Over-adventurous

I never thought that mooching around the bridal ways of this lovely county would be over adventurous. Although originally from the flattest part of the country, beautiful Norfolk, I wouldn't associate Northamptonshire with treachery and danger when out walking. 

Last Saturday we had two agendas. Pick up a couple of geocaches and walk 5k to complete my Virtual 5k for the Lullaby Trust.

Two children, 3 pairs of wellies, our Phil&Teds and our phones fully charged and we were off. It was wet underfoot. The grass was taller than Effy. We found the first cache and then it went quite wrong. The ground was so wet in places it was like quick sand, but we felt we'd got so far it was silly to turn around when I wasn't quite at the 2.5k mark and maybe these conditions were isolated. Then areas we thought would have gates for crossing did not, and we had to walk lengths of fields we hadn't anticipated. And then what we thought was a path from the map was actually a stream. By the time we got to cache two, we'd done our 5k and a bit more but we were not going to be doing the "and back" to this walk. Then we realised that there was no path on the main road back to the car, and both kids were asleep. So caked in mud and edging closer on dinner time, we walked another 2.5k home, and D got a cab back to the car while I put our muddiness in the wash or gave it a brush down.

Then the washing machine died. But that's a story for another day.

Lessons learned. My pram, although an excellent off-roader is not a snow plough and does not have the wheels of a tractor. Read more about the cache before trying to locate it. Don't be over ambitious. Be safe first.

Despite our over-adventurous-ness, our long walk felt good (aside from D having to pull the pram backwards through a field. That felt less than good!) and it reminded me just how at home Effy is in the outdoors, and I love that. She hates her hands being mucky, but I was the same as a kid and still am now, in reality, but she LOVES running, and exploring, and looking and asking questions about what she sees. And it exhausts her, which means we get a lie in sometimes too. While I love carrying Lowen and adore my pram, I can't wait for her to able to join in with her sister.

I can't imagine not having the countryside on our doorsteps. I can't imagine having a family who didn't want to spend time in it.

Over-adventurous we may be, but we are very, very lucky.

And a smidge muddy still.