How the hell did my life lead to this? 

 I seem to remember in the dim and distant anti chambers of my youthful brain a pact to have despatched the Bob Graham Round before I achieved the lofty heights of Veteran status

My life could well be accused of being full of false promises – but amongst the synaptic cobwebs, I definitely recall intent and enthusiasm to propel myself through the struggle of 42 Lakeland Peaks, 70+ miles of effort and some forsaken feet of ascent, that I think I have chosen to forget – all in 24 hours – a day – a very long day! 

In fact the more I think about it – yes I was definitely going to get this monkey off my back early on in life – so I could pull up a big leather fireside chair, open a bottle ChateauNeuf de Wotsit and light an enormous Havana – then go about finding a good wife, get a pack of dogs, have children, buy a VW Camper and drive off into the sunset – comfortable in the knowledge that some weird obsession with some pointless nominal Lakeland Round of endurance, was not going to get in the way and upset my happy family planning ideas 

So great we made it – Veteran, wife, dogs, kid, VW Camper – sunset land here we come! 

Hang about – the MONKEY is still attached – like a cerebral irritation scratching at my conscience – probably more like a horrible and recurring toothache – one that needs a damn good filling, a long painful root filling at that – it just won’t go away until you take the plunge to endure that long dental appointment required. 

So what went wrong – why didn’t all the training, the weekends of reccying, the enthusiasm and obsession, pay off. That’s the easy bit to remember – I’ve gone through it in my mind enough times – it’s still pretty vivid – vivid and painful. 

Take my advice – flying is for birds, bees, bats, pterodactyls and even those squirrel things with extra skin between their legs make a decent stab at it. Human beings on the other hand should avoid it, unless safely strapped into the luxury of a first class 747 seat, tucking into a second glass of champagne. Certainly the quick start guide to flying isn’t that useful as you accelerate at 9m/s/s down some remote cliff face – in fact the only thing flying was this one thought – through my mind very quickly – THIS IS GOING TO HURT! 

It did – and still does, but more of that in another Drone!