Adventures of Adrenalin Barbie

Kenya 08

2008-09-22T22:03:00.018+01:00

When I first joined scouts, I never for one minuet imagined that one day I was going to end up running round in the middle of Kenya being chased by elephants or woken in the middle of the night by lions! If you had told me that three years ago you would have probably got a reply like;

"What me in Kenya, I don't think so some how, that’s where they have big animals and insects and snakes!" Well what a difference 3 years can make

Looking back though, it dose seem hard to believe that I actually got there! It's still overwhelming to think that a month ago I was in the middle of one of the most beautiful places in the world with some of the most amazing people I had ever met! The fact that it all seems so surreal is that we found out about it over a year and a half ago and every single part of my life from that point seems to have been geared to going on the trip.

The journey getting there was almost as challenging as the trip it's self. As well as attending the training weekends and selection day, we had the daunting task of raising £2000 expedition fees as well as the money to buy all our kit and not forgetting the vaccination and medical fees! I know for sure I wouldn’t have been able to go if it wasn't for the support and help everyone gave me, especially JCH, the Brian Sellars Scout trust fund and the Alec Oats funds. With out them I wouldn't have made it and I know I'm really lucky that I got so much help and support.

We didn’t have time to take in our surroundings when we eventualy managed to get through customs in Nairobi as it was dark and due to the fact, Kenya wasn't the most stable of countries at that precise time we had to go straight from the airport to our first base camp at Hill Crest Boarding school on the outskirts of Nairobi.

The next day we awoke to a day of preparation. (As if we hadn’t done enough already!) We spilt of into our teams to prepare all group kit such as machetes, shade sheets, spades, and most

importantly the food and water. We were slightly perturbed to find that our staple diet consisted of Alpen, savoury mince, tuna, corned beef and angle delight. (As well as a few other goodies and surprises. Such as the 5 teabags per person a day rations.)

The next day was an early start, as we had to cover a lot of distance in one day on pretty poor roads if we wanted to arrive at base camp 2 in daylight. We were crossing the country in giant army trucks; this was the first real glimpse of Kenya that we got. The crowded dusty roads, the busy cities and the quiet mud hut villages. It was like two opposites, the built up areas had smart business people going to work, and the villages had children playing barefoot in the dust. It was surreal. But the most jaw dropping view was the rift valley as it fell away beneath us. The journey lasted 8 hours plus two stops, as it was a scouting expedition we decided to stop at

Baden-Powel’s grave to pay our respects and then gate crash his bungalow.(Where spiny now features in the guest book!) However the majority of the journey was spent in true scouting spirit, singing songs or using our amazing ability to be able to sleep anywhere.

(Even in a truck going on tracks not unlike some of the stuff you would find over houndkirk or Totley moss.)

We were sharing our base camp with two other teams, Camel trek B and the community service team. It was quite daunting as we drew nearer and the rolling hills gave way to thick bush and dusty tracks, with ecathia trees with 4 inch thorns. We had a bit of a shock when we

arrived at base camp, as the blue skies suddenly turned black and the scorching sun gave way to an outburst of tropical rain storms. So much for "All ways being prepared." our reluctantly packed waterproofs were shoved in the bottom of our kit bags! We huddled in the truck as we waited for it to stop, to paint a picture for how heavy rain it was, if you leant your head out the window you would get hit in the face by the rain coming back from the ground.

Thankfully the rain only lasted two hours, so we ended up putting up camp in the setting sun. Our team was on the first nights "Watch." It was essential to have a night watch rota whilst we were out in the bush, otherwise we may have woken up with some not so friendly neighbours. (Although from experience I can tell you that not even watches can prevent this some times!)

Watch consisted of getting out of your lovely warm sleeping bag, and bumbling over to the fire, where you were handed a hot drink by the pair before you, who went to bed as soon as they were sure you were awake. And then you and your partner spent an hour drinking hot drinks, scanning the darkness surrounding you with a torch and building up stupidly big fires, we had some quite eventful watches, which evolved the camp being surrounded by hyenas, a lion getting to close for comfort and a herd of elephants splashing in a dam. It was one of the scariest yet exiting feelings in the world when your torch hit a pair of eyes coming out of the bush. I was so glad that I got put on watches mainly with people who knew what to do. (Aka. The Kenyan scouts, and the camp leaders. ) (I was not impressed when one of the guys I was on the last night with decided to fall asleep and wouldn’t wake up! This just happened to be the night the camp was visited by a lion.)

