Chapter 21: Snow joke walking home

I calmed Gabrain down but decided he needed to hear a bit more of a constructive explanation of his actions as part of his education.

"Gabrain as a lord and a leader, people will rely upon you. You will need to take tough decisions, often decisions that will put people in harms way. You need to act responsibly. I suggest you need to learn a better approach to decision making than the one you used tonight when you thought it was okay to disobey me. Or the one you used when you blindly followed that stray horse without any consideration for the fact you were becoming detached from the group!"

"I just wanted to play my part Scott. I wanted the men to see I was doing my share of the work, taking my share of the risks."

"You were doing more than enough by just being on the trip. The men already have a great respect and even love for you and that's just through you acting like, through you being, yourself. You don't have to try and impress them, and if you do so by taking unnecessary risks then you're acting the fool!"

I saw him looking at me, a contrite expression on his face. He nodded once.

"I know you're right Scott and I'm sorry I've got us into this trouble. I promise I will learn from this and try to do better in future. Now, what are we going to do?"

This ability to simply accept that he was wrong and try to move on was very impressive, very mature I thought for an almost eleven year old. I decided the lecture was over with and it was time to get down to figuring out how to get home. I had travelled up and down to England on quite a few occasions in my own time and knew the area we were in fairly well - or that is, I knew the place- names fairly well, not the countryside. It was annoying me that I could have driven to Glasgow in just over two hours and even a train would get me there in three hours. On foot and in deep snow we would be lucky to make eight to ten miles a day. So, almost a month of walking, with no food, one bottle of water and the Saxons to contend with.

Well Gabrain, it looks like we're fucked!" I said to him with a laugh.

The boy laughed with me, and the tension was broken, the mood lifted. I explained to him the route I proposed to take and the hazards and dangers we would likely face along the way. The most difficult part was perhaps going to be the terrain we were going to have to cross. There were a number of high hill ranges in our path and in winter we would be lucky to find a path through them. At least we were warm, and I thanked god that we had developed the quilted material and the sheepskins.

We agreed that we might as well make a start and try to put some further distance between Lancaster and us. There was no sign of a pursuit but I felt more comfortable getting us on the move. Before we started out I stuffed several pieces of dried wood into my bag. Our overhang had kept them dry despite all the snow and I knew dry wood would be at a premium.

Our snowshoes helped considerably as we were going through mostly open country where snow tended to drift in places. We set a steady but sensible pace and trudged on and on, eyes peeled for anything edible or for signs of Saxons.

That first day we had to detour round two smallish settlements but didn't come across any people. Once more I chose a wood to rest up in, this time for the night. I found enough dry wood to get a fire going and we huddled together and I told Gabrain I would keep first watch. We had been up for a considerable part of the night before so I wasn't surprised when he fell asleep immediately. Hunger pangs were my biggest problem and it was hunger that was perhaps helping me keep my own eyes open.

I let Gabrain sleep for six hours and then felt I couldn't keep myself awake any longer so I shook him and we agreed that he would keep watch now while I rested. I set the vibrating alarm on my watch for six hours and curled up beside the fire to sleep.

I awoke while it was still dark and I noticed the fire had been tended and there was still a friendly blaze. Gabrain was sitting opposite me, watching me come awake and he grinned as I shook the sleep from my eyes and sat up and I found his grin was infectious. Grinning somehow makes you feel better about things no matter how bad they might be.

That day was another day of trudging through snow, on and on. We were following the line of the same River Lune that passed through Lancaster. Its path was almost directly northwards and I thought it as good a trail as any. We only had to detour around one steading in the morning and it was clear the countryside was getting more remote the further we travelled from Lancaster.

We had our first stroke of luck that afternoon when we stumbled across a frozen sheep. It looked healthy enough (for being dead!), there was no stink from it and when I tried to cut into its flesh with my dirk it was frozen solid. I took that as a good sign, perhaps the meat would be preserved. I opened my bag and took out the wire saw from my survival kit, using it to sever two of the sheep's legs and trimming these off.

We had been climbing steadily throughout the day and trees were now almost non-existent. Conditions were worsening badly as the high winds whipped loose snow from the ground into our faces and I was looking desperately for somewhere to hole up for the night. The best I could manage was a fairly deep ravine that had somehow escaped the drifting of the snow - possibly because it was out of the prevailing wind. This fact meant it was also relatively sheltered for us so I decided not to press on any further but to take the shelter while we could.

We had a fair supply of dry wood that we had accumulated and I built us a fire with some of it. I had fashioned the usual ring of stones to retain the fire but this time added a twist by placing a large flat stone in the centre of the circle. The flat stone was now in the centre of the blaze and I was going to use it to cook the sheep. Both legs had partly thawed out and I was pleased that they still smelled okay. If I cooked both now they should last for another couple of days so it looked like we had food for the moment.

