I'm breaking this weekend's events down into two blogs. This first one is going to have very little to do with actual Geocaching and an awful lot to do with Guinness...
Ernie 'Mr. Truffles' Roper has been planning for his 10,000th cache for a couple of months and wanted to do something special. He eventually settled upon the idea of walking up and around The Old Man of Coniston (aka Coniston Old Man, here's a link to some info about it on Wikipedia.) Essentially it is a mountain. A big mountain surrounded by other mountains and those mountains are surrounded by hills disguised as mountains or mountains pretending to be hills, I'm not sure, but that's how it seemed to me. However I digress, more of this in blog #2.
I had wanted to go on this walk since I'd heard about it but was worried about the logistics of work, having the kids at weekends, driving long distances and various other things I always seem to worry about.
However the Monday before the event I took the plunge and arranged with my ex-wife to have the kids over the weekend, booked two nights B&B in Coniston and set about preparing my packing list, my equipment and my mountain of technology - camera, GPS etc. I even ordered myself a quality pair of binoculars which I may or may not remember to mention later.
I was looking forward to it all week and as I'd already booked the Friday morning off for my son's guitar exam I extended this to the whole day and set off at 2pm for the ~3 hour drive to Coniston. Beautiful weather, very little traffic and the first five remastered Queen albums (for their 40th anniversary!) to entertain me on the journey. Things were looking good.
I arrived at 4:30, unpacked (well I'm a man - I opened my suitcase), and headed off into town for some food. I settled into the Crown Inn and ordered Steak and Kidney pie and a Guinness. Excellent food. From here I emailed Mr Truffles and asked him to forward my mobile number to anyone else who was already in the area. I'd not been clever enough to do this earlier in the week except for an email to two attendees that morning.
A quick reply and I see he's forwarded it to StevieP who he guesses may already be in the Sun Hotel. At the bar.
I trot up there and just as I arrive my phone rings. It's Paul 'Penfolio' (someone I'd emailed that morning) who is just arriving at the Crown so I return to meet him and also StevieP - I must have missed them by seconds just ten minutes earlier. It's good fortune Penfolio had read my email as StevieP had been given the wrong number for me. (Typing error.)
Introductions are made and a round is ordered. StevieP and his wife are regulars to Coniston and recommend elsewhere to eat so I follow them all to The Yewdale where they order food. A couple more drinks are ordered and then Dave and Sue 'The Black Pigs' arrive. More introductions and more beer.
It's only about 8pm, I'm on five pints and thinking hey, the night is young; there's loads of time to rest and sober up ready for the morning. It's the weekend, it's new friends, it's a holiday!
Penfolio expresses some concern about carrying on drinking but I can tell he likes a drink. I manage to pursuade him (after about 5 seconds) to have another - and anyway, StevieP, the local expert, has said Coniston Old Man is, and I quote, "A walk in the park", "Easier than Jagger's Clough" (on Kinder Scout) and "Nothing to worry about". Oh how we laughed through the tears at these comments the next day.
Moving up to StevieP's regular holiday drinking den, The Sun Hotel, we find it is a large hotel and bar full of Red Nose Day revellers and celebrations. There are darts and domino tournaments being arranged, quizzes and other such entertainment. The place is packed and loud but all good fun. Several of us get roped into events and somehow I end up becoming a domino referee - moving into another side of the pub full of boisterous women determined to win at dominoes for which no-one is actually sure of which rules are being played. As a referee I make some up and stick to them.
From this point on things are hazy; stories were swapped and arguments were had with the noisy gang of women. Penfolio and I had a good laugh and I did my best to circulate between both sets of new friends, buying and drinking rounds at both ends of the pub. The beer monster had well and truly kicked in.
By 10pm I do remember thinking that I would easily manage in the morning, after all it was only a walk in the park, nothing to worry about.
By 11pm my logic had turned to who cares, I'll probably be OK and so what if I'm not.
By midnight I was thinking I'm going to be ill tomorrow but as self-punishment I damned well WILL do this walk.
By 12:45 I was happily trying to find my B&B with 11 pints of Guinness sloshing around inside me and thinking about having to get up at 8am to be ready at the car park for 8:45...
Continued here.
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