When we met the camels we were surprised at how big they were, and how ugly! They looked nothing like the camel Amy and I drew at our training weekend (MR.DARCEY)

I'm not going to subject you to a day by day account of the trek as I don't think I’d fit everything one post! But a basic day went like this;

5:30- Get up
6:30- Have camp taken down, camels loaded and set off walking.
7:00 to 7:30- stop for breakfast. (A yummy packet of Alpen. yay! can you detect the subtle hints of sarcasm?)
WALK- between 10 and 20Km a day.
Around 11:30-12:30 - arrive at the day’s camp. (Usually a random spot next to a river or dam.)
From 12:30 to 6:30- Set up camp, do slightly crazy scoutish things eat two meals, do some project work, do more stupid things and then go to bed.) (Setting up camp involved, lighting fires, putting up shade sheets, digging toilets, ECT.)

Walking

Whilst we were walking we managed to stop and do some weird and wonderful things, ranging from spotting 78 different species whilst we were in Africa, most of which we were some of the luckiest people in the world as we got to see some of the rarest animals in Africa on foot within a distance of 20 meters. (Wild African Hunting dogs.) we even got pretty close to some elephants.

(Too close in some cases.

We even managed to get a wee bit of bouldering in. We came across a rock that looked as if it had been the inspiration for pride rock (In the lion King.) we just casually decided to eat our packets of Alpen sat at the top. The rock its self was about 3 times the height of stannage, and the view was spectacular, you could see for miles and there was not one sign of civilisation. There were no buildings just a blanket of rolling hills, stretching away into the horizon. The only movement came from the birds flying around us. I would have quite happily stayed up there all day, however we only had time to take in the view, eat our Alpen. (Whilst doing so me and Keith decided to make an advertisement, to try and make it more appealing after 5 days.) And we had to go down, as each day we were in a race against the sun, as no one was capable of braving the midday sun.

We did the walking and thankfully the camels carried out kit. It was a good job, as we weren’t used to temperatures of high 30's and 40's. It was very intensive and we had to stop a lot, as people were getting slightly dehydrated and suffering from mild cases of heat stroke. Even the smallest thing took maximum effort, out there.

Other slightly interesting aspects of the walks included, watching the guys who were meant to be in charge of the gun, jump of a 40ft waterfall to have a swim. Or a

river crossing that came up to our armpits.

However most days I have to admit I was relieved to get to camp. Desert boots are not comfy. Never have been, never will be! How I missed my normal walking boots! My only consolidation was that I knew I wouldn't get any blighty ecathia thorns stuck in my foot due to the steel plating in the boot soles.

CAMP

I loved being on camp, it was awesome. We spent the time we weren’t doing jobs, working with the Kenyan scouts to learn Swahili, Learning about the wildlife and surrounding area, completing small projects that related to camp and generally learning a lot of stuff. However my 4 best camp experiences were;

1) Being in a tree during a tropical storm; on the first night of the actual trek, we found ourselves being washed out by more pouring rain. It just so happened I was sat on a platform in a very tall tree as the first lightning bolt cracked. (I got down quite sharpish.) We spent the rest of the night all staying up round the fire so we didn’t get hypothermia, as our sleeping bags were drenched. They even sent rescue trucks out to us; however they soon went back when they found us eating popcorn and singing round the fire. I didn't mind the weather, It was a great bonding opportunity on our first night alone as a team, and it was actually very amusing, in a strange sort of way.

2) Swimming in Hippo infested Rivers: Yes, defiantly not my brightest moment! But it was so hot and the river was nice and cool. We did check for crocs before we got in. (using a very reliable method of lobbing rocks into the river to see if anything moved.) and we were pretty sure it was shallow enough to see if there was a hippo there. (Even though we had seen hippos further up stream.) Me, Lizzy and some of the guys went swimming every day. Whether it be in dams or rivers. (Yes we braved tropical diseases to splash about.) The best bit was when Lizzy caught robs foot by accident, his reaction was tres ammusant!

3) Being charged by a very angry Elephant; again this was due to a lack of common sense and basically the fact that we were scouts and not guides. We were sat round camp, when we heard an almighty crack and turned round to see the top of a tree fall to the ground. Intrigued we decided to go have a look. It turned out to be a rather large bull elephant. So typically out came the cameras and we got some rather good shots. However the elephant didn't like the attention and started to walk away, Guys will be guys and decided they would follow it, which made it a very angry elephant, which turned on us and charged.... In blind panic we ran into the bush. I have never run that fast, and the only thought that kept in my head was "I'm safe, there’s 6 other people behind me!" Its no exaggeration to say we were all rather shell shocked for the rest of the night. (It was also reassuring to find out afterwards, that the guys with the emergency gun, for charging elephants, were asleep in their tent and had no idea where they had put the gun at the time!)

