I remember our first attempt at completing Silver was a disaster from the start. The weather couldn’t seem to make up its mind and everything seemed to fall apart after the second checkpoint. Wide open Bodmin Moorlands... and we managed to get ourselves lost on a farm two hours due west from our actual destination by taking a left turn too soon. We ended up walking in circles trying to find an identifying feature to put us back on track and each step seemed to take us further towards where we started and away from where we needed to be.

This alone would have been easy to manage if it weren’t for the fact what I had assumed to be a simple cold actually turned out to be the flu. It was the end of March and the sun seemed hotter to me than everyone else and yet at other times so much colder. I burnt through my water in those two hours of wandering and my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

My teammates were spectacular in this regard as two of them volunteered to carry my bag on top of their own, even stopping so I could drink when I needed to. It was teamwork and inclusion that made me feel like I truly was a part of it still even though I was dragging them down.

We were all feeling pretty down at this point, our hearts were weary from frustration at making such a simple mistake and feeling like we’d failed it all... then we were given a second chance.

Set on track ( and no flu in sight! ) we spent three wonderful days exploring Bodmin Moors that June and it was the greatest experience of my life. Though I might have done without the four hour shower on the Sunday that left us all sodden at the bottom of Buttern Hill! Then again if we hadn’t weathered that little hurdle I’d never have experienced being chased by cows more than twice my size through a field the next day and having to throw myself over the gate and hope for the best!

My silver experience was rocky and then brilliant and it taught me many wonderful things. Now for gold!