I found myself on an island that seemed to be calling itself "Arran" despite the fact it was much too small - I visited there when I was a child and can vouch for the fact it can't be walked around in a morning. I have no idea how I got there, or what I was doing there - the movie "Inception" tells us that is always the case with dreams - but when I got there, I found I had two tasks.
The first, was to work in some kind of relief capacity at a Doctor's surgery, where for some reason everyone had to wear barrier medicine gear and so found myself doing admin work on a computer while wearing gloves and a hygiene hat thing.
That was the boring bit. My job the next day, despite the fact I at no point went home to bed or anything like that, was some kind of patrol. I was to wonder the coast, half in the morning, half in the evening, and record the state of all historic buildings I encountered. I had to check in at the life boat station at some point, to show that I was doing my job properly.
My sister joined me at some point, and we cheerfully wandered the beach, before finding a listed brutalist public lavatory of a scale so large it incorporated a casino. Later I came to the village of "Levar Burton" - the actor who played Geordi Le Forge in Start Trek the Next Generation! - inspected a ruined castle several hundred metres high one wall of which had collapsed and was leaning on another one.
Some friends of mine were in a pub having a meal. I went to talk to them, and then rather sadly woke up. Never got to see the other side of the island.
What I was doing of course, was expressing a desire to escape, and have an adventure, do something I haven't got round to doing yet. In April, when I have some time off, I have a crazy plan to just grab a tent and some walking shoes, and head off literally from my front door. I might head West, for Derbyshire, or perhaps South, for the Vale of Belvoir. The idea is to see how far I can get in 5 days, then get a bus home.
I shall have a clockwork radio, a clockwork lamp, and an e-reader. I wonder if I will be brave enough to do it. If I do, hopefully, I won't have to rely on a shelter like this one, that I found next to the River Devon in Sconce Park yesterday.
Ray Mears has been about, evidently.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 29.02.16
