Mist swirls about me like the froth on a badly pulled pint, only less tasty. We climb
up from knock hush trying to ignore our aches and pains and the bitter wind.
Curlews scream. So do I - the pain from my knee is incredible. I remember
wanting to eat aspirin like smarties. we arrive surprisingly quickly at Great Dun fell
with its massive indictment to cold war paranoia in the form of a huge radar
station. We rest and drip for a while.
"You want tea?" says the ever resourceful J....
"Tea??" I repeat incredulously "as in the hot brown stuff? The emphasis being on
hot?"
"yeah" he grins " I boiled the kettle in Dufton..First time since Bleaklow I use this"
He holds up his lightweight flask. It still has the price sticker on it.
We drink tea and look at huge golfball radar thingies. Some sqaddies approach.
One hangs back but the others come right up.
"Cor - a wet!" says one eagerly. His mates shush him.
"you got spare?" asks another "We'll repay in Mars bars" Ah! Negotiable currency!
"Sure" we say. Tea and mars bars change hands.
"Ummmmm" says another. There is a silence broken only by tea and mars bar
munching.
"Look..." He mumbles "Our ummm Henry over there" he points with his chin to a
bloke who is quite clearly an officer of some sort and is hanging back apparently
in embarrassment, possibly anger.
"Our Henry has a map..."
We eye the squaddie uneasily. He squirms.
"Only..."
"yes?" The tension is unbearable...what the hell could be going on?
"Well...We....Ummm Well Don't really know ummm exactly where we sort of umm
are on it.... ummm"
I look at J who is gazing innocently at the giant golfballs to our left... We pause
reflectively.
"Whats it worth?"..........
I smile wolfishly at the squaddie who is looking very resigned . He whips out more
Mars bars. "Sling us the map then"
he wanders of and has a word with "Henry" who looks at daggers at all of us. A
map changes hands.
Here we are standing next to the single largest, most obvious map feature for fifty
miles around......
