Day 85 to Day 90

Collected first thing in the morning by the fabulous Brian from the RAF Specialist Engagement Team, we headed over to the technical side of Cosford Station to meet Rich who was part of the RAF Resilience team. We all met for coffee and chatted about the plan moving forward to make up my missing miles, where I would walk and my route from Cosford to Shawbury.
It was great meeting Rich as he had been following my journey almost from the beginning and we had chatted over social media. It’s always great meeting people who have been very supportive of your efforts and want to be a part of the story.
After coffee, we went back to the SET office and sorted a few things out admin wise. Soon it was lunchtime, so myself Brian and the adorable Shiv, who is also with the SET, went across to Greggs for some food. We made a few phonecalls regarding a possible visit to MoD Stafford and continued with communication and admin. Time had flown and I was dropped back on the domestic side of the Station where I was staying.
I sorted my gear out and changed my clothes for something more suitable to wear in the Mess.
There were a few people in the dining hall and I felt incredibly conspicuous. I might as well have had "Civvy" tattooed on my forehead and a big siren over my head screeching as I walked in, for that’s how I felt. I had no idea where I was going, so took a moment to sit while finishing sending a text, to suss out the lay of the land. Luckily the entrance to service, was near where I had sat, so I slipped through the door and had a look at what was on offer. The meal I chose was to be made fresh and would be brought out to me. So I sat on a large table, on my own, twiddling my thumbs trying not to stick out like the actual sore thumb I knew I was. Then, others began to join me on the table. No idea who they were, and they didn’t introduce themselves or talk to me, they were engrossed in their own little conversations. So I continued twiddling and browsing social media on my phone. To my huge relief, my meal finally arrived. It was delicious but I ate very quickly and left. Anxiety is such a bitch at times!
The next morning was spent liaising with RAF personnel and organising things for the SE team.
After lunch, Brian, Shiv and myself went over to the RAF Museum at Cosford to speak to a lovely girl named Jess. She was responsible for organising and filming the RAF Stories project for the museum. It was just an initial introduction and a chance to chat about the questions that may be asked during the interview and also to see if there was anything else that I could add to my story as an RAF mum.
We chatted about my grandparents, who looked after the forces with the Salvation Army's Red Shield.

My Grandmother served egg and chips to Winston Churchill and there are numerous funny stories of her feisty altercations with unsuspecting Officers. However, my grandad, who like my Grandmother, was also a Brigadier with the Salvation Army, often gets lost in her shadow. My grandfather, was a very special man and did his duty without any fuss, rarely talking about it to anyone. However, if you did manage to get him to talk about his duties during the war, the gravity of what he did would hit you like a tonne of bricks. As a padre with the Salvation Army, many of the soldiers and airmen would confide in him and entrust him with their belongings when they went away on their missions, and operations. He would talk of the precious items they would give him, some were valuable, others were purely sentimental, but they were priceless to the individual. They would entrust my grandfather with their treasured items with instructions on what to do should they not come home to retrieve them. Many, oh so many, didn’t! He would take the tin box of treasures and wrap it up so carefully with a letter to their loved ones and return it home, where sadly the owner would never go again. Too often, this ritual was required, but my grandfather did it meticulously each time with such care and respect. Whenever he spoke of this, his eyes would always glisten. These were people he knew, and had formed a bond with,a respect. He considered them friends. He still did as he talked of them. He felt it deeply when he watched the Lancaster take off from Scampton with my Grandmother for the famous Dambusters raid (though they did not know at the time what they were witnessing). So many Lancasters filled the sky, and the ground shook with the combined noise of all the engines. As my Grandmother tells it, my grandfather dropped to his knees and prayed for their safe return. Sadly, as we know, they didn’t all come back!
(The men who took part in the raid)

