Right then where was I.........Ah yes....
....my brother was leading the way, when all of a sudden he's stopped dead in his tracks! Ahead of us was a huge break in the dyke, which because we'd come a different way, we hadn't come across on the way out. There was no time to double back, the only thing we could do was go for it, bearing in mind the surface we were running on was by now considerably slippery. Mike, my friend was almost hysterical, not being what you'd call an athletic type, he was getting frantic! So we've been fully supportive and said, you can go back if you want, but we are gonna go for it! (no that's not the funny bit) Well, my brother went first, managed to clear the water by just under a foot! Then me, this was the biggest jump I'd ever attempted, and to be honest if it had been an open space rather than water I doubt I'd have gone for it, so back I go about 10 foot, run as hard as I can and leap for it....Yes! Made it by about six inches, I also had the advantage of my brother grabbing my arm as I landed.
Right, so now it's Mikes' turn, and again he get's in a flap, again we are full of encouragement, we actually were this time, but after several stalled attempts we are beginning to get just a little pi**ed off. So we say come now or we are going, we even offered to stand either side of the "landing zone" and grab him, but he refused, can't recall his reasoning, but he didn't want us there, OK we say, and back off. All the while it's still been pissing down, almost like those tropical storms you see on the movies, and everyone has to shout to be heard! Anyway, here I come he says, and sets off at a gangley rate of knots, gets to the take off point and leaps, and at about mid point of his flight, everything just seemed to slow down as we looked at were his projected landing point would be. Yes, he had cleared the water, so sorry if that's what you thought was gonna happen. Right between were his feet would make contact, about an inch from the waters edge and possibly the reason we hadn't noticed it till then, was this little twig growing out of the ground about three inches long, and yep his feet hit, slipped out from under him, and wham! he takes the whole three inches, that isn't the funniest bit, though. He never stops, the second his ass hits the ground he springs straight back up and continues running! Well that was it, we just collapsed in absolute uncontrollable fits of laughter, our sides were aching, we had tears streaming down our faces, all the while he's holding his ass, and saying it wasn't that funny. Ten minutes later we were finally able to continue on our way. But that is certainly one of our adventures I'll never forget, and yes we did get home without any further incident. I hope I painted a good enough picture and that there are several wet eyes in the audience.
I do have another story about him which is equally funny, which I'm happy to share later, if you so desire
:smile-big: