Day 4

Not often you see one of these!  Very smartly painted too.  A great find!  

The day started very wet so we headed towards Tweedsmuir on a long winding road, high up in the clouds, looking down into the swirling mists. Wonderful scenery, wild and empty with soggy sheep, reservoirs, lochs and rivers.  Beautiful, but we decided we had had enough of midges and rain for this trip so turned southwards.

We headed for Wales, there to see some narrow gauge steam engines!  Went onto a proper camp site for the night, in Delamere forest.  Ollie and I went for a walk while Mike rested after all the driving.  And I got lost.  Very lost.  In a forest where all the trees, and the little paths, looked the same.  We started on a stony track and I thought Ollie would be happier on a nicer surface so we headed deeper into the wood on little pathways . . .  There was a lake, a fence, a road, and a zip wire, but nothing helped me get my bearings.  This was just a quick little walk before tea, so no phone or anything with me, just my camera.

After quite a while, with an increasingly tiring Ollie and a slight feeling of panic starting to niggle, I spotted a couple and asked their help.  Although local, the chap told me they had once got lost there too - with their two young children and his mother in law, in October, in the cold and it had been getting dark, so they were very understanding!  

They took me to the road and pointed me in the direction of the campsite.  Mike was just getting ready to set out to try and find me when I finally got back.  We'd been gone about an hour and a half.  Ollie and I were knackered and I was quite overcome with relief at seeing Mike again!   I really did wonder if I would be spending the night in the wood, and if I ever would get out . . .  really frightening!  

So much for all my Brownie and Girl Guiding!  Out like a light and slept like a log!