Four men and a Dog Escaped Alcatraz

No, not the prison in San Francisco but the evilness that is created every year by Chris Phillips. This years event saw an extra twist that Chris alluded to at the start. Knowing Chris we guessed pretty early on that there would be a second checkpoint. For once, we'd second guessed Chris correctly. Wow!

Also at the start there was a 2nd surprise, our team of Stu Spencer, Bob Halliwell and Darren Melling had an extra member, Darren's dog, a 4 year old Welsh Springer Spaniel. Straight away he was welcomed with a day-glo collar and armband and we set off, within 3 minutes the whole team was putting on waterproofs which set the tone for the next 23 hours and 57 minutes. With Stu navigating (mega respect, 1st ever Alcatraz I've not had to do that) we managed to avoid being caught. Until we met another team who grassed us up..... Knowing that we were fit enough to escape most catchers we ran. A cry of "Hi Carrington, Hi Stu, Hi Bob," made us realise that we couldn't escape this catcher, Richard Ramsbottom, not wanting to be caught by him, we ran towards his team mate (Ali) and gave her a big hug. This was the only life we lost as we dove (comando roles were seen) over hedges, fences and dry stone walls. After the 2nd checkpoint, with us 6km away from the finish we decided that trying to walk over a limestone pavement in the dark was a bit dangerous so bedded down in between to chunks of rock.

The rest of the "bimble" was fairly routine and when I'm awake I may get round to detailing the route but until then, sleep!