Muddy Care Blog Week 8

This week we visited Garwnant. This was the third act of our walking phase of the muddy care programme. The weather would of put most people off on a day like this. Cold, damp and very misty weather. I myself was buzzing full of energy before we started the day, so that helped. It goes to show though that not all of us are the same. There were a couple of us struggling in the early hours of that morning. As always Claire AKA Arcala was there right by our sides at minute one. Putting everyone at ease and comfort. She explained to us on what she had planned out for the day.

We started off the day taking the mini bus down to Garwnant were we sat down, had a chat and a cuppa. We were in the café for about an hour where Claire spoke to us all and was teaching us all about the importance of our health. Claire was very in depth and making it very clear that we can’t just call it ‘our health’. There are many different varieties of health that are so important on a daily basis. Mental and spiritual health were the ones that stuck out the most. To talk about mental health on that day was very important because like I said earlier, everyone’s different. In different aspects as well. Me personally I was raring to go, but I know that others were still a bit anxious. Claire also spoke about spiritual health a lot and about us trying to connect with the environment more. Both scenarios helped massively. I say helped because it made me see certain things from a different point of view. It’s fair to say that Claire opened up all of our minds.

While we were in the café it was Lee’s time to shine. Lee was teaching us about key orienteering skills. Out came his map of the area and the teaching began. Lee was teaching us about on what degrees to approach different destinations at so that we don’t or try not to get lost. Honestly it was quite interesting, but I have to admit at times it was hard to follow. None the less we got there in the end.

We finally started our walk at about 12ish. Just shy of dinner time. The path we took was very flat and even a well laid out path. After about 10 minutes of walking we slightly drifted of the trail because there was a nearby waterfall. Claire and Lee thought it might be a good idea to have a look. The waterfall was at the bottom of a narrow and uneven path that looped back around. It took some focus to get down there given by balance issues, but when we got there it was worth it. The word majestic comes to mind. Very peaceful spot. It was a huge up lift I think for everyone. Girls being girls though, out the smart phones came. Everybody wanted to catch this amazing picture. Personally it just made me switch off and relax. Good shout Claire and Lee.

We re-joined up with the trail and walked anther 10 minutes then we stopped for some dinner. It was nice to sit down, have a chat and unwind. Out of all the things to talk about we were talking about the possibility of doing a Christmas do. For me it was nice to see the people who started out having a not so good day to see their moods slightly improve. We resumed our walk soon after. It wasn’t far to go, so we just paced ourselves and took it easy.