Day 12 - A visit from the Doctor..

Friday 12^th August 2011

This morning the team left the camp at just gone 0700 and were joined by Sally and Lucy from the support team for the first half an hour to keep them company. They were also joined by Tony, Fiona and Mel; a few Exeter Alumni who used to be part of the walking club at the University and have stayed in touch with each other ever since and still enjoy walking together all these years later. They joined the team for the first two Munros of the day, Driesh and Mayar. With a son in the RAF who has served in Afghanistan, Tony had kindly sponsored Mayar with help from others in the 1970’s Exeter Out Of Doors Society. It was also kindly sponsored by The Black Dog MC (Montrose) so thankyou to them. Tony then continued on with the team until 1430. Fresh faces and new conversation are always welcome for the team so they enjoyed having the company.

Later on in the day heavy mist had settled in and stuck around for a while. Unfortunately the team missed a family on the last peak (Creag Leacach) as the mist was too bad, and they only missed them by about 30 seconds! But they came along to the mountain rescue centre for a cup of tea with the team none-the-less which was lovely.

The mist did not deter the team and they arrived to collect road bikes a good hour ahead of schedule. The cycle up to Glenshee ski centre where they were to stay for the night was very steep. At one point Ceri was cycling too close to Alex and fell off his bike which caused Alex to stop and consequently fall off himself!

However despite the nasty weather and all the team’s ailments, they arrived at the Ski Centre in good time. On arrival the team were able to spend the night in the ski patrol’s office which was wonderful as it was nice to have another night inside and to dry out some wet clothes. Furthermore Dr Crookshank from the Glenshee Medical Centre kindly looked at Tom’s feet and put a good dressing on them so hopefully they are on the mend! A huge thankyou therefore goes to all at the Glenshee Ski Centre.

The team are doing fantastically but are very physically and mentally tired. At one point the team stopped at the summit of a Munro to look at the maps, and when they got up to go Tom was fast asleep! What they are doing is an incredible feat of endurance and they need all the support they can get. Please support DecAid and make all of the team's hard work worth it.