It was raining when i woke. The worse possible scenario. Without my jacket I'd be loosing body heat and even though it was summer i knew it was still possible to get hypothermia. Such a simple mistake to make and i had noone else to blame but myself. I was usually so OCD about things like that. What made things even worse was the fact I'd had my last meal the night before other than a packet of savoury rice, two breakfast rations and a snickers bar i was completely out of food. With no signal on my phone to contact anyone and let them know of my situation i was pretty much screwed.
I made myself a coffee and hydrated one of the remaining breakfast rations and decided to wait to see if the rain passed. The only plan i had was to get to the nearest village and reassess my situation there.
As i sat sipping my coffee i went over in my head what i had in my pack that i could use to help the situation. In my medical pack i had an emergency blanket, one of those silver foil ones. Maybe I could make something to cover my body to reduce heat loss and maybe keep me a little dry. It was a long shot but worth giving it a go.
I gathered my kit together ready to brave the weather and wrapped myself up in the oversized sheet of baking foil. I can only imagine what i must have looked like. Picking up the path i carried on around the coast until i reached Salcombe. Coming upon a road i headed inland to try and find the quickest way back to the estuary on the hope I'd be able to thumb a lift to save me time and keep me dry.
I hadn't been hiking the road long before I saw a car coming towards me. Putting my hand up the driver thankfully stopped. 'H' was going to visit an elderly friend to see if she needed anything before headingon to see to a horse. I explained my predicament and asked her the quickest way back to the estuary. "Get in and I'll drop you near by" she said. Driving along the narrow lanes it became apparent just how far the river was. There simply wasn't a quick way.
At the car park near to the beach i thanked H, grabbed my pack and set off in search of the lost clothing. Passing a couple of surfers i stopped for a quick chat. Koree and Glynn had come down for a couple of days to catch "a fish" as they put it but the surf wasn't too good and all they'd been able to do was a bit of snorkeling. Very kindly they offered to look after my bag while i went back to the mouth of the estuary hoping the jacket and fleece were still on the rock where I'd left them. They weren't. I had a good look round just in case they'd blown off during the night but my searches were fruitless.
I then wondered if somebody else had came across the missing items and had handed them in to the rnli lifeguards that patrolled the beach. They hadn't. I walked back to koree and Glynn who'd made me a coffee for my return. Seeing me come back empty handed koree offered me a spare jacket he had in the back of his car. It was a lovely gesture but before i accepted i decided to see if the beach cleaner had found anything. I ran up to the car park office to see but again i came back empty handed.
After finishing my coffee I took korees jacket and went to head off. Luckily a van pulled up so i asked if they could give me a lift as far as they could. They weren't heading to Salcombe but they were happy to take me to the roundabout that would put me on the main road leading to the village. I climbed in the back and recognised the three guys from the day before. They'd been floating in the currents of the river as I'd been packing hoolley away. They recognised me too.
It was still raining as we arrived at the roundabout and i climbed out. The guys wished me luck as they turned left and i right. It was going to be a long and wet 7 mile hike back to Salcombe but at least I now had a jacket which was waterproof.
I had hiked a good 5 miles in the relentless rain dodging cars, vans and lorries as they speeded along. With a couple of miles left before i reached Salcombe again i was thankful when a car pulled up and the driver offered me a lift. Peter was a journalist who worked for a newspaper in reading but who'd been allowed to work from home and had chosen devon due to his passion for surfing. I threw my pack on to the back seat and climbed in after it.
It didnt take us long to reach the village which was busy with tourists and i was treated to a coffee and burger. After lunch peter and i headed back to the lifeboat station to meet chris the station mechanic. After peter had left i was taken up to the crew room to charge my battery packs and hang my tent up to dry. When chris saw how wet it was he offered me the use of the station couch for the night to give the tent and my boots time to dry.
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