Monday 3 September 2007

Trying to get back to normal!

I don´t really know if I am coming or going at the moment. We got back from the trip and I had 2 days before I left again to watch my eldest boy Daniel play cricket for Spain down at La Manga. It was the European Championships and they did really well. Three wins out of five and only getting beaten by the champs from last year and this years winners, Guernsey. You can check out the details here CricketEurope.net

I have just finished an article for Mountain Rescue Magazine, it was nice just writing down everything in one go, I didn´t even need to look back at my journal! I will post it whole on here once the magazine has been published.

Rich now has the daunting task of going through the 100´s of hours of video tape. Not a job to be taken lightly. Simon did try to keep a log during the trip but time ran out on us everyday.

One thing writing the story out in full did, was bringing back some of the not so nice memories from the trip :-

Out of touch with the real world! - I never realised before how much we rely on mobile phone coverage and the internet. It was such a weird feeling know that people could not get hold of me. I did put an automatic reply on my emails which explained why I could not get back to people, but I still worried. It didn´t really bother Rich as he leaves all that stuff to me and Mark did have his small pda which he used in the back on the van whilst on the move!

Places like Petes Eats which is a cafe in Llanberis, ended up been a god send! they even trust you to tell them how many minutes you use and pay downstairs. The internet cafe in Fort William was also great, the guy even set me up with a tab which he kept open for 2 weeks inbetween the visits.

No sharing with Rich - Some days if I had time between cleaning the van, shopping and cooking I would take Tufa for a walk. The one that stands out the most was my day in The Cairngorms. The boys had set off for the second time to climb King Rat and Goliath, I chilled in the morning on the campsite and then decided to have a bimble around the loch! little did I know it was a 9 mile round trip.

I was so amazed by the view but was very very sad that I had no one to share it with. I even got a little tearful when I looked up to the crag he was climbing on, knowing that I was not going to see him for a few hours.

We will go back to alot of the places we visited this summer and I am determined to take the time to enjoy all the beautiful places together.

A few more photos from the collection :-

Another great Mike Robertson photo - Rich using the tree on North Crag Eliminate!

Almost too warm to climb and this was Wales - The boys on The Big Groove
Stephen Reid took this photo of the boys on The Crack in the rain

1 comment:

Vicky and Derek said...

Hi Sam

Nice to see that you are back in the land of living. Life just not the same without the daily blog updates, you will have to find another challenge soon!!! Hope you have a fantastic birthday weekend and we will see you in May

Love to you all

Vicky, Del and Olivia xxx