It’s been a busy week this week and last night I slept the best part of 13 hours. Not my usual night and not recommended on a regular basis, but I certainly feel more awake today than I have all week.
After Sunday night’s swim, I was looking forward to a relaxing week. Tuesday shot that idea down in flames when I started putting dinner on. Nothing complicated, cold ham and boiled potatoes. No sooner had I lit the gas that the pager went off. Turning everything off, I changed quickly and jumped in the car. I was in base within minutes and gettign vehicles sorted. Jumping into Alpha with Dave, we headed up the lane, blue lights flashing. We had two people lost on the Beacons and there was information that they were injured. Heading up over the A470 we aimed for Brecon.
The RV was a large are of grass in front of a farm. Pretty soon we had landrovers and control vehicles from several teams, ambulances and police cars not to mention the many personal vehicles that had turned up. Unusually we didn’t have any spectators from the farm and after sending up a few flares, the hill parties quickly found the casualties. With less injuries than we initially thought, the hill parties walked the lost pair from the hill and we packed up and headed home.
After we got back to base, we parked everythign and reset all the vehicles ready for the next shout – as always. We checked the kit quickly, marked up the few small faults we had (nothing but cosmetic faults) and closed up base. I headed home, looking forward to some food. I walked into the house and turned the gas back on under the potatoes before doing anything – I needed some dinner now. Only thing was, that by the time I’d walked back to the living room the pager was going off again. Running to turn the gas off, I headed out of the house for a second time.
Up to base again – we had a search this time for a 75 year old woman. Alpha was leaving as I arrived, the first response vehicle had left already. John and I set up Echo ready to leave and when the last few had arrived we headed off into Llanishen in Cardiff. This was one of those fast-moving searches, with updated information coming in rapidly. No sooner were we tasked to an area that new information came in and we were re-tasked. It was around 0100 that the police found her on North Road.
Another night of Mountain Rescue.