Yesterday we walked for
about fourteen miles. We were out walking for about ten hours. I
finally went to bed at 1am. So why on Earth was I wide awake at 5am?
I tried to get back to sleep, but it wasn't happening. After an hour
I gave up and got up, made some brekkie and watched more of my
Introduction to Psychology lectures. Today we were learning about how
the brain (usually) perceives where things are in the world. Or
sometimes doesn't. And then with it still being far too early on a
day off I did the monthly accounts. They aren't too bad really. They
could be a whole lot worse.
I looked out of the
window at 7.30am to see it was raining hard. I had mixed feelings
about that. On the one hand it didn't bode well for the day off. On
the other hand I smiled. The original plan for this weekend was
camping. We would have set up the tents yesterday morning and would
have been camping last night waking to a very wet and cold morning.
Perhaps things have turned out for the best after all?
After a bit of mucking
about we made sandwiches and put Fudge's lead on. the weather
forecast was against us, but a day off is not to be wasted. We
collected some partners in crime and drove up to Birling where three
of us and two small dogs went for a geo-walk. We started well, but
after a while found ourselves stymied on a golf course. We racked our
brains, solved the puzzle and found the cache. We did struggle with
some others though. One was supposedly in ivy; we couldn't find it.
And the presence of a nest of baby birds made us give up a search. We
didn't want to disturb them.
Having found twelve out
of fourteen caches in the rain we found a sheltered spot under a tree
by a river where we had picnic lunch. We had a dilemma. We had done
one of the circuits of the walk. We were wet through. The car was
nearby. Should we carry on with the walk or should we give up and goo
home. I was keen to continue -- as I said before I am on a mission to
get three hundred this month. You don't get a high score by giving up
and going home. er indoors TM" and
Hurksy were already wet through to their pants and both proudly
boasted that they couldn't get any wetter. So we decided to carry on.
It is possible that (with
the benefit of hindsight) we might have made the wrong decision.
By the time we got as far from the car as we were going to get we
were all rather cold and wet. "Furry Face TM"
looked far more like a sea-lion than he looked like a dog, and er
indoors TM"'s notebook had been reduced to
mulch. I think it's fair to say that we reached a low point at cache
22. Fudge was whining and grumbling; his tail was between his legs.
He *never* does that on a walk. And cache 22's description was all
about a trig point in a field which simply wasn't there. Resisting
the urge to cry for my mother I suggested that we left this cache and
moved on to the next one. As we walked I checked the clue for cache
22. I won't say what the clue said, but it described a hidey-hole. I
suggested that as we walked on to cache 23 we looked for trampled
down undergrowth near anything matching the clue's description. Would
you believe it - just as we found something matching the
description the rain stopped. And as er indoors TM"
pulled the cache from the hidey-hole so the sun came out.
I won't say that he
weather was glorious from then on. It wasn't. We were wet, but we
started to dry out. Both dogs' tails lifted up and started wagging.
We DNF'ed one more cache along the way, but despite the dreadful
weather we ended up having found thirty three out of thirty six
caches. The descriptions of the route had told us that the route was
one of six miles; our sat-navs registered a distance of ten miles. It
had been a wet walk, but it had been a good walk for the dogs with
good company.
I was a little concerned
about how late we had finished the walk, so abandoning the plaans to
go on to more caches we set off homewards. I sent off a message of
apology to the astro club. I was going to be late. I got a message
back. I wasn't going to be late. I was going to be a week early.
Woops! We could have gone on to have done some more caching after
all. But perhaps it was for the best that we'd set off homewards.
Once home we got wet waterproofs drying, and bathed Fudge. He needed
a bath.
Whilst we were out postie
had been. He'd brought a letter from the council telling us about
refuse collection arrangements. There's going to be far fewer rubbish
collections, and we will be expected to recycle a lot moire stuff. I
expect that will be a good thing once everyone gets used to the
idea...
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