19th April 2003

Woke about 03:00. Its freezing! There is a cold draft coming through the vent in the tent. I repositioned the blanket to form a head shield and went back to sleep. I finally woke up about 7.

The fire was restarted and breakfast cooked and cleared up. Three crows have just arrived. By 10:00 the temperature had only climbed to 8C!

Matthew arrived soon after ten, with Mary and Brian arriving about 11:00. Alan and Matt made a start on the Main Gate posts. However they soon hit solid rock. After an hour of so I went up to Barney's and borrowed a couple of cold chisels. These helped but we had hit a huge block of rock - it looks like slate but is as hard granite.

By mid afternoon Simon and Jim had arrived and setup camp. Jim is going to sleep in a hammock under a poncho - brave man in this weather. Between Mary and Simon we had virtually a whole canteen - saucepans, crockery, cutlery, picnic bench, wine glasses, mugs, and beer. Mary set to work cooking chilli and rice. By half six it was ready. We all stuffed our faces with superb food. After having cleared up it was starting to get dark and cold, so Alan, Sue and Jo departed for the B&B.

The rest of us built up the fire and settled down to a drink and a chat. By 11 o'clock it was pitch dark and quite a few of us were ready to turn in, so we called it a night.