By: Blonde Two
If had to write a blog post, would you rather write it about the day you left your boots up a mountain and had to walk down barefoot or the day you forgot your swimming togs and had to walk up the beach naked? Hypothetical questions are strange things but have endless dinner party or long train journey appeal and can be used to appease youngsters on outdoor expeditions who, our research suggests, have a tendency to ask far too many hypothetical questions.
- You are swimming in the sea and you see a shark and a stranger who is nearer the shark than you are. Do you swim out to warn them or head for the beach?
- You are tasked with planning a walking route for some friends who are far fitter than you. Do you choose the prettiest but very steep route or do you take them on the easier but less aesthetically-pleasing one?
- You are walking with your best friend and notice that her walking boots don’t match. Do you tell her or enjoy the joke all the way to the pub?
- You set off solo up a particular summit and, at the top, realise that you have conquered the wrong one. Do you admit to your mistake or claim victory?
- You are walking across a Dartmoor bog and the ground begins to quake alarmingly. Do you start running to get to the edge of the bog or walk more carefully and slowly?
- You have been invited to go skinny dipping with a group of friends. Do you wrap yourself in your towel, only dumping it at the last minute or do you run, shouting with glee, all the way down the beach?
- You drop your last cheese sandwich and it lands on some dry sheep poo. Do you pick it up and eat it or do you take it home to throw away?
- You cross a stream and the water goes over the top of your boots and gets your socks wet. Do you warn the rest of the party and have to cross back over yourself or do you watch them struggle?
- You need to have an outdoor poo but can’t get your trowel into the ground to make a hole. Do you build a poo cairn or pick it up in a bag and take it to the nearest dog poo bin?
- You start a blog called Two Blondes Walking but your hair is brunette. Do you admit to your readers that you have been less than honest or do you arrange to visit your hairdresser for a colour change?
Number 4.
I have actually done that and it was supposed to be a Munro – of course I went back later and climbed the proper one. On another occasion I found what I assumed to be the summit cairn of a Munro in the mist. Back down in the carpark chatting to a. n.other he remarked on the huge cross shaped stone wall shelter giving protection from all sides. I had to go back again on that one to claim the proper summit.
Thinking about it, that must happen fairly often with Dartmoor tors. They are sometimes quite close together and, unless you know their shapes well, are all big piles of stones.
Second option for number 6, but it was somewhere about midnight, so no one could see!
Quite right too… no other way to behave in the dark! Reminds me of a beach night a long time ago and the unexpected fishermen with torches!