I thought I'd share my story….. It’s not particularly exciting but it does have a happy ending, and we all like one of them!
My trusty Alpkit headtorch was bought for me by friends for my birthday 3 or more years ago. As a hobby trail runner I needed it for dark, muddy Monday night runs with ‘The Calstock Dirthogs’.
In July 2020 both my trusty head torch and the rest of the family made a small move North. Well, a 600+ mile relocation to NW Scotland to be more accurate. Why? Why not? Opportunities are there to be grabbed and we found ourselves in the Highlands, half an hour from Oban, in a small village nestled next to the marvellous freshwater Loch Awe.
Key to this story is Iz dog, our mildly reactive Portuguese rescue. She adores the vast expanses of open moorland and the ability to walk for miles from the front door, now no longer traumatised by the multitude of NT visitors who used to walk past our old house in Cornwall. Last November we grabbed the last of the daylight and headed out for some fresh air. Straight up onto the hills, head torch grabbed, we stomped over rough hilly grass, a different path trampled on every walk - oh the joy of open access. I had the torch and dog lead swinging in my hand as I hurriedly stomped over the tussocks, and as the light faded, I decided it was torch time. There was a lead but no torch. I’d obviously dropped it but as if a light had been switched off (no pun intended), it was suddenly very dark with some seasonal Scottish wet stuff falling from the sky. I back tracked but it really was impossible to see anything, so I sadly left my green Alpkit headtorch to the elements with the view to go out in the morning to seek it out.
The wet stuff turned to white stuff overnight, and the hills were covered in snow for a couple of days. When it thawed, the rain set in but I tramped over the hills searching for the elusive, missing torch. I got my lovely neighbours involved. They assured me their spaniel would find it and as they were the only other walkers of this remote area I could only hope. The weeks ticked by, Christmas came & went. Frosts turned the countryside crispy but mainly it drizzled. Disappointingly Santa hadn't picked up on my less than subtle hints for a new head torch either.
Moving forward to Monday 24th Jan 2022, another grey, wet Scottish Winter’s day and I was just back from a lunchtime wabjab with the dog (a Calstock Dirthog term for walk a bit, jog a bit). Hanging on the conservatory door was my green headtorch, soggy and sad but home. A message on my phone showed that Molly the spaniel had indeed excelled herself and a photo showed her proud find. The icing on the cake was that it turned on instantly and had enough charge for a quick evening dog walk that night. Amazing!
The moral of the story is that a head torch is called that for a reason, and that if you lose something don’t rely on a Portuguese street dog to find it, call in the pedigree neighbours. Oh… and we all love Scotland. It rains a lot in Cornwall too but there are far more people there 😁