Thanks to my editor, MisterE, for the time and effort spent in helping me get this story posted.

I took the contract in rural Wales to help commission and bring into service a new gas pipeline as it seemed like a nice job at the time. There were some pumps and other bits of kit which were monitored and controlled remotely on a site in North Wales, I was due to commission the controls and telemetry links. When I took the contract there were supposed to be two of us, lone working and all that sort of thing. However, owing to a family bereavement, the young lad who was due to join me had to cancel two days before we were due to start work, so I found my self on the site, on my own, in the middle of November.

The drive to the site was spectacular, up a narrow valley with mountains on either side, on a road was not much wider than the Landrover I was driving. It took over half an hour from the main A55 dual carriageway that cuts across North Wales. The road crossed the river a few times and went through a small village before ending at the site, at the head of the valley ... The village was marked on the map as Annedwydd Llecynnau but there was no indication of the name on any road signs. There was a pub which looked smaller than my house, what looked like a small shop cum post office and a one room school and chapel, but all the signs were in Welsh. I should mention that this was my first time in North Wales and, although I was aware that the remote rural areas were mainly Welsh speaking, this was my first exposure to Welsh culture.

I arrived at the site mid morning and had a look round. It was immediately obvious that the wiring up of the various components had been abandoned with probably less than a quarter completed. Next blow, when I tried to ring the office there was no mobile phone signal, not even a hint, not even enough to send a text. My personal phone was the same as well, and that was on a different network. My previous happy mood as I had driven up the valley was rapidly disappearing. I decided to spend an hour or so taking an inventory of the equipment on site, and see how much of the wiring and installation had been completed.

This blackened my mood further as the whole job was a mess. I decided to call at the shop/post office, perhaps they would know of someone who had a room to let that would offer dinner, bed and breakfast. Also I needed a phone. I drove down to the shop/post office and found that they were closed for lunch. I took a walk to the pub but had no joy there either; there was a crude handwritten sign on the door, 'Closed lunchtimes October to March'. I walked back to the Landrover and waited for the shop to open.

I saw an old lady turn the sign on the door at one o'clock so I went in and spoke to her. "I'm working at the gas pipeline site up the road, do you know anyone offering B & B locally?"

As I was speaking a rather fearsome looking woman, probably thirty five years old, large and very stern looking, came in. She said something in Welsh to the old lady behind the counter and a bit of an argument ensued. I thought. 'Dont mind me, I was speaking, ' but I kept my thoughts to myself, after all I was new around here.

Anyway, the argument or whatever finished and the large woman said to me, "No-one round here will help you, or offer you accommodation, and you won't be served here or in the pub. We never wanted the gas pipeline, we don't benefit, and when the last people working here went through the village breaking windows that was the last straw."

I was gobsmacked. The old lady behind the counter then said, much more quietly, "I think you had better leave we are united as a village."

Well, by now I was completely pissed off and got back into my Landrover. Initially I was going to head out of the valley straight away but then I thought I had better go and secure the site again as I didn't know how far the opposition to the site would go. So I drove the mile back up the road to the site, shut everything and locked up. I then noticed that the track which accessed the site carried on up the hill, it was probably put in when they buried the pipeline. I wondered if it went far enough to get me near to the coll at the head of the valley as I might just get a phone signal there. Otherwise I could see myself having to drive ten miles out of the valley in the other direction before I would get a signal.

Anyway, I put the Landrover into its low ratio gears and started up the track. As I suspected it got very steep very quickly but was straight and, after about two hundred yards, it opened out near the head of the valley on a flat area where vehicles had obviously parked, worked and turned. There were a few bits of abandoned pipe and a small hut. I parked in the middle and got my work phone out. Zilch. I then tried my personal phone, no bars on the signal but at least it was showing the network so I tried to make a call. Well, it nearly worked! I got the ringing tone at the office but as soon as I moved, the signal dropped out. I got out of the Landrover but this made no difference. I was about to give up when I remembered my mobile internet which was on yet another network. Again the signal was very poor but it did load the Google screen when I started Firefox so there was hope. I then started Thunderbird and sure enough my e-mail started coming though, very slowly and it crashed twice so that I had to reinitialise the modem but it worked. So I composed an e-mail to the office, told them of the problems on site and said that I would leave the valley, find somewhere to stay, and ring in later on.

