A Solo Adventure

Yesterday I found myself with some time without the children, none of our usual home ed groups are up and running again yet so this is highly unusual at the moment, in fact I cannot remember the last time I had so much time to myself.  I could of course have dropped them off at their friends house and returned home, I could of spent the day pottering at home probably not doing very much, as is usual when I am free of distractions.  How is that we long for those times when we can just get on with things and not be disturbed, but when that time comes we can never remember all those things we wanted to do?

Having established that one friend was not free to meet up, I realised that I didn't want any company I wanted to go out for a walk on my own with my thoughts and the beautiful scenery as my companions.  I woke on Friday morning with that as my plan but not knowing where I was going to go.  In and amongst sorting food for the day for all of us, doing the laundry, some yoga and taking delivery of a large food order from a wholesaler, I made plans for where I would go.  I needed a lie down in a darkened room by the time I had sorted all that, not the adventure I had in store for myself!

As with everything I do there is always something to do on the way, having dropped the children at their friends house, I met with another friend to drop off some flour.  The large food order I mentioned was not just for me, I run a food group with the wholesaler and co-ordinate orders for several friends through my account.  Only one person had ordered this time, nearly 150kg of flour, it completely filled the boot of my small car and coated everything I put in there afterwards in a layer of white dust!  Having dropped off the flour I had to head into town to run a few errands that I had forgotten or not been able to do the day before. I was glad to finally get to where I was going to walk from, my time rather reduced by all the jobs needing my attention, but here I was all set to go.  

Well not quite.  I wasn't sure if I was going to have to pay for the car park I wanted to use, a quick look online before setting off didn't answer that for me.  I have a pot of change in the house which I keep for such times, except, you have guessed it, that is the one thing I had left at home.  My purse held a few pennies and the machine did not take cards.  Whilst I sorted my stuff I thought about what I should do, there was no where else to park, if I parked elsewhere it would mean a change of plans.  So I found an old receipt, my purse was full of those, and wrote a note explaining why I did not have a parking ticket in my car.  Finally, off I set.

I had chosen the location based on the weather forecast.  It was meant to be very wet in my part of the county but drier further west so that is where I headed.  I know a forecast is a best guess, on this occasion it was a pretty bad guess, almost as soon as headed off, the heavens opened.  Not just a little rain but a full on deluge.  Luckily I was walking in the trees at this point (the clump you can see in the photo above) so I didn't get too wet.  It was very drippy though as the rain filtered down through the tree canopy.  The path had been laid with stones in part, which are always a little treacherous in the wet, I nearly went flat on my face at one point early on, not a great start to my walk.  Treading more carefully I made my way up through the trees.  One of things that I love about walking on my own is the wildlife that you see as you quietly walk through the world, I was rewarded with many delights, including a red squirrel that was half way up a tree looking at something above it.  Annoyingly it was too dark for me to get a good photo as it stayed still like that for ages.

My destination was this tarn, the local word for a small lake, where I was going to have a swim.  It had rained a little more on my way up to here and the wind was rippling across the water in small gusts.  I hoped the rain would stay away whilst I got changed, I don't mind swimming in the rain, in fact I rather enjoy it, but getting changed in the rain is no fun at all.  The weather had other ideas for me as once again I was hit by strong winds and lots of rain, I was starting to wonder if this was such a good idea.  I sat it out for a while until it stopped and the sun came out and stayed out for my whole swim.  I would be lying if I said it was warm in that water, it wasn't, it was cold but so refreshing.  I managed 15 minutes in the water before deciding that I was cooled enough that I ought to get out. I needed to be able to get myself out of my wetsuit which I can't manage on my own if I get too cold!  The sun on my face was wonderful, as was the beautiful and wild surroundings.

Having got myself into many layers of clothing and drunk some soup I was still feeling a little chilled.  The tarn was pretty much surrounded by sloping land creating a bowl shape that was carved out by glaciers millions of years ago, I thought a walk uphill would help to warm me up.  As I squelched my way uphill I could feel the blood running again and my temperature started to rise.  I walked up to a high point and was rewarded with magnificent views and strong winds trying to blow me off my feet.  I could see rain blowing through the neighbouring valleys. The skies flickered from moody darkness to bright sunshine.

As I headed down to the car my thoughts, which have been swirling a little this week, were calm and still.  I felt happy and content after my adventure even it was slightly bonkers, it has filled my cup back up, I am ready to face the world and all it throws at me for the coming week.