One Year On from Ben

Diana Fountain, Bushy Park, Today.

What a wonderful sunset this afternoon! I had been for a little bike ride (3 hrs) around the Surrey Hills with my friend Lee. A pretty cool day with no crashes either. Plenty of other like minded mountain bikers had already flooded the little shop in Peaslake Village & had already scoffed all the sandwiches! Lee had to make do with a sausage roll and I had bought my home made sarnie & date & marmalade cake...MMMmmm! Pitch Hill & Holmbury Hill felt the big knobbly tread from our tyres and was kind to us in return for not skidding too much on their root sodden backs. A medium drive home, traffic had been diverted on our trip home and also a fatal motorcycle crash didn't help. Box Hill (Rykas) on a Sunday brings out, amongst the more sensible riders, some very fast & irresponsible maniacs.
Drove through Bushy Park and saw the sun setting behind Diana, dropped Lee off back in Strawberry Hill. I just could not resist going back into the park for this wonderful snap, Swan et al.
A great day and talk of a trip to Lulworth Cove with our kayaks sometime in the next week or two:) All is looking good:)
Also today see's the one year anniversary of when Lee & I and my younger Sisters partner Nathan hiked up Ben Nevis. It was a wonderful experience and something we want to do again. When I have finished tx I will plan another trip up to Scotland to do just that! In the photograph I took of the summit (see below) you can see Lee & Nathan approaching the summit. It looks very eerie with them being the only ones in the photo. There were a few others up there too, but had the good manners to duck whilst I took it;) The drop on the left is not for the faint hearted! I had to have an injection of Factor VIII for my Haemophilia on the summit in the frozen ruins of the old observatory, and the thin tube that comes from the syringe to the butterfly went solid as it was so cold! My feet were killing me and I still had a four hour hike to get through before I reached the bottom, and a 9 hour drive the next morning too. I have done it three times now.....Piece of cake;)
We were the last off the Ben that night and for 2 hours were hiking in pitch black darkness! We were very well prepared for all emergency though and had very full Camelbaks & some pretty cool torches. Plus my codeine phosphate came in handy I can tell you! The next morning we were all totally and utterly F****d! Mind over matter and painkillers saw us back to London safely:) I won't tell you about the burger and fries we had in the Glen Nevis Restaurant when we reached the bottom.....Yes I will... The best ever burger in the whole wide world that I have ever had!!! Brilliant weekend!

Ben Nevis, 15th October 2005.

Jason