It was getting dark when I left the site and headed out of the valley. Before I had covered five miles it was quite dark and the road seemed even narrower than it had coming in this morning. The only good thing was that you saw the lights of another car before it was on you so you could actually drive a bit faster. I got to the A55, drove about three miles west to a service area and checked into a Travel Lodge chain hotel. Never have I been so pleased to see bright lights and people. I rang the office and spoke to the boss.

The state of the job appalled him. He said that he didn't have anyone to send and would have to find a contractor to assist. I then told him about the attitude of the locals, the lack of phone signal, the narrow roads and all the other little gripes. He actually said, "Do you want to come back?" But I said no, after all if I walked I wouldn't get paid. We agreed that I would make a start sorting out the wiring, I obviously wasn't going to be doing anything else until that was in order. I actually didn't mind being back 'on the tools' for a few weeks as long as I still got my engineering rate. He then surprised me and said, "Would you live in a mobile home if we sent one to site?" I said I would as long as I didn't loose my overnight allowance. It turned out that a previous project had been in a remote spot and it was the easiest solution to the problem. I had seen it parked behind the factory, it actually looked in good nick, so he agreed to send it to site and asked me to e-mail a list of things to send with it.

The following morning I went back to the site and made a start on sorting the wiring out. I checked my e-mail at lunchtime, the mobile home and my shopping list was on its way, they expected it to arrive the following day. So another drive back to Travel Lodge and, that evening, I went into the local town. found a Chinese restaurant and had my first enjoyable meal of the week.

The mobile home and my shopping list arrived the following day. They had done well, everything I needed was there including a generator and, biggest surprise of all, it was fitted with a small wood-burning stove and someone had left a supply of logs. I asked the driver how much the home weighed, and he reckoned around a ton. I decided to try and tow it to the flat space at the top of the hill as it was a more pleasant location and I should get a net connection up there. In low gear the Landrover pulled it up the hill without too much trouble; it was a straight track. So I busied myself with getting it levelled. As soon as it was levelled I got the wood-burner started to air the place, unpacked the bedding, made the bed up and connected the gas bottles for cooking and hot water. There was a free standing tank for water and a long filling hose with a pump. I would have to boil my drinking water but the stream looked clean. I managed to rig the pump and hose to the stream and started the tank filling. The only problem was petrol for the generator, they hadn't sent a Jerry can, but at least it was auto-start so I could site it away from the home. Anyway, I had enough for now and decided to go to the local town for some food and supplies before it got too late. I found a supermarket and decided to shop for the rest of the week. I then bought five one-gallon petrol cans, filled them and brought them back. Emptying the waste water tank was going to be a problem but other than that everything seemed to have worked out better than I could have expected.

Over the next few weeks I got into a routine; I'd arrive early on Monday, work twelve hours for four days and head home on Thursday night. I was making good money and I reckon that there was probably eight to ten weeks work in sorting everything out. The office were happy, they didn't have to find additional people, and I was OK as the money was rolling in. Apart from food and travel to and from Lancashire I had no other expenditure during the week. After all even the pub wouldn't serve me. A sign had appeared on the door under the 'shut lunchtimes' notice saying 'Pipeline contractors not served here'.

The only face to face conatct I had with another human during the week was the 'boy' as I called him. He would have been about eighteen and was slightly disabled, he walked unevenly with a bit of a limp. His main problem was a speech impediment, I couldn't understand him although he could obviously understand me. He started hanging about during the second week, watching me work. The first day he kept his distance but the second day I asked if he wanted to sit down and I found him a crate to sit on. When I stopped for tea, morning and afternoon, I asked if he wanted a cup, he nodded and tried to say, "Yes," but it really wasn't intelligible.

The next day at about quarter to ten he started to try and say something then gave up and made the sign of writing. So I gave him a pad and pen, and he wrote, in a surprisingly neat hand, 'Shall I make the tea?' I said yes, I always stopped for tea at ten o'clock. Over the next few days he became more helpful and started to fetch and carry etc. We could talk as he would write his questions and answers. He was called David, nineteen years old and lived with his mother, the school teacher, the woman who chewed me up on my first day here.

This also explained why he never appeared until half past nine and was always off by quarter past three, his mother thought he was at home. Anyway, as far as I was concerned he was at an age where he was able to make his own choices and I didn't mention her. Over the next week I found he had a sharp mind but it was trapped in a body that wouldn't always do as it was told. As a result everyone in the village thought he was 'thick'. He told me he got really frustrated living here.

