A weekend in the Peak District staying in a Camping Barn at Abney. A wonderful peaceful setting in a remote spot.

On the Saturday morning we tried on all the PHD kit and, apart from a few minor adjustments to be made, I was very impressed with the quality and warmth of the gear. This was followed by a long drive up to Harrogate to select the correct size of footwear. Although the Cotswold Company have given us a 20% discount, which is very useful, Scarpa had failed to send the boots requested and so much of our trying on of the footwear was on examples that we will not be wearing. However, it did give us an idea of what will be needed and a good working relationship was struck up with the manager of the Harrogate shop. He will bring suitable samples to us in Nottingham in a few weeks for a definitive boot fitting.

After our return from Harrogate, we were able to enjoy a monster barbecue in the beautiful garden of the Barn. Mike Sharpe of A.L.E. (the company flying us in to Patriot Hills) walked up with a friend to join us and in the course of the evening was persuaded by Phil to give an interview about Antarctic tourism. See it here.

The next day saw us scrambling about in the rain practising crevasse rescues (etc). Finally an interview with Steve, Carl and Richard and the writing of two cheques whose total value made me blanche! These are for the kit from PHD and Terra Nova.
We have only one day's grace and then we meet up again in Portsmouth on Tuesday.