This involved a 400 step descent, and another hundred steps up inside the lighthouse to the light. My legs were quite shaky especially on the descent. The only time I experienced breathlessness was climbing 100 steps inside the Lighthouse, when I began to huff and puff, so I really had to focus on my breathing then. The reassent up the cliff steps was actually not too bad, although I stopped quite a bit. However, as the sea birds were nesting on the cliffs, there was plenty of reason to stop and look at the view..
The next day we took it easy, both of us feeling quite tired, as in ‘normal tired’. We enjoyed the Lakeside train journey around Lake Pardan and visited the Welsh Slate Museum. On the drive home the day after we had yet another walk to see Conwy Falls.
Our holiday was rounded off on Saturday by a visit to the Ancient Ram Inn at Wotton, for an open day.
All in all, I had a very busy week. Previously any one of the short walks/ days out would have exhausted me!
I confess that I have felt tired this week, but I guess that is not surprising after all I did last week. That said, I have still managed to do some gardening and a local walk, as well as two afternoon’s supply teaching.
I do not think that I could have walked three quarters of the way up the highest mountain in England and Wales, if I had not used those nicotine patches, which do indeed seem to have opened up metabolic pathways. Fortunately, I have no urge to have a cigarette behind a bike shed!
A walk and a week like this seems nothing short of miraculous, alongside having mostly solved the breathlessness issue thanks to the book, and Wim Hof. Of course, my son also helped enormously!
The patches may be something that I have to use from time to time as 18 years of M.E may take some time to fully recover from, or indeed a full recovery may never be possible. However, I reckon I can do Pen y Fan in the not too distant future.
P.S My son climbed Snowdon in just over two hours, and also did two 10k runs…
Corner of the Eye 