4) Being woken in the middle of the night by a lion; this was something that wasn't anything to do with us being stupid. The whole camp suddenly awoke to a very loud grunting noise. Petrified we sat up in our beds. We had no idea what it was, and the people on watch were in a total tizz as even the bush hard camel men were looking worried. All I remember is some one shouting its a buffalo and some one going its to loud to be a buffalo its an elephant! I was relived when Will one of the Kenyan scouts tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the shade sheets at the other end of the camp beds, at least whatever the animal was it could eat 15 other people before it got to me! I thought to soon however, as the buses started moving, I slunk into my sleeping bag, not daring to breath. I heard movement all around. Then the bush behind my head started to move. And stopped. I waited for what seemed like forever. And slowly undid my bag. I went over to the fire, (which by this time was surrounded by the rest of the team.) We asked our leader Adam what he thought it was; we told him to shut up and stop joking when he suggested a lion, but he wasn’t joking. The next morning the Camel men came over to ask if we were all ok and if we saw the lion walking round our camp!

The last night was full of emotion, we had come to the end of our journey and we were shocked that we had made it and sad that it was over, we just sat there, not knowing what to say. It was the same when we got back to base camp2 for the celebration party. It was draining. I didn't like sitting around waiting to go back to Nairobi, I would have preferred to have done another day walking. It was annoying that we had to wait for the truck when we could be out discovering more new things.
The whole trek was mentally and physically demanding, however it taught us all things that we might never have learnt. We saw things that the human eye seldom gets to see, and we experienced so many emotions in such a short space of time; from fear, awe, excitement, exhaustion, determination, panic and freedom. Not one of us left the trek the same as we had started it. We grew individually and we grew as a team.

Back at Base camp 1 in Nairobi, we sorted out all our gear and spent a day washing and sleeping, or in some cases, swimming.:) It was nice being able to get a shower , however it was slightly disappointing to find that out tans were Infact mud ! Our stay at base camp 1 was short lived , as they day after we set out for the Masi Mara.

The Mara was amazing. Whilst we were there we got to see the Wildebeest migration. I can't begin to describe how breathtaking it was, so if you want to know, have a look at some of the pictures on face book. We had some interesting brain lapses , like getting lost in the middle of the bush in the middle of the night. (And then getting out the tucks.) (Bearing in mind the Masai Mara is a game reserve!) , Keith jumping out of the truck to rescue my sunglasses after we had literally just driven past a pride of lionesses. So you know this and that the usual stupid stuff. It was one of the greatest feelings in the world, driving through the Mara listening to the Lion King sound track , however cheesy it was! There was nothing in the world that could have taken away the feeling of complete freedom and peace that I felt in Africa
.

Back in Nairobi we spent the last two days, sampling the local restraints and discos. The highlight being the farewell meal at the world famous "Carnivore." where we were served meats of spears with swords, such as crocodile , or ostrich. Followed by a disco, with a live local band that included a lot of crowd surfing and dancing, particularly for some people who had maybe too much of the local larger "TUSKERS!" It was hard saying good bye to everyone, as it always is once you get to know people so well. The farewell party went out in style and it will be one of my last memories of a totally amazing country and the most awesome expedition.

Kenya has changed my life, I wouldn't have had this opportunity if it wasn’t for scouts, so I recommend that if someone offers you a trip like this, just go for it and don't look back. There is so much out there that we may never get to see! I know for one thing, Kenya has inspired me to get out there and do more, and I hope that if you ever get the chance you will too!

Cliffhanger 08 - www.cliff-hanger.co.uk

2008-07-18T15:57:00.000+01:00

What a weekend! I don't think I actually managed to sit down, appart from when I was in the car or on my bike. I shouldn't complain too much though, I did get all of friday of school as well. Ok' so its not that much of a big deal as school had given me the whole week off to go mountain biking, so even though we were back in sheffield thursday night. (In perfect time for the unit...) I decided to take the Friday off anyway, especialy when Garratt asked if any one could help out the next day setting up cliffhanger...

