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Dragnet |
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Scouts or Parents - E-mail your comments to Marplescouts@yahoo.co.uk |
Friday Night Met at the Scout hut for a quick run through of our kit, to check we had it all, as well as to stock up on noodles and sweets from the superstore. We set off at about 5:30 for our destination of Ambleside. We got there courtesy of Daniel Hopwood in his (mum's) black fiat punto. He would also have to drive us back. Remembering last year, and the way in which we all fell asleep the moment we sat in the car, we didn't envy him! We got to Waterhead car park in plenty of time, and were moved on to "Base Camp" for the general checking in and what-not. This was done mainly to prevent the local teams being able to survey the course before everyone else arrived. We checked in, had the kit check, and then proceeded to place half of our emergency rations (amongst other things) in the car boot. "We wouldn't need them". Finally we all boarded a coach and were taken to the secret dropping off point. For the record, I'd like to point out the fact that we had guessed almost exactly where we were going to be dropped off. |
24:00 The walk got under way. We started by running down the roads southwards towards some moorland encompassing Helvellyn and Scarfell. Things were going fantastically well when we made it out of the first map at 01:00, but, as we would come to notice later on the walk, this never lasts for long. We spotted somebody with a torch about 500m down the road. Now call us paranoid, but what person is going to be out in the middle of some rotten moorland at one o'clock in the morning except a searcher? We had to get off the beaten tarmac track and head across some farmers fields. Unfortunately this farmer was only interested in growing thistles and nettles. We all felt sorry for Binkers in his shorts at this time. I like to think we got even with the farmer when Dan destroyed half of his drystone wall. We were soon at the bottom of the valley, having had to dive to the ground just two metres from the road when we heard a car. We headed along the quiet C roads to the "Motorway path". As we neared the entrance to this - the eighth wonder of the world - we heard a clunk behind us. We could not have got away faster in a running race. As soon as we heard a sound we were off, racing away at thirty miles an hour. We showed the searcher (At least we presume it was a searcher) a clean pair of heels. The searcher had made the mistake of slamming his car door in the excitement to catch us. Onward with the "Motorway path", we passed through a small farm, lost the path, and found it (although it took us about 1km to find it again!), went over the appropriately named "High Peak" and "Low Peak", and were soon resting at the Trig. point at the top, admiring the view. Down into the valley and things were going well again. The time was now eight o clock, and time to go to sleep (in the midge capital of the world!) |
8:00 ~ 21:00 Sleeping in survival bags, in spurts, as we all kept waking up! We ate noodles (mmmm) and planned the walk ahead, roughly 25km. |
21:00 The first three hours were spent on cycle-paths and other big paths, which helped us cover a lot of ground. We hit the top of Thirlmere (reservoir) and took the C road around it, jumping into the hedgerows on a number of occasions (mainly false alarms!) We had only 10 hours left when we finished Thirlmere, and in a unanimous decision we cheekily walked all the way down the main dual-carriage way. The roads were straight, and the darkness meant we could see cars from a mile off. The roads took us to Grassmere, and up to Skelwith, where binkers fell asleep on the road when we were having another "two minute break" (they lasted around 10 minutes!) As we were doing so well for time, we decided that we had earned ourselves a sleep, until 8:30 on Sunday morning, and duly found a field to sleep in. We were now only 7km from the finish point. We slept like logs. |
9:00 Sunday We all woke up late, and cursed our bad luck. We had to quickly pack up and leave (the field was in better condition when we left it than it was when we found it, in true Marple scout group tradition!). We were doing brilliantly, with only two hours to go we were only 7km away, with all three lives left. This of course made us take a turn for the worse. We were walking along some dodgy path/track when a van zoomed up a D road in the distance. They spotted us, and by the time we'd spotted them it was a bit late. We made a late breakaway to the back of a Farmhouse, but ended up in a cartoon style dead-end. The searches hopped out of their van, and five of them charged round the corner at full pace, only to find us standing still. We were caught. This gave us one hours grace - or freedom without being able to get caught. This would enable us to get to the finish in time. Or so we thought. Our luck took another turn for the worse when we decided we knew where the basecamp was, and that we should head offroad from here. I ought to say that the race actually finished off the bottom of the map at this point. Anyway, we dumped our rucksacks (as permitted) and made our way through some dense forest to the finish. We thought we were going the right way, but we weren't. We were heading away from the finish. Eventually after getting tired of walking around aimlessly, we followed a track, knowing it would eventually lead to a road. We asked a farmer the way to our destination, and he pointed us off in the right direction. On the way back we were distraught at the fact that we walked past our rucksacks, but we picked them up all the same. It turned out that we had put them down just thirty metres before the finish, which was just round the corner. Had we not gone wrong we could have finished in second place and bang on 11:00. As it was, the extra hours walking made us forty-eight minutes late, and we finished an average seventh out of the nine of the fifteen who actually finished. We got back and were given a hero's welcome by the other teams, who clearly knew what we had been through, before enjoying real Cumberland sausage hot dogs, and then getting into the nice, warm, comfy, dry, etc. car. We pledged not to go to sleep in the car for Dan's sake, and all but Binkers kept the promise! We had our planned celebratory stop at the service station, though there was little to celebrate, but we raised our energy levels with various Burger King merchandise. OK, so we didn't win, but it's the taking part that counts, right? Plus we did manage to complete the gruelling 70km hike in 36 hours, which is something to be proud of. And best of all we got our creamy Dragnet pin badges!!!!! Dragnet 2001? Once my feet have recovered, who knows?!? |
Team Members Adrian Tognarelli Thomas Tognarelli Daniel Hopwood David Bintliff |