My dad rang me tonight to tell me of his near death experience he had earlier today...
He's been reading a fell-walkers guide (fells are like mountains; but less) to the Lake District in Cumbria near where we live, and the author of the book (re-print I assume) had his ashes spread at a particular place and my dad thought "Wow, this must be some place if he had his ashes spread there!"
He's recently retired and loving it at 57 and off he set with his little Jack Russel dog called PIP to get to the top, where after reaching the summit, is a gentler decent on the way down the other side.
After 900ft of very steep climbing the ground was starting to slip away under his feet and he thought it was best to get up to the summit and go down the other side of the fell, rather than go back down the way he'd came due to the ground giving way and the steepness of the climb. He's done a lot of fell walking but was surprised at the intensity of it all the same.
Right at the very top last 20ft or so before the summit, there are large man-size slate-like steps and he had to pop PIP onto what appeared to be the last ledge whilst he pulled himself up.
Just as he hauled his ass up he seen a Ram charging at them both (rams are like a sheep but a whole lot meaner)...he grabbed PIP as quickly as he could and the ram went barreling over the top of them onto a ledge below and luckily couldn't get back up to them.
As he said, if it had hit him they'd have been pushed so far back they'd have fallen far enough for them to have both died for sure.
Apart from saying "Man, that's friggin nuts" the only words I could muster were.......
"I'd have lit one of those cigars as soon as I got back home!"
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