By: Blonde Two
Do you remember that my story of Day Three of my recent Welsh bothy trip had left Running Girl and I perched on the edge of a huge dam, wondering how on earth we were going to get back to our car. You know, the car, the one that we had (not so) conveniently left 7km away on day one of our trip!
We had walked 13km down from the Claerwyn Bothy and I was done in! One option was for Running Girl to stay with the bags whilst I ran off to fetch the car. This was a ridiculous idea as, a) I don’t do running, b) I didn’t have the car keys, and c) I didn’t want to go. A better option would have been for Running Girl to do the running (the clues are always in the names!)
In the end, we opted for the ‘swallow your pride and ask for help’ option, which had many merits; the main one being that nobody had to do any running! We spotted a friendly looking family and Running Girl was selected to go and ask for a lift a bit closer to the car. After a short discussion, these lovely people offered to take both of us, our muddy boots/trainers and our heavy rucksacks all the way back round several reservoirs to our car.
We did have a funny moment; when Running Girl came back to tell me the good ‘we’re getting a lift’ news; she whispered, “Limp, I told them that you had hurt your knee!” This made me snort with laughter because limping was definitely not a problem, both of my knees had started to seize up, and not limping would have been impossible.
I don’t know the names of our rescuers, but we were very grateful and it was one of those moments when your faith in human nature is affirmed. So thank you to “Farm Stay Family” for giving us a little bit of your holiday time. May all your adventures be exciting ones and may all of your endeavours be successful!
I have done something similar on a couple of occasions, once through expediency and again through underestimating my ability to complete my route back to the car in daylight hours – I feel a post coming on about this..
I am sure you could have completed the remaining 7km if you had had no other option. Anyway resourcefulness triumphed.
I think it is a shame that we all seem a bit reluctant to ask for help, especially as most of us wouldn’t hesitate to offer it!
Ahhh it brings back lovely memories reading your posts of our adventures. Hope we can do it again very very soon.
We must definitely do it again! Maybe with a later first day start time 😉
Donkeys years ago I decided to walk across the moor from Yelverton to Gidleigh where there was a tiny Youth Hostel behind the Post Office. I planned to join the YHA there and stay the night. It never occurred to me that (a) I might take too long, and arrive too late or (b) there might not be any space at a tiny hostel. I hit the road quite a long way from the hostel (navigation not a strong point even with old army sighting compass) and was spotted by a landrover driver who was the then version of a Ranger, I think. I’ve been grateful to him ever since for that lift; and to the Warden of Gidleigh Youth Hostel, who made me hugely welcome and sorted out my membership in minutes. WE didn’t have an internet in the sixties – – –