Wow. It’s just not stopped this weekend.
It started badly as I was late picking up the cadets for the DoE practice. I think I broke my Landy last week too, but it’s driveable though with care.
We got to Abergavenny squadron and started off badly as we watched the cadets turn the wrong way. We took a shortcut and they suddenly turned a corner to find us standing there.
“Right, quick quiz. Why do you usually find staff or officers waiting for you and stopping you on your route?”
“Because we’re going the wrong way sir?”
“Correct.”
Several navigational cockups later, and we finally got out of Abergavenny. We reached checkpoint 3 (supposed to be there by 1030, actually arrived at 1400) and stopped for lunch, where Matt and I decided to not attempt the summit and instead head around. The cadets were a little deflated, but with the dark clouds threatening, we mde the choice we felt was safest. As it turned out, the clouds didn’t make good on their promise, but it would have been dark before we got them off the mountain and that was unacceptable.
So we came down to the campsite and got them sorted before Matt and I toddled back to Abergavenny to get my Landy and our tents and stuff. Chicken and chips in Abergavenny was tea, rapidly followed by about 3 litres of water for me – I was quite dehydrated after the day’s walk. As it turns out, for good reason.
The next day was better, though after a crap navigational start and one cadet bugging out due to lack of fitness, we made the summit without much more fuss. Happy, if somewhat cold faces all around. While we were eating lunch at the trig point on Sugar Loaf, one of the cadets got a call to say his mother had been taken ill, so we marched all four cadets off to the car park where we’d arranged to get SqnLdr Ken Pudney (Wing Adventure Training officer) to meet us. As we arrived at the car park, my pager went off. *sigh* Here we go.
So I jump in a car and head off to fetch my Landy and get the message that there’s an elderly gentleman with Alzheimer’s missing and that the RV is Llangadog creamery. Er, right, so that’s about an hour west.
Off I go along the A40(T) and get to Llangadog, where we start searching. Within an hour or two of us arriving, we find the gentleman, safe but confused. The son-in-law was obviously happy and grateful for what we’d done and came around and personally thanked all of us and shook our hands.
It’s days like this that remind me why I do this.