First of all, we have lost people from the hike: Glen suffering from injuries and Joey being forced to work. We have also had good and bad news with transportation: The good news being that we now have a minibus confirmed that we can drive up in, the bad news being that we only had one person in the party that could drive it (Steve).
How are these things connected? Well, fortunately Steve has come through for us by persuading his cousin to come up with us and help out with the driving! She won't be doing the climb itself (at least I don't think she will) but this gets us out of a hole and I'm very grateful. After all, the alternative was to take a few cars up and get out temporary insurance to secure two drivers for each car; not ideal for us and taking away from the minibus atmosphere!
Panic apart, a few of us took part in another training session today, the focal point of which was Beacon Hill, located a few miles southwest of Loughborough. To make things harder/more challenging, we parked in Loughborough itself and walked there, going around in a circle. We stopped for lunch at the top of Beacon Hill (complete with ice-cream van) and I took the opportunity to take a couple of photos. (See below.)
Overall, a good day with good chat and the opportunity to walk the legs off a 2 year old dog called Murphy, who probably lasted better than the rest of us. But also a rather stark (albeit brief) reminder of some of the steep hills that we're going to be ascending doing Ben Nevis; certainly they opened my eyes a little and demonstrated that it will require genuine willpower and determination to reach our summit in... 12 days time. Where does the time go...?
(Left to Right: Tom R, Rob, Ross, Murphy)
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