Cliffhanger is an anual event held in sheffield, in one of the parks, Its marketing slogan; "The outdoor event for outdoor people." Pretty much sums it up. WVU (Woodseats Venture unit.) Origionaly got involved with it last year, thanks to one of the unit members who was allready involved with northen parkour. Its basicaly a big outdoor show where there is climbing, canoeing , snowboarding , orrienteering, parkour, Mountain biking , discounted shopping, angling and basicaly lots of other cool stuff. (Not forgetting the British bouldering championships!)

So I can't really be blamed for opting to take my last day of holiday to help build the units contribution to the event,( A Rope walk...) over goign back to school for a day!

So anyway for most of friday I was in millhouses park , with the likes of Garratt, James Brown, Louis, Lee and Simon Ather. Building well a giant rope walk. We origionaly planned to build two one across the river and one up in some trees. We set to work in the rain, we opted to build the tree one first, but soon regretted it when we were still trying to get a rope over the branches after about 20min... I don't think Garratt was too happy sat in a tree all day , especialy with the well not so nice, weather, but it was alot better than school in my oppinion.

So 9 and a half hours , a cup of tea, a coffee and some jaffa cakes later we surrounded the area ( A rope walk across the river and one in the trees) , with some hazzard tape. I thought this made it look alot more professional ! Its amazing what red and white tape can do! So any way we eventual left around 10:30.

I had to work on the Saturday, however I managed to pass the time by texting friends who were at cliffhanger or the lucky onesin Wales hummm cough cough Chris and Jack .... The day seemed to drag on and on. However I soon cheered up a bit when mum agreed on taking me down to cliffhanger for the last hour and a bit.

I was informed when I got there that the high rope walk in the trees had to be taken down as we couldn't get the safty rope tight enough for the public.... Whole day tying ropes onto pullies and what not for nothing, well not really I have to admit it was probably more usefull than school.

Well I managed to help fo about an hour, It wasn't hard work at all, all I basicaly did was help little kids in and out of harnesses and helmets, and belay them up and down the wire ladder at the start of the rope walk. Oh and have a very interesting conversation with Torin and Tom, I don't think it would be appropriate to rewrite it here...

Any way straight after that I wizzed home, had a shower and got changed. Ready to go to my cousins 18th Birthday. (Happy Birthday Joe:P) The party was great, lots of people, lots of alcahol, unfortunatly I couldn't drink alot as I had work the next morning and well actualy to be perfectly honest Im not to fussed on drinking anyway. But it was quite funny seeing , Jess and Chris very drunk... Anyway I got home from that and practicaly fell into bed!

Woke up very late the next day with 20 min to get to work. I wasn't ment to be working this sunday but it was the woodseats festival, aka the busyiest day of the year, so yet again for the second year I was working during cliffhanger day 2... Work thankfuly went very quickly as it was stupidly busy.. so I managed to get down to cliffhanger again straight afterwards.

It was pretty much the same thing as yesterday, however I arrived just in time to see the unit rescue of a rather large man who had slipped of the rope and was hanging from the saft rope. It was quite ammusing to see garratt and Ather struggling to free a probably 20 sotne man from the sling and crabs attaching him.There was quite an audience wwatching and many phones filming it... I may have to try to find it on you tube ! After forgetting lunch I was starving, So we managed to radio garratt our pancake choices over the radio, whilst blaying little kids! I don't think I have ever had such a nice pancake.. BANANNA and CHOCOLATE... yes chocolate , clare, yep it probably was more than I am alloud but I had no allergic reactions, thankfully.. Pretty good fun compared to work , just wished I was there all day so I could have gone to have a look around.

Any way after two hours of belaying and pancakes, mum picked me off and I got in, dummped my work gear, got swimming gear and bike and headded of up to graves. It turned out only two of the class were not away, so me and Dom set up some rather ammusing initatve tests, which seemed to attract alot of attention from the off-duty life guards.... (Confusion and ammusment.) and then we ended up covering all the course.

The pool work was ok I guess, Me and Dom ended up teaching level eights, and I was pleased to see some of my level one's had actually made it to level eight since I passed them for levels one and two in September ! It was pretty good to know I didn't scare them away!!!

Tell you what, I know it dosn't sound like I have done alot but im absolutly cream crakkered. So I think I might just have to go to bed now...

Night.x

Musing of the day:
Why do we always like things that are bad for us and hate what is usualy good for us? its not fair ! I mean I like chocolate but can't eat it or my throat swells up and I hate sprouts but apparently they are good for me!