The smell of roasting mutton soon wafted over us and. having not eaten for a while, our mouths were watering badly. I set up my billycan and began to melt snow for water. This took longer than I thought, as I didn't fully appreciate just how much snow was required to get a full billycan of water. Filling the billy with snow and then melting it only produced an inch or so of water in the can. Still, I had nothing else to do as I waited for the mutton, so I patiently fed more snow into the boiling can until I had enough to fill up the water bottle.

Gabrain's face looked strained and he was staring at the meat in the fire. I knew how he felt as my own stomach was grumbling at me to feed it. I burned my fingers as I pulled one leg clear of the fire and hurriedly cut several strips of cooked meat from it before setting it back to continue cooking. I handed one strip of meat to Gabrain and sat chewing on the other myself. The meat itself was tough and stringy but it tasted like filet mignon at that moment. Gabrain also looked a lot happier with something inside him.

I allowed us both another portion of meat but then began to carve it as it cooked and set it aside to cool so we could eat it over the next few days. I had one remaining plastic bag in my kit and I used this to store the meat. Once I was satisfied it was all cooked I gave us the treat of each having one of the leg bones to chew on. I believe I was so hungry I was trying to crunch the bone itself.

We used up the rest of our wood as we fed the fire that night and then huddled together to share our body heat. Given how remote the area was I didn't think it was necessary to keep watch and we fell asleep together; our bellies quiet for the first time in days.

It was hard going the next morning as the area we were walking through was over thirteen hundred feet in places and very exposed. I found myself walking almost at a forty-five degree angle to lean into the wind. We didn't stop to each but rather chewed on some mutton as we trudged on, at last beginning to head downhill a little and the worst of the wind easing. We began to see signs of human activity as we neared the area of Penrith and I assumed there must be a fairly large settlement here. We had to swing westwards to give it a wide berth.

The going continued to be downhill and more trees were becoming evident. As the light was beginning to fade I thought I could make out a dense patch of wood ahead of us and I pulled the binos from my bag to check it out. The forest looked dense and a likely place to spend the night if we could just reach it. It was perhaps a mile and a half away and I thought it unlikely we would make it before the light gave out so I took a compass bearing and agreed with Gabrain that we should carry on.

We eventually managed to reach the forest but with little opportunity to investigate it to find a good camp spot. Experience suggested the best spots were overhangs. These were normally created through erosion of the soil by streams that weakened tree roots and eventually brought the tree down. As we continued walking I was peering through the darkness, trying to find such a spot and I literally fell into one. I called out a warning to Gabrain and pulled myself up, dusting soil from myself. I had fallen through some thick underbrush and had rolled down an embankment; thankfully halting before I ended up in the water that ran at right angles to my path.

I berated myself for this stupidity. I could easily have broken my neck trying to navigate through the forest in the pitch darkness.

"Fucking stupid!" I whispered fiercely to myself, shaken by the fall and worried about how much worse it could have been for either Gabrain or me.

I called out to let Gabrain know I was okay and to warn him that there was a fairly major embankment in front of him. I told him that he should come forward carefully, on hands and knees if possible. Another lesson learned I thought, I would not leave it so late to find a camp in future. I needed to ensure we were settled while there was still light.

I managed to find some wood by touch alone and used some of my precious tinder to start a small fire. The fire gave some light and Gabrain was able to use that to make his way safely down the embankment.

Exploring, I found a really good spot for a camp and collected more dry wood, using burning wood from the first fire to get another campfire going at this better spot. I doused the first fire and filled the billycan with water from the running stream, putting it on the new campfire to boil. We finished the last of the mutton, putting pieces on sticks and re-heating them over the fire. We washed the meat down with the last of the water from my bottle.

Once the billycan had boiled I used it to re-fill the water bottle for the next day. I gathered some additional wood for the fire during the night and then we huddled together once more to sleep.

Two days later two days without food, and we were in the vicinity of Carlisle. I knew this was situated right on the line of Hadrian's wall - a wall built by the Roman's to keep the savage Celts out. The gruelling travel, cold and lack of food were getting to Gabrain and he trudged along beside me, none of his characteristic enthusiasm, energy and good humour evident. I knew that at the worst I needed to find us some food and at best we could do with a day of lying up somewhere to rest and re-charge our batteries.

We camped for the night and immediately recognised any fire would be visible from Carlisle - if we could see theirs, and we could, many of them - then they would be able to see ours, so we had to do without one. This was perhaps the most miserable night so far. I had been unable to find suitable wooded cover before nightfall and the best we could manage was a deep fold in the ground. Despite the fact we were out of the worst of the wind, we were sitting on a blanket of snow and the cold began to seep into our bones. We remained awake most of the night, unable to sleep due to the cold and made a start as soon as it was becoming light.

We circled Carlisle to the east to avoid it as much as possible and crossed Hadrian's wall in the late morning.

"Cheer up Gabrain!" I said. "For all intents and purposes we are now back in Scotland. Welcome home, my Lord." I bowed before him.