k whg has committed to raising for Homeless International here at http://tinyurl.com/sponsorcharlfornepal. To donate £2, text HOMELESS to 70099. You will be charged £2, plus one message at your standard network rate. 100% of your donation will be received by whg and passed on to Homeless International (registered charity number 1017255).
Homeless International are now known as Reall - visit them here http://reall.xyz/
Your own Motivate Bootcamp weekend can be booked here: https://motivatebootcamp.co.uk/
No comments:
Post a Comment