7 Stanes biking trip- Kirroughtree- Red route: The nut craker, The white witch, Rivendell, The Twister and The last Tango

2008-07-08T19:10:00.000+01:00

G'd evenin everybody,
Wow what an awsome day! Still up in wet but sunny Scotland staying at the breakpad. (www.thebreakpad.com) (Thats the third time I have put the website address on here, I think I'd be a great punter !)
I'm sat in the kitchen of the B&B and thinking, " Why the hell am I not aching..." I was dreading this evening as I was pretty sure that after the red route I was doing I would hardly be able to stand up, let alone feel as if I wanted to do it all over again!"

Today started of pretty subdued, managed to force myself out of bed around 8'oclock to go down to breakfast, which was errr pretty special, A bowl of grapefruit then, Haggis !?!?! with potato scones , tomatos and mushrooms (Mushrooms nicked of mums plate !) T'was verry yummy I have to say! Then after that, Sam and I messed round on computers a bit, reaserching the trail we were doing today. ( This basicaly involved watching some verry ammusing videos on youtube. If your lookign for a funny one try, (http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=Xp8nWiilY_o) Just wait till the subject gets closer! Bit of a surprise!) or Random dude on a unicycle doing the black route ! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU3BnLow4lg.) thankfully we didn't encounter either of these two people on our little adventure today....

Just before I start on what we actually did today, Im just going to explain a wee bit about the & stanes. (Very Briefly..) The 7stanes are 7 locations in South West Scotland all based around 7 different Stanes(Stanes is Scottish for Stones.) The 7Stanes mountain bike trails are based in these locations and - In total there are more than 400km of the worlds finest biking , with cross country, single track and downhill biking facilities. The routes are graded in four levels;
______________
Green- Easy
Suitable for Beginers, with basic skills .
The trail type is relitavly flat, and wide but can get muddy.
The ascents and decents are relitavly shallow with no technical features, Suitable for most people in good health.
_______________

Blue- Moderate
Suitable for intermediate mountain bikers with basic of roading Skills.
The trail type is as "Green" but with constructed single track, and obstacles.
The gradients are moderate, with short steep sections and some techincal trail features.
A good standard of fitness can help.
_______________

Red- Difficult
Suitable for proficient mountain bikers with good and confident in the use of off roading skills,
The trail type is steeper and tougher, mostly single track technical sections, variable surface types. A wide range of climbs and decents of a challenging nature, expect broad walks berms, large rocks, medium steps, drop-off's, Cambers and water crossings. A higher level of fittnes and stamina required.
_______________

Black- Severe
Suitable for expert mountain bike user, used to physicaly demanding routes, the trail type is the same as "red" but you can expect some bigger challenges and a continous difficulty, Includes any usable trail and often open hill sections. Expect large, commiting and unnavoidable technical trail features, sections are challenging and vaired, with alot of "downhill" sections. Suitable for extreamly active people used to prolonged effort.

Well today we headed of on the red route, again at Kirroughtree, this time we were lucky enough to have Sam with us,( A qualified mountain bike instructor who knows what she's doing !) It was a pretty awsome day for me, because it was my first propper taste of mountain biking and boy was it amazing, even the sudden down pour of torrential rain didn't spoil the fun. I know to some people it's definaltly not the most amazing experiance they have had in their life, but for me it was pretty awsome , I loved it, the feeling of just being physicaly free and trundling over rocks and steps and drops, in the beautiful backdrop of Scotland.

There were some parts of the trail when I thought " Oh my God! " or "Sh*t" when I saw what I had to d0 , because I'm not goign to try and kid anyone here; Im definalty not the best mountain biker in the world and I'm still not that confident in the saddle, especialy as I only started mountain Biking this year and today was my fourth propper trail. I think it was a great help having Sam to tell me how to do all the technical stuff and to teach me tricks and manouvers, it really helped boost my confidence, which was often shaken by the person in front who managed to have 3 very nasty falls,( The most ammusing part of this was the falls wern't any where near the technical parts, but the bruises are pretty heroic!)

I think my fave part was when I got to lead down Rivendell, The only way I can describe it is to say it was like a helter skelter for bikes including some pretty sharp Berms and some rocky patches, Not to mention the trees that seemed to spring out from every corner and turn. The Single track style was great, I really loved it but who am I kidding when I say I wasn't scared, In all honesty there were some parts where I was petrified, for example when I was approaching a rather slippy stone staircase that looked , well erm errrr pretty steep from the top, but the feeling you get, the buzz that you get after achiving or correctly completing a technical section is great, It truely is awsome.