Work wise he was helping a lot and I had a word with the office. I told them I had found a young lad to help and they agreed to pay him £5 an hour, which was just a bit more than the minimum wage. It also let them off the hook as I would need a second person as the job progressed. I didn't tell them about his disability. He seemed able to do everything I asked of him. He didn't have a bank account so, one lunchtime. I took him into the local town and got him a basic account. He had brought the documents he needed, and I told the bank I was his boss, and that he needed the account to get paid. When we got back he wrote me a note telling me not to tell his mother.

I showed him how to complete his time sheet, then how to scan it and e-mail it with mine on a Thursday. I told him that I may be here for another eight to ten weeks doing the wiring and then a few more weeks commissioning. Now he was on the books I started asking him to do a bit more, he had been watching me pull cables, and with his help the job went a lot quicker. As I was making the cables off he tidied after me, and passed me each tool as I needed it when I was working on ladders or in awkward spots.

When his pay advice came by e-mail the next week I gave it to him and told him his money was in the bank. He said that he couldn't draw it in the village as the post office was run by his grandmother, she would tell his mum and then she would kick off. So he said he wasn't going to say anything until after I had finished. When I asked him about the resentment to our company he wouldn't say anything, he didn't want to upset his Mum. I asked him about the village and he said that the school had nearly closed twice, but this year five new children started and only one left so there were twelve pupils at the moment. Most of them were from farming families.

He also got to grips with the computer quickly which was set up in my mobile home up the hill, and he used to go and check for e-mail from the office two or three times a day as there was still no phone signal. I found if you walked another twoo hundred yards up the hill you could get a phone signal but it was a narrow, slippery path. I had made a simple dish aerial for the mobile internet which mounted on a stout pole tied to a tree by my caravan. This got a reasonable internet signal.

I was quite surprised how quickly he got used to it all.

It was now the middle of December and we had one more full week before the Christmas break. He told me he wouldn't be able to come once school finished for the holiday but I told him that wasn't a problem as I intended taking the full two weeks.

It was Tuesday morning, heavy rain and wind woke me a few times in the night, it had been raining most of the previous day as well, and everywhere looked waterlogged, even the ground outside the caravan squelched under foot. When I got up at six-thirty it was still dark and the rain was still pouring down. David arrived as usual at nine-thirty and told me that the river had burst its banks in the village and flooded two houses. When David left at three-fifteen it was already nearly dark and the rain was even heavier. It was also noticeably colder, although the wind had dropped from the gale of the previous night. He had about half a mile to walk as he always met his mum at the school in evening.

I was now having problems with the work site, there was a stream running through the flat area where all the containers were stored. I cleared some gullies and the water ran out onto the road, I decided to call it a day and go back to my caravan. David always lit the stove before he went home so at least it was warm when I got in. I had a look at the Met Office website and there was a severe weather warning out for our area; heavy rain and flooding, and later in the night the rain was expected to turn to snow.

I had my meal and sat down to watch the TV, I had a satellite box and dish rigged up. On the local news there were reports coming in of damaging floods in our area although details were sketchy. About nine o'clock there appeared to be a couple of flashes of lightning and I thought 'Rain, winds, snow possibly, and now a thunderstorm.' I didn't hear thunder, but with the rain still hammering down I doubted if I would hear it anyway. I decided to get ready to have a shower and I was just making up the wood-burner when there was a knock - well more of a banging really - on the door. I wondered who it was and opened the door to be greeted by David and someone who was obviously the minister. Stood behind them was David's mother, looking as if she had been sucking lemons. I invited them in although if the minister hadn't been around I would probably have made David's mother wait outside in what was now sleet.

The minister spoke, "We need your help, a wall of mud and water has torn through the village, people are trapped. The bridges and road have been washed away, as have the power and phone lines. David says you can get internet here and have found a spot to make a phone call on a mobile phone. We need to contact the emergency services."

I asked him how many people were affected, he said he didn't know but at least thirty houses were in the flooded area. He said that people were on their roofs, he had heard them calling out as he made his way here. The flashes I had seen were the power lines being destroyed.

The first job was to try making a phone call so I got my waterproofs on and started the sharp climb to the spot where I could usually get a phone signal. The sleet had already turned to snow and it was being whipped by a gusty wind which was increasing to a gale again. It was already settling on the trees and grass although the open ground was still too wet. There was a weak phone signal and I got through to the emergency service. I explained the situation and, after being passed through several people, explaining the situation each time, I eventually got through to the police station in the nearest town. I then spoke to a person who said they were the emergency co-ordinator.

