Yorkshire Three Peaks Weekend

The weekend started for Marti and I after an early shift at work where I learnt a new nursing skill I was desperate to practice on the walking team - enemas!!!!

The journey north was fairly eventful, punctuated by Marti forgetting to tell me where to come off the motorway because she had climbed into the backseat to liberate her chipsticks from the boot because they were taunting her, and several near misses due to being unable to find the directions, the map, Steve's email instructions and finally my phone. Eventually this was found under the passenger seat and we left several voicemail messages for the team informing them of our progress which for some reason caused a certain amount of hysteria on our part. Finally at around 9pm we arrived at the pub following a detour via Aberdeen and Maidstone.

Saturday morning saw us all up bright and early and on our way to the starting point. In order to foster team spirit, the walkers all travelled together in Jocky's car and Karran and I (aka support crew extraordinaire) followed in mine, desperately trying to keep up. I'm sure Jocky sees himself as Emerson Fitipaldi!

At first Karran and I were nervous about spending the day together as we had nothing really in common - apart from being born 3 days apart; being mothers of twins; working in social/healthcare settings; having not the slightest intention of walking this (or any other) weekend; not paying any attention to Jocky when he is telling us where to go or following his directions..... In fact, neither of us could actually remember how we got to the starting point because we were too busy nattering and not paying attention to the route!

After a fond farewell (!) Karran and I breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the cottage (which we would never have found without purloining Jocky's SatNav) to make the sandwiches and pasta salads and to pack my car with sustenance. We also decorated the cottage with (pink) balloons and banner for Rachel's surprise birthday party later that evening.

Good progress was made over Pen-y-Ghent and Karran and I were summonsed 90 minutes early, so after a quick pit stop in Kirby to buy batteries, jelly babies, deep heat and drugs, we travelled to the meeting point at the Ribblehead Viaduct. This journey was not pleasant and ended with me falling out with the SatNav because the snarky bitch kept telling me to 'turn round immediately' and to 'learn to drive'. I'm not kidding.

After a quick refuel, the walkers continued on to Peak No 2 minus Rachel who had been medically retired from taking any further part in the proceedings. Karran, Rachel and I made the executive decision to wait in the pub rather than return to the cottage where we spent a pleasant couple of hours in front of the fire waiting for Whernside to be conquered. (Well I think it was Whernside - I did check with one of the walkers and was told ' I think it was Whernside but you better check with someone who gives a sh1t. All I know is that I didn't like it!)

Susan was medically retired at the next pit stop and so Karran and I did our St John's Ambulance bit and took Rachel, Susan and Finn back to the cottage to rest and recuperate. As a nurse I was extremely worried about their hydration levels and not wanting another 'Tristan' incident, I immediately prescribed them 5 bottles of wine to be consumed before Steve, Jocky, Tristan and Marti returned to base camp, triumphant at having conquered all 3 peaks in under 12 hours.

Following a raucous dinner of steak cobblers, followed by spotted dick and birthday cake we all eventually retired to bed. All in all a fantastic weekend!

Over to one of the walkers for their perspective......