INTO THE UNKNOWN..

Ray Mears, eat your heart out. You ain`t seen nothing yet. You might think it`s rugged battling to survive in the wilds of far off countries but until you`ve explored the hinterland of far west Kent your claim to be a survival expert looks a little thin. In a day or two, Mrs. Snopper and I, along with Barney the Retriever, are heading west to spend a week in the far flung reaches of the county. The reason? We`ve volunteered to dog sit their soft wheaten terrier (Judy) whilst our relatives go off to Turkey for a holiday.

We`ve been over there before and on Sunday we went there to find out how to survive in their surroundings and get to know the locality a bit. We were seduced by a spectacular steak pie dinner which we enjoyed and we were taken on a whistle stop tour of the area to be shown where we might take the dogs for walks and restock our dwindling supplies if necessary. We were warned about the wildlife and we did indeed encounter a deer strolling across the road on our way home. There are also reports of big cats, pumas even, roaming wild - this part of Kent has become well known for the number of confirmed sightings over the years. And we`re told the owls might keep us awake at night.

So it`s wild, untamed, unknown territory. I`ve been and bought a large scale ordnance survey map which should help us keep on the straight and narrow and this morning we have been shopping to make sure we have enough essential supplies of crunchy nut corn flakes, assorted cakes and pastries, pots of custard to go with Mr. Kipling`s exceedingly good apple pies and other indispensable items to sustain us during our adventure. You can tell from the shopping list just how courageous and daunting our week promises to be.
So wish us well. It might be a while before I can post any news of our pioneering quest so in the meantime, I`ll leave you with this image of the untamed wilderness we are about to enter:-


Click on the photo and with a little patience, a larger image should appear. It looks really daunting, doesn`t it? And I think at our age, we`re very brave to even attempt it.