Yikes. 41. I made it.

What a year that was, with ambitious challenges set and even bigger ones thrown at me by life.

I even answered that age-old conundrum and found out what happens when you press that big red button.

With a couple of challenges to complete in the new year to finish my list and ease me through January, but here’s a recap of some of the pretty awesome things I’ve done to survive celebrate my 40th year.

My biggest DNF of the year, I failed to find a castle. I suspect somebody stole it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I did however make great progress with my DT grid, explored ruins and set a new Adventure Lab cache.

I managed to stay upright on Striding Edge *takes a bow*, learnt lots of scrambling techniques, found some amazing caches, and discovered awesome locations.

Riding the Emirates Air Line at night was pretty cool, as was my first Comic Con. A few courses kept me temporarily out of mischief as I undertook Hill and Moorland Leader training and and passed my Silver Navigation award. Big brain.

We cached by punt – so Cambridge, explored places we’ve always wanted to visit and I made my first fire – success even in the pouring rain. *Flex*

A good year for wildlife, we found Red Squirrels, Fossils on the Jurassic coast, Tripped over seal pups completing the Norfolk Coastal Path and finally found those elusive Water Buffalo I’ve been seeking for years. Oh yeah, there was also that hospital breakout. Worst patient ever.

Never too old to bagsy top bunk for the first time, or get yourself cragfast by your waterproof trousers – only me eh? We also found fossilised sharks teeth and completed Earth Caches, yep, that’s plural.

Trigs were bagged and memories made, the outdoors always there to provide refuge when it was needed most.