As I carefully folded back the neatly cut turf, it was as if I had opened up a portal to the Bronze Age...
I do not know exactly what happened that night. One person on their own might have imagined it, but when two people simultaneously witness the same event there has to be something to it...
It was the last thing that I expected to see in the Shropshire countryside. It was futile to try and run, as I was no match for the power and agility of the animal that stood before me...
Buckingham's eyes fixed upon the old man like a hawk after its prey: "May a curse be upon thee for thy treachery," he snarled....
Poor old Mrs Brown's house took a direct hit. I laughed as her wooden leg came flying over the rooftops, clattering as it bounced off the rusty corrugated roof of our toilet at the bottom of the garden...
A rather large. well-endowed lady appeared in the doorway. Why I suddenly thought about Zeppelins I can't imagine...
John had not believed me when I told him that a Mr Crapper had invented the flush toilet, so it came as no surprise that he would not believe the origin of Zippo lighters...
Hell's Gate - final page
Take my word for it, when someone pokes you in the eye with a stick it really hurts. Falling out over it would not have solved anything, though. We had two choices, retrace our footsteps back over the summit or walk around the base - we chose the latter.
There had been quite a substantial snowfall. Little white plumes flew up as our sodden boots ploughed through it. The white, desolate landscape seemed totally bereft of life, though the tracks we came upon from time to time told us otherwise.
"Come on, John, stop dawdling. Feel that artic wind on your face and the painful throbbing in your frostbitten extremities. Isn't it great to be alive, to feel at one with nature? We must do this again sometime."
If looks could kill I would not be recounting this sorry tale. Unfortunately, my friend did not share my enthusiasm. But I must confess that I, too, was relieved to finally spot the car in the distance.
Making those last few hundred yards was like Scott making for that final depot. Tired, cold and hungry we eventually arrived at base camp.
One way and another it had been quite an eventful day. Though the conditions had not been conducive to detecting, we did have a number of finds to show for the deprivations we had endured.
"Do you want to stay for a while, John?"
"Stay...stay...what for?"
"To help me build a snowman."
"John...John... now put that log down."
...End
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