Week 7 Mini Pilot
Written by Muddy Care Participant ‘N’
This was the second week of “Moving Forwards” the activity for which is walking in nature.
We met as usual and drove to a cafe to try on the walking boots we had each been supplied with. All the kit supplied for the Pilot study has been of super quality and this really does make a big difference while we are out and about, keeping us warmer, safer and making things easier. Sadly the cafe failed in its other purpose of providing hot drinks as the coffee machine broke, causing some amusement. We spent this time also discussing more about the Cairn of wellness and the “stones” that make up our health and wellness. We particular focused on resilience and what it means in the context of chronic conditions. We all acknowledged that chronic conditions test ones resilience to the full and that finding the ways to support and improve your resilience is one of the most important parts of moving forward in life with a chronic condition. We discussed many and varied ways to encourage and nurture resilience, understanding that it can be a slow and steady process rather than a rapid bounce back, and this was ok...the tortoise won the race!
We then set out to walk to the waterfalls at Talybont. This is a shortish walk but had some challenging terrain in parts and the waterfalls were stunning. We did a mindfulness exercise to count the number of waterfalls during the walk, keeping us engaged and present.
We stopped for a picnic lunch in a beautiful spot and had a lesson in orienteering, learning how to use a compass and interpret the terrain. We then walked back to the minibus enjoying the scenery and pacing ourselves so everyone could achieve the distance without undue stress or strain.
After this, we split the group so some went for an additional walk through the forestry, meeting the others later at the minibus. During this walk we used our orienteering skills to monitor exactly where we were and compare to the OS map which was great fun. We came across a bridge that had collapsed so we had to cross the stream in its small chasm with teamwork to ensure everyone’s safety including Garth the dog! It was great to see how smoothly we worked together.
We ended the day with a coffee and chat and we all agreed that even though the weather had been cold and not ideal, we had all had a fun and interesting day and we had learnt a lot, including unfortunately, that carrot and oat cake didn’t suit Garth’s digestion....
