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Let me say firstly, this post has nothing whatsoever to do with gardening.

As you can imagine things on the mountain tend to be pretty quiet.  The odd walker or insane cyclist in Autumn and Spring might get a big doggy woof welcome.  Hunters in winter are also common.  These people are around in daylight hours.  No-one is ever around after dark.

Yesterday evening we had a knock on the door and to our surprise B who bought ‘our’ mountain was back.  B bought much of the land behind us so it feels he bought ‘our’ mountain.  B is never really here though – just the odd visit where he gets to camp in his very own spot of wilderness – and a very nice spot it is.

Well last night after a glass of vino Big D took the torch out to walk B to his car so he could hit the trail and find his campsite.  30 seconds later Big D was back saying I’d need to hold the torch as they needed to push the car.  Weird I thought.  On getting outside it turned out B had forgotten to put on the handbrake and his car had rolled down the track about 20 metres before turning to rest itself on one large rock.  Two wheels were in the air, a third was holding the weight of the car on its hub. and the forth was wedged behind the large rock.  The car was leaning over and was so close to falling onto its side that I could wobble it about easily.

Panic really set in though when I noticed the large wet patch and the dripping from below the door rim where the fuel line is.  Eeeek we thought but no, there was no petrol leak.  It was just a cooler box full of ice  (keeping beer cool is a VERY important part of the camping experience) that had been dislodged and was slowly spilling its wares through the car onto the track.

It got sorted – with a tow rope (thankyou Mrs T, the new rope had its first outing) and some pushing – along with lots of fingers crossed that the car didn’t end up tipping over onto those of us pushing it.

Its not often there are neighbours about after dark.  And its even more rare for them to make me feel like less of an idiot for having balanced our car on a rock near the village last summer.  Being rescued by workmen who even let me sit on the shovel of their mini-digger was funny but still makes me blush!  Now I know B is feeling equally rosy!

So remember everyone; when parking a vehicle on a mountain ALWAYS apply the handbrake!