Today is a day of rest. We both needed it I think. Up for coffee and rolls and sausage/vegan sausage a la Juliesie for a change. It’s been very mild overnight which is just as well as “someone” had the king size duvet and 2 blankets wrapped in a wee cocoon last night while I just had my sleeping bag… he wonders why he was so hot all night?!?

At one point I thought I’d got them back only for him to roll away from me and take them all with him again. 🤨

We had steak for dinner last night on the bbq. I think I said. I had vegan steak which was actually really nice. I have no idea why my tastes have changed so much recently but they really have. I just don’t feel comfortable eating “animal”…. I can eat fish without a a second thought, cheese, eggs but I’m just not that fussed about meat.

My mood changes instantly when the sun is out. I relax, I chill, I calm down, my mind stops racing…. it’s hot and it feels lovely on my skin. The place might be a bit or organised chaos but things can dry out in the sun. Everything can lie out in the sun. Including me… all day.

I’m gonna make this a short one today as I’ve just issued day 165 part 2 and I don’t want to sit on my phone all day. There is peace and tranquillity to be enjoyed. I may need a nana nap of course. I have not looked at COVID updates this week at all. There is not much sign of it in Wales to be honest.

We were masks in shops even if others don’t and there’s hand sanitiser at various points on the site but interestingly I’ve hardly seen anyone using the toilets. Think most folk brought their own. While we have, we’re usually the facilities while we can.

Limping the clutch to the Lake District tomorrow, that wee bit closer to home.

Forgot to say, for all of you who asked, mum is home now and starting her recovery with Dad as Chief Nurse. Hope to see her soon.

Stay safe everyone ⛺️⛺️⛺️

Saturday was our first real over landing day out, we’ll certainly for me anyway.

As there were about 18 of us on the day, we split into 3 groups and somehow I heard Craig saying that he would lead our group. While that’s all very well for him, I’m suddenly starting to click that this means I am gonna end up being lead navigator.

My head doesn’t like that…… I am trying to follow a map with tiny arrows on it but guess left and right from the past directions rather than the map moving in the direction I travel. My brain just does not compute this… it panics…. it throws its wee brain hands up in the air and has a wee paddy whack to itself… I try to voice my thoughts but I let them float away when they hit the air… placated by “it will be fine”… “fine”… that bloody word that doesn’t really exist.

On the positive side of this I was in and out of that Jeep running up and down green lanes like a loony all day so hit my 10k steps easy. No wonder I was exhausted at night and about the first one in bed!

Someone (!?!?) had “placed” the giant rock right in the middle of the lane. It was so muddy folk we’re sliding into it. We had the bonus of being behind this group so Craig could see exactly how to get round it. That doesn’t always mean the ground lets you do it though. Craig got past it but couldn’t get the Jeep to turn out of the tracks so he just kept going until it looked less muddy.

Everyone agreed it was time for a coffee stop!! ☕️ One of the LandRover’s has a winch so be towed it out the way after we all got through. Save anyone else hitting it in future.

Now this is where all the “fun” starts…

Drive up past this cottage and take a left… there don’t seem to be any lefts except some overgrown driveway into a field… but yes….

Round the bed and up a rocky almost dry river bed. Then… all of a sudden, smoke blowing out from under the bonnet. At the same time someone shout over the CB “get out the car” and I honestly thought she was gonna blow.

That is how irrationally I was thinking. Honestly my head fell apart. It was so dramatic that you’d honestly think I thought we were going to die there. I mean, how bloody ridiculous but I was in a total tailspin. I couldn’t breathe properly. All the while trying to keep that stiff upper lip while talking to everyone so no-one would really know. That road was terrifying. I’d be surprised if anyone had driven it in a car in years. The Jeep looks like about 20 kids have keyed it (to pinch someone else’s joke!)

I got the dogs out of the Jeep as the clutch smoke fumes were a bit overwhelming. I then tried to walk up this rock and tree strewn track and realised that we were literally less that 100ft from what I kept referring to as a “concrete” road!!!!!!!!

(Found out later that the “get out the car” was not for us but one of the Landy’s that had got caught in barbed wire on the track… so nothing to do with us, though don’t know how we missed it!)

The relief…. was short lived as I realised that there were 2 large, angry dogs up on the “concrete” road who wanted to eat my dogs… and me by the looks of things.

Thankfully the owner sussed there was something not right with me and had to drag her dogs by the scruff of the neck to get them in the house to reduce the barking. She took me into her garden and got me to sit down and breathe. I just left Craig to get out of the mess while I sat and shook.

I was livid that we had been told to go that way. We’d specifically said we wanted an easy route. It seems so completely irresponsible to send people down there on their own with no previous experience.

However, all that said. We did survive…. obviously…. and other than the clutch which was already on its last legs… the Jeep is not broken. We are just limping it about for the rest of our holiday. Not driving where ever possible so that it gets us home. To top it all off, Craig had so much fun, loved it but wasn’t keen to do that one again. Imagine if folk had been coming in the opposite direction?!?! There I go again…. 🤔😬😆

On this occasion I had a right to be nervous, even scared but no need for the total panic.

Just majorly out of my comfort zone I guess.

So after all that 4 of us decided to head via a supermarket and then back to camp. We were done for the day.

A completely different day for me and looking back I did really enjoy it. Just a complete overreaction really…. welcome to the world of an over anxious mind.

Stay safe everyone 🤯😆❤️