Tag: hiking

Publication Day!

About the same time that I started writing Anna’s F-Plan I started my ‘Peaks, Polaroids and Prosecco’ challenge. So a peak, a polaroid and Prosecco was the perfect way for me to celebrate my Publication Day.

I was so excited as I stood at the foot of the very first mountain I had climbed in the Mournes.

We set off on the short climb to the top.

Two years ago, I had huffed and puffed, staggered and stumbled my way to the summit and today was no different!

There had been too few peaks as I was preparing for publication. My lungs, legs and muscles were all suffering as a result of too much time spent sitting on my bottom editing but I bravely battled on, until finally I reached the top!

Where gale force winds were blowing.

I wanted my book to fly off the shelves, not off a mountain!

It was October 25th. I had climbed a peak, taken a Polaroid and popped the Prosecco to celebrate the publication of my book.

It was the perfect day!

Peaks, Polaroids and Prosecco

Last year I set myself a ‘Peaks, Polaroids and Prosecco’ challenge. Admittedly, the only challenging part of it was the peaks. Drinking Prosecco and taking polaroids was easy.

photos of hillwalking, cairn, stile, mountain top

I had never climbed a mountain before. I had climbed a ladder. I had climbed a flight of stairs but that’s where my expertise ended.

My energy and enthusiasm would more than make up for my lack of experience, I told myself as I looked at the enormous peak in the distance and thought how easy it was going to be to reach the top.

FYI there was nothing easy about it. I huffed and puffed, clambered and crawled, stumbled and staggered up to the summit. I wanted to give up and go back many times. I whinged and wailed that I couldn’t do it but finally I made it.

‘I’m a mountaineer!’ I threw my hands in the air, triumphant, victorious.

‘No, you’re not,’ my partner, who had been so supportive and encouraging on the way up, told me, ‘you’re a hillwalker.’

I ignored him. The lack of oxygen at the top of this 600m beast was clearly affecting his brain. I had climbed a mountain, therefore I was a mountaineer!

I felt like Sir Edmund Hillary and wished I’d brought a flag with me. Instead I took a polaroid for posterity of me standing at my first peak.

black and white view from summit, cairn, walking boots, stile

Writing my book was just like climbing my first mountain. It was challenging, tough and there were times I thought I would never make it but patience, perseverance and persistence paid off and Prosecco was popped!