Even now I look at the name on the map and shudder.
Moss Shop. There - I wrote it down. Not much is it? To me it is the memory of the worst pain I had experienced up to that
time.
It is quite a standard scenario really. The paty is strung out through carelessness
and mostly its my problem. Dunc is ahead with J quite some way ahead, but I can
catch them if I try. I can see them against the skyline "surely they'll stop in a sec" I
think. But they don't. I had stopped for too long nosing around in the old spoil
heaps looking for Galena or Azurite maybe. They had gone on. I leap over a
shallow gulley.....aaand miss. The ground comes up at me like a bassball bat on
speed. There is a purple ball of pain. Dark.
When I come to I wonder if I have broken my leg. I can't move without screaming
in pain, and I can't scream without moving. My head is spinning and I'm sweating
profusely. I do all this for a while as it seems to be helping someone, although
possibly not me. I briefly wonder how long I've been here. Then I wonder where
here is, and why no one has come to my aid. I seem to be in a deep gully near a
stream. Which, worryingly, doesn't really seem to ring a bell. I remembered trying
to catch J and Dunc...then.... Nothing. I look down at my right leg which is the bit
that seriously hurts. There is a large tear in my walking longs and some blood. Not
too much blood I think, hopefully. I straighten my leg and go to stand up.
Stupidest thing I ever did in my life except for running across open moorland
looking at the horizon. My right knee really doesn't work well and I began to feel
very sick as well. I feel for my pack and find my stick. It creaks alarmingly as I haul
myself to my feet. Time to go....Well scream anyway.
I look about me. Well I'm not quite as lost as I felt. The ruins of moss shop are
clearly visible, uphill and somewhat behind me. The issue, if the pain I feel when
simply standing is anything to go by, will be moving. There is no point in turning
back I'm well over half way with most of the worst ground behind me. There is no
future whatsoever in staying where I am. Some walkers pass on the Way. I shout
and wave - trying to attract their attention. The guy at the back looks my way...and
cheerily waves back!
Eventually I tape my stick to my leg with the tent seam tape I had been saving for
an emergency. well I supposed this qualified as one. I stagger across the moor
occasionally howling with the pain. One minute I am crying, the next I am rolling on
the floor laughing uncontrollably. "Shock" thinks a dispassionate part of me "This
can kill you"
Crossing Maize Beck is far less elaborate than normally it would have been. I
simply didn't notice it was there until I was on the other side. by then it didn't
matter.
So it was that mostly deranged from pain, largely by accident and very very soggy,
I arrived at High Cup and I wasn't laughing.