He took my details and asked if I could wait by the phone but I said I was perched in a precarious spot and wouldn't be able to stand there long, but I did have net access at my caravan and that e-mail would work. He hummed and hawed a bit but took down my e-mail address. He asked me how many people were trapped or missing and I said I didn't know, but possibly thirty houses had been affected, maybe more. He asked if I could wait for a few minutes and he would ring back. Well, stood there in the dark with a blizzard roaring round me, ninety seconds seemed like two hours but my phone rang and I was just about able to hear a voice. It was a Squadron Leader Giles from RAF Valley, they were going to try and send helicopters in to start rescuing people. Could I turn my email on now, we would work by e-mail. He wanted numbers missing, and probable locations.

I got back to the caravan where the Minister and David's mother were arguing in Welsh. If I was going to help this was unacceptable and I said very sharply, "You've asked me for help and I will help but only if you speak English for the rest of the time we have to work together. I have the equipment and things that we need and I'm taking charge, if you don't like that leave now."

The minister looked a bit shaken and said, "Megan, people are going to die if we don't get this right, some may have already done so." Then he turned to me and said, "There was trouble with the last contractors working here and Megan got some of it. But you have kept yourself to yourself and I gather David has been spending a lot of time here. I give you my word that Megan will behave." He gave Megan a look that would have melted stone.

Megan hung her head and mumbled, "Sorry."

I then said to David, "Get the e-mail started, a Squadron Leader Giles should be in touch. Tell him what we know."

I then turned to Megan, "Write a list of all the people that would have been in the village, as we find them we can tick them off or make notes about their needs."

I then said to the minister, "Can we get near the river?"

"There's a farm track that runs parallel to the village street but at a level that should be above the worst of the devastation."

"OK, come with me. We'll take the Landrover and see if there is anything we can do. I have some ropes and a spot light."

David grunted and called my attention to the PC screen. There was an e-mail from RAF Valley; two helicopters had been despatched, could we update him on the situation, exact locations etc. I showed Megan the e-mail and asked if she knew how to give grid references using the 1:25000 map I had of the area which had been left by the ground-works crew. She said she could so I told her to help David to reply with as much detail as possible.

I then left with the minister down what was now a very snowy track. We made it down and as we got near the village two small groups of people were making there way up hill. I asked the minister if we could shelter them somewhere, they wouldn't all fit in the Landrover. He suggested opening the Chapel, it had candles and an old coke stove as there was no electricity to it, at least they would be out of the driving snow. He gave one of the men the keys and told him to get the stove started. They all looked awful. There were two families and they were all shivering. We left them to walk the remaining hundred yards to the Chapel.

We picked our way along the farm track and saw five families trapped by the flood waters. Two were still in their houses, the others were on their roofs, as the water was above first floor level. We turned around and headed back to my caravan. We had to walk the last two hundred yards as the track was now too slippery due to the snow.

When we got back Megan had finished the list and the minister, William, immediately wrote 'Chapel' against seven names and 'Rescue' against another fifteen. Twenty two out of seventy two, it was going to be a long night.

David had sent a detailed e-mail outlining the situation and had a reply from Valley saying that it was helpful and to update every ten minutes even if there was no change. I asked him to send exact details of the families we had seen from our drive along the farm track.

I said I would also email an update on the numbers and opened my private account on the laptop. On the first mail I said that bigguyonabike@mail.org was the same person as mikem1955@mail.com. I then gave them the figures we had gathered.

Several more e-mails were exchanged over the next ten minutes and then we heard the helicopters in the distance. I asked Megan to fetch some more logs for the stove and she went off on one again saying it wasn't important. I told her to do it. "This caravan is probably the only warm dry place in the village and there could be cases of hypothermia!" She then looked sheepish again and started putting her coat on.

We made five more journeys to the village through the night, each time we found a few more people, they had either made there own way to the chapel or been dropped there by the rescue helicopters. By two in the morning sixty one people had been found, that left eleven people unaccounted for. Megan and William thought that two families were out of the village, I gathered details and asked if Valley could contact the places they were thought to be. One family were found quickly, they had gone to the police station when they found they couldn't get up the valley and had been directed to a local school where displaced people were sheltering. The other family took a while to find but were staying with relatives, they also turned around when they couldn't get home. That left five people, including Megan's mum and dad who couldn't be found.

