I was absolutely all-in
when I went to bed last night. I was wide awake and having my morning
shave at 4am. My morning DVD fix of "Earth 2" was
quite entertaining; featuring the bald one out of "Lost"
as the latest baddie.
I then took "Furry
Face TM" for his morning constitutional.
It was raining, so we didn't go as far as perhaps we might have done.
The rain was that annoyingly fine rain - fine enough to make you
think it;'s not actually raining, but wet enough to make everything
soaking wet.
Lisa came round and we
set off to Maidstone. A while back Lisa had arranged to do some
extreme caching. Having found myself on the verge of a milestone
cache I thought I might tag along. Steve had been wonderful in
offereing to get us up the tree; Joe and Ian were marvellous to offer
their advice and assistance. We arrived in Madstone to find ropes
already in place. Ropes - this was no amateur muck-about.
This
geocache wasn't especially difficult to find. In fact I could see
it from forty yards away. Trouble was those forty yards were "up".
The cache was clearly visible towards the top of a tree. Fortunately
for us Steve showed us how the ropes worked, and as young Jesse made
his ascent (to his one hundredth cache) Lisa and I practiced
(under expert supervision) on lower branches.
Pulling yourself up a
tree takes some doing; in theory it is simple, in practice it is
physically hard work. In retrospect those who had been up the tree
before me had gone about eighteen inched too high up the rope and had
not given themselves enough slack. Being last up I learned from their
mistakes and once I was half a mile off the ground I found the
tree-bit and cache signing relatively straight forward. I must admit
that I felt I did choose a rather good cache for #2500 as I did the
secret geo-ritual at the top of the tree.
I amazed myself on the
descent. I shoulted down to ask for instructions. I was told to but
all my weight on the rope and to get off the tree. Scary? Funnily
enough it wasn't. I have been scared in trees before when I was only
a few feet off the ground. But I was so high that I knew that if
anything went wrong it wouldn't hurt; I'd be dead. And knowing that
somehow gave me an inner calm. I just did as I was told and came down
(mostly) under control. But certainly far faster than I went
up.
We then went on to
another cache up another tree. I went on to the tree, but not the
cache. My baack was still playing up from doing the duck houses at
the weekend, and my arm was still in cramps from the first tree
ascent. But it was good to watch others going up. And with everyone
up who was going up we adjourned to the local pub for a crafty half.
Again, many grateful thanks to Steve, Joe and Ian for sharing their
skills, abilities and kit. Despite the cold and the wet it was great
fun.
Home, where I shaved my
head and painted it silver before going round to Lacey's Hallowe'en
party. Staging a Hallowe'en party for fifteen seven year old girls is
a brave thing to do. Personally I quite enjoyed the performance. I
was quite impressed with llittle Sasha; her mother had warned us that
she was very quiet and rather shy. The child was the life and soul of
the party, and on several occassions had to be restrained from
showing off her "business" to all and sundry.
And then once all the fur
had stopped flying we went round to the WIndmill in Hythe Road where
the clans had gathered to support "Access
All Areas"; a local band with whom several of us feel we
have a connection Good tunes, good company. And I even scared
someone in the lavatory too...
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