Lost.......and.......Found

Today we were involved in a Search and Rescue training session, undertaken on our farm. The two boys and myself headed off at 9am, from our cowshed, walked down the alley way, and headed towards our forest of pine trees on the hill. We had to leave clues along the way, apples, one of our hats, mandarin peel etc, so that the search and rescue tracker dog could get our 'smell' and try and trace us.

What an ordeal, especially for me, the unfit one, to go up the first part of the track amongst the trees, and then we had to go off track, through wet prickly old blackberries, barberry, and hawthorne bushes, over fallen down trees, and down and up slippery muddy banks. We had to go over creeks, and through fences, and then out into the open a wee bit and up into some scrub! Being so fit, the boys had no trouble trekking the countryside, but me - well I was struggling a bit!

Eventually we got to where we were meant to be - by this time it was 10am, and the search party and their dog were at our cowshed, trying to find out as much information as they could about us, from my husband (Mr T). Mr T was rather vague (on purpose) as to where we all were - he didn't even know how many children I had with me!

I had a hand held RT radio with me, so the searchers could talk to me and try and find out more information as to where we were. I wasn't to keen on giving out too much information - I wanted to make it as tough for them to find us as I could!

My oldest Son C split from us, while my youngest son T stayed with me. At 12pm we heard a huge amount of barking - the dog had found C. But they still had to find myself and T. After going all around us, they found us hiding in a bush 15 minutes later. This picture shows two of the Searchers Rachel and Sally when they found us!

We all had a good time, and apart from being a bit wet and cold, enjoyed the experience! It was good to be able to be involved in Search and Rescue training, and have said that we would do it again if they needed some volunteers.

You can see a picture here of my three rescuers, Rachel, Sally, Scott, and Sally's dog Gidget.

WOW - I've done it again! Yesterday's picture hit spotlight - that's a hat trick in the past week! I'm so thrilled, and couldn't have done it without all of you fellow blippers visiting, commenting and rating my photo's - so many thanks - I really appreciate it!