I did not get a break.
So yesterday as I started winding up and preparing to go home, the pager went off. An area standby for a rescue on Hay’s Bluff near Hay on Wye. So I headed up to base and caught the first response vehicle about to leave. Jumping on board, we headed off for what is a bit of a trek. We finally got to the pass just as the hill party was within 500m of the road and we pulled up to the incident as the pagers announced that “no further personnel required.” We jumped out and chatted for a while before deciding it was time to head home. Waiting in the Landrover, our deputy team leader’s phone rang – it was Dyfed Powys police asking us to attend an incident in the waterfalls – a missing couple, one with a leg injury.
We quickly got things arranged and headed off down the road for a mostly uneventful blue light drive back to the waterfalls – on the other side of our area. We did have one rather exciting moment thanks to a patch of ice but it wasn’t until we got to Brecon that things started getting really interesting. As we were approaching Brecon, Huw, the deputy team leader’s pager went off. There was what looked like a third incident ongoing. Palming that one onto our team leader for a moment, we continued our journey down to the waterfalls. With hill parties heading into the area from four directions it wasn’t long before we found the casualties. We brought them back to base and had time to relax with a cup of coffee. This third incident was looking like a washout as we packed up to head home to re-pack the kit and refuel the vehicles.
Unfortunately, on the way home, the message came over the radios – our presence was required and so once again we were off. We all went via base to regroup – some people had to head off and we refuelled and put one vehicle back in the garage before driving off. The RV was near Bridgend and the Western Beacons team had already been called so we headed down. We then spent the rest of the night searching – I can’t really go into detail at the moment, but we didn’t get back to base until around 01hrs. We packed the vehicles up and I headed home to a nice comfortable bed.
Works seems like a break after all this…