After today I have every intention of carrying on with mountain biking and I can't wait to learn new skills, and get better at this whole biking thing, One day I intend to return here and do the black route, but for now my challenge is to get round all the 7stanes in the next year, and take a photo of me next to each one! Well I think that will be challenging enough for now, especialy finding the time to get up to Scotland! ! !

Thanks to Sam , Claire and Liam at the breakpad. (ok here goes one last time www.thebreakpad.com ) we had a great time !

Musing of the day;
Why do most people fall of on flat parts of the trail, and not on the technical parts ?
Random question;
I was thinking this when I was messing with the bike before we set of wouldn't it be funny if some one came to the bike shop to hire a bike, and when Sam , Claire or Liam asks if they have used a bike with disk brakes before, they reply with, " Wow, you have brakes that contoll a music system on your bikes ?!?!" I just think it would be so comical, I know there is probably no one stupid enough out there to say somthing like that , (Well actualy I could probably name a few!) But it was just somthing random that popped in my head , so I decided to write it here, sorry, I'll stop bumbling on now..

Dinner is ready, home made burger things , ummm yummm ! xxx

7 stanes biking trip -Kirroughtree- Larghill, Doon hill extension and Taster Loop

2008-07-08T09:08:00.000+01:00

hullo from Scotland !
Yep , thats right Scotland. South west Scotland infact, I'm taking a brake from school to go mountain biking in the 7Stanes. And boy' what fun I'm having. Were staying up in Castle Douglas with some old friends, who own a very nice B&B, (It's really friendly and a great base for walkers and climbers providing you have a car to get around or if you dont mind cycling everywhere ! Yeh I'd totaly recomend it to anyone who is coming up to scotland to go biking or walking, check out their website; www.thebreakpad.com , It's well worth a visit, I mean Haggis for breakfast ?!?!? True Scottish traditions with good old sheffield people!

Well anyway , after that little sale pitch, back to my adventures in the wonderful land of the haggis. (Scotland.)

I wasn't really impressed that mum woke me up at 5,20 am, well actually I was pretty unimpressed but I soon cheered up when we got in the car and I managed to persuade mum to let me plug my ipod in... (Much to her horror, when she found out what music I had on it, (Everything from Beatles to Run DMC, to Nizlopi.) A packet of Haribo for breakfast , eeek not so nice. and then countless cups of coffee from every service station we went past and a good old tr copy of trail magazine to get me through the 4 hour journey from sheffield to BEAutiful Scotland.

It was nice to see Sam and Clair again as I haven't seen them in ages... two years infact. The B&B is HUGE !!!! tis very big! Well after dumping all out stuff in our room, and getting changed we headed out of Castle Douglas on the A75 to Kirroughtree forrest, home of the 6th stane, the Gem Stane.

Sam and Claire own a bike shop/hire/workshop/servicing, thing next to the visitors center. Also called the break pad, same website. (www.thebreakpad.com) We nicked some rather nice bikes and we were of.

As we rather tired we decided to start on the Blue (Moderate Trail.) But do all the extension loops to make it slightly more interesting . I quite liked the single trak bits through the woods , I even managed to do two drops.... With out falling off ! :P , But I think the higlight was mums reactions to the three following obsticals. 1. A knee deep puddle streatching about 10m across the whole Path on larg Hill, 2.The fact the section Rocky road, actualy ment you had to go over rocks . and 3. Her scream when we came round a corner to fast and saw a sudden drop, I have to admit I was a bit worried when I came to the realiseation that I was about to go over it too. I had my fair share of scares, like when I managed to drop of the path after a particulaly nasty corner on the bruntis. We had fun, and I even managed to find my first stane (Pictured at the top of this post.) ! which I was pretty glad to find, as I only have 6 left to do now! but I think I might try somthing more challenging tomorrow, just to make this trip a little more interesting . Im thinking about the red twister trail , however im debating about the black route that crosses it as i think that might just be suicide.

After watching part of Sam and Clairs bike acadamy we headed back to the B&B for a shower, as Im not joking when I say this , my legs were black and spotted. I swear , I really dont know how I got that muddy, I thought I was muddy enough to take a picture just to show mum when she complains that I'm mucky after going out with the unit or when I get back from camp ! After what seemed like worlds longest shower I finaly got out to have tea and a drink before checking all my gear , cleaning it and then falling into bed to read a book and write the beginging of this blog.

Musing of the day : Why is it that if you try to avoid a big rock you always seeme to head towards a bigger one.....

night x