David the called my attention to his screen where he had written, "I think Nan & Gramps were swept away, the house and shop has gone." I called William over and he just nodded.

The rescuers had asked us to place a light outside if we could, it would give anyone wandering around a point to aim for, so we set a 500W floodlight outside pointing up. While we doing this one of the RAF men came up the track. He told us that they were still searching for the missing five but the weather conditions meant that they would have to leave a full search until the morning. They were currently airlifting the people in the chapel to an emergency centre in the local town. He asked what we wanted to do and I said we would stay put in case any of the missing people found us. We were warm and had enough food, it would be a squeeze but we would manage.

I noticed Megan at my laptop but I didn't really think about it and when the RAF man said we could stand down I was relieved, it was nearly three in the morning and there was six inches of snow outside. I left the genny running so that the light could be left on outside and found as much bedding as I could. I made up the temporary bed in the living area and put William in the single berth, David and Megan would have to share. I said that when anyone wakes up they should make the stove up.

With that I turned in and, although I was still wound up, I was also exhausted and fell into a troubled sleep. I heard voices twice during the night and half woke a six-thirty. There was someone in bed with me. At first I didn't think about it and I just moved against the warmth as it was damn cold in the caravan. About seven-thirty the first light was creeping in and I stirred again and put the light on. Megan was in bed with me, stripped to her bra and knickers. She woke and said, "Mum and Dad came in last night. They saw the light. There wasn't room in the living room, so I thought it best to share with you, I hope you don't mind, Big Guy On A Bike."

Well she actually didn't look too bad with most of her clothes off and not wearing a scowl. As for her using my SOL pen name she must have seen it on my laptop yesterday. I asked if anyone had let the authorities know and she said David had e-mailed. I went out of the bedroom to use the toilet and noticed the two people huddled in the living room with David. William stirred when I went in and came out of the single berth. I said I would put the kettle on and then get the genny started again, it had run out of petrol during the night. I got my outdoor clothes on and went out. I decided to piss outside as the chemical toilet would take a hammering with six people using it.

When I got back from refilling and starting the genny everyone was in the living area and cups of tea were being handed round. We then heard Megan's parents story; they had got out of the shop with seconds to spare before it was swept away and sheltered in a field barn. They heard the choppers but had no way of attracting attention but then saw my light and made their way to that. That left three people missing. Megans parents seemed very distant, but I thought it was probably due to the unfortunate circumstances of our meeting.

I then had an e-mail from Valley saying that a chopper would be leaving to take anyone out that wanted to leave. I said I would stay put, I had enough food and things to last a week, by which time the road should be open again. William said he would leave, as he would be needed by his flock, Megan's Mum and Dad said they would leave as well. That left Megan and I expected her to say that she and David would leave as well but she surprised me by saying, "Can David and I stay? I have a bit of making up to do to you and David can continue to work."

"OK, but one more outburst and I will personally see that the RAF take you away and drop you down a disused mine shaft."

She just hung her head and didn't say anything.

Our names were all over the TV. When I turned on the news it was full of the devastating flood that had hit the valley. According to the news one body had been found and four people were still missing, we knew that was wrong. They had got mine and Megan's names from somewhere as being responsible for 'leading the rescue'. They had found a reasonably good picture of Megan, probably from a school picture, but my picture was about five years old, may be more, and very grainy.

About two hours later we heard the sound of a chopper again and saw that they were landing in the field opposite the end of the track so I got everyone down the track. The snow was a level nine inches deep but it had stopped falling and the day was cold and clear. Megan and her parents, John and Anne, were talking in Welsh all the way down the track, David, William and I were a few yards behind them. The RAF pilot said, "Are you sure you don't want to leave?"

I said, "No, I'll be fine. As soon as the road is reopened I'll go home."

"They'll try to bring some supplies later, is there anything you want?"

I said I'd need milk and bread but Megan then jumped in and said, "Let me deal with this." She spent about five minutes giving him a list.

The pilot laughed and said, "Would you like me to bring the whole of Tesco?"

Megan smiled, it was the first time I had seen her face crack into anything other than the scowl that it usually had, and she looked different.

When we got back to the caravan I decided it was time to get on with some work, I didn't intend doing more than three or four hours but I wanted to get back into routine after the last twelve hours or so. So we had a sandwich lunch, I contacted the office, I was now famous, and ordered stuff for the next phase of the job, deliveries might get though in a couple of days so that the stuff would be onsite before Christmas.