Chesham Bois November 20th Friday night as the fog crept along the dales and towards the hills. Cold clammy fog which struck the pit of the stomach, caused running wetness on the car windscreen and threw eerie shadows across the green-yellow lit lane.
This was the start of the London Rover Scout 50-mile hike competition and we drove our slow way to the scout hut down the lane at Chesham Bois. Greeted by Jack Skillen and shown where to sleep for the night. No hot tea, no sandwiches... so food from our own bags; after all, we came last year.
6.30 the following morning. All are up, more or less, and breakfast is served at 7 oclock. We reported in at 8.45 and left the hut at 9.15 for the first check point. Check point - no wonder so called - we checked each one at least six times during the trip. By "we" I mean Les Hanbury, Alan Willis and John Presley, led or comforted by Stan Allen.
After passing a team of three who dropped out after 25 miles, we were overtaken by a team of four runners. Very surprising too. We thought that it was a hiking competition. While sun was shining and light was around all was well... but as night fell so did our spirits. Even so, we covered the last four stages faster than the winners who were about three hours up on our time at the 25 miles mark. They then rested for 46 minutes at one check point. It seems a little un-British to run on a hike competition; perhaps we will run next year, if we are allowed.
The last four legs were good from a navigational point of view and we came out spot on later walking through woods and across wooded fields. Food on the trip was good. Lots of tea, bread cheese, chocolate biccies and such like. We arrived back to the hut at Chesham Bois at 12.40 in the morning of Sunday and were very tired from the waist downwards. Upper parts of the four bodies were not affected. We experienced a little stomach trouble during the night, due to drinking cold water I think..... We finished 6th out of 51 teams to start.