Yes, my grandfather was a special man. I am so proud of the work that they both did with the forces and find them both a huge source of inspiration.
After our chat at the museum, we picked up some supplies and I went to meet the amazing Anne, who is another RAF mum, like me. Brian had dropped me off at Tescos where I was meeting Anne, and we all had a coffee and a chat before he headed off home.
Anne and I had tea at a little pub not far from the supermarket. It was so wonderful to meet another RAF mum, who you’ve spoken to many times over social media. The RAF Mum’s are an amazing support network. It’s a shame more people don’t know how to tap into that. We talked for ages about anything and everything, it was like being with an old friend. Anne is a remarkable woman and I’m so glad to have met her and shared part of the journey with her.
Anne kindly dropped me back at the mess as I had a few things to sort out, including some washing.
After a fair bit of admin, I gathered up my clothes ready for washing, and wandered down the hall to the laundry room. New washing machines. Shouldn’t be hard to figure out. There was a setting for "quick wash" "extra quick wash" and "rinse and spin" all in a clump at the 3 o’clock position. I plumped for "quick wash" and turned the dial.
I put my washing in, added the powder and pressed start. I was horrified when the LED display said 3 hrs! What? How in any way, is that quick. It was too late, I’d pressed start and there was no going back or reducing the time. My washing would be done in 3 hrs time!
All I could do now was wait. I headed back to my room, thinking this could not get any worse when I spotted something lying on the floor. When I looked, I realised there was something else on the floor a bit further up the corridor as well. Realisation dawned. It was only my sodding knickers! They must have fallen out of the bundle as I went to the laundry room. FFS! It could only happen to me. I quickly scooped them up and got back into my room as quickly as I could, hoping that no one else had seen the knicker trail! Fingers crossed!
3 hours passed more slowly than the quick wash led me to believe. I was so tired, all I wanted to do was sleep, but I had to sort out my clothes and see what state they were in. When the cycle finally finished and I opened the door, it was clear my cashmere cardigan was no more. Its fluffy mangled corpse was in tatters all over the rest of my clothes. It would be a nightmare to clean up and would probably never come off my other clothes which looked decidedly smaller than when they went in. BUGGER! I was too tired to put them in the tumble dryer and wait for them to dry, plus I decided they’d had enough trauma for one evening. So I carried the washing carefully back to the room putting some on the radiator, but most in the bin. Then, I fell into bed!
I was up early next morning, to go with Brian and Shiv to meet Rich and another officer named Kev. We planned out the next few days of walking and how we would go about finding safe alternatives to walking in the roads. It was going to be quite exciting, and I was looking forward to seeing new places.
That afternoon myself, Brian and Shiv took a trip to the National Memorial Arboretum. We had such a laugh and a giggle on the way over. Brian and Shiv both have great senses of humour, and are such fun to be around. The Arboretum was a beautiful place, that has a real touch of serenity about it.

I hadn’t realised that the main forces memorial was from 1945 onwards. I spent ages looking for the name of my Grandmothers cousin Ralph, who was aboard the HMS Arethusa when it was sunk in 1942. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t find dates earlier than 1945. Eventually I realised after googling it and reading that it’s post 1945. A tiny blonde moment there.
There was an RAF section…

and also a lovely memorial for The RAF Association.

On the ground were many names. However, we were all struck by three names in particular, all with the same surname. There was a Wing Commander Dark, a Group Captain Dark and a Squadron Leader Dark. They all seemed to have done exceptional work.
The Group Captain Edward Albert Dark died in 1997 aged 88. He worked at Boscombe Down during the war, being involved amongst other things with the testing of the Dambuster Bomb. After the war he had the very difficult task of investigating the effects of the bomb on Japan, followed by his time as Air Advisor to the Ambassador there. He went to Kinloss as Commanding officer for three years in 1948.
During the War he worked on developing weapons, it seems that he was involved in an experiment to destroy subs by dropping oil on them and setting them alight. Churchill attended such an experiment at Poole Harbour when AE Dark was there.
Squadron Leader Michael Edward Dark was one of the last pilots to fly a Sunderland flying boat into Castle Archdale in Co Fermanagh.

(front row, second from the right)
The Sunderlands played a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic, helping to pinpoint and destroy German U-boats.
Squadron Leader Dark was one of five generations of his family to serve in the RAF since its formation in April 1, 1918.
His grandfather, Albert, an ex-Royal Navy gunner, joined on that date and served in its technical branch.
Michael's father, Edward, served from 1928-56 and was part of an Allied forces scientific team which visited Hiroshima in September 1945 to determine the effects of the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan the previous month.
Michael's eldest son Jonathan also served in the force as did his granddaughter Rebecca, whose five years in the RAF included going to the Falklands. She later trained as a nurse in the Queen Alexandra Royal Army Nursing Corp.
Michael graduated from the RAF Flying College at Cranwell in April 1952 and the following year was posted to the Far East, flying Sunderlands.
He took part in 36 missions in the Korean War and later said that the weather, which could include freezing conditions or monsoons, which meant flying by instruments only, posed as big a danger as the enemy forces to the pilots.
He also took part in 10 Firedog operations - flushing out Communist terrorists from the Malayan jungle by strafing their positions or dropping bombs on them.
It was on November 3, 1956, that he landed a Sunderland flying boat at Castle Archdale, one of the last pilots to perform that role.
Michael returned to flying duties after his marriage and at the 1960 Farnborough Air Show demonstrated the endurance capabilities of the latest Shackleton aircraft by flying a 22-hour return trip to Madeira.
He retired in 1970.
An amazing family with generations intertwined with the Royal Air Force! Its no wonder they had special plaques in this very special place. Its a shame only their names are present and no information on their extraordinary lives. There are so many ordinary individuals that did extraordinary things, and we never hear their stories. How can we possibly thank them all?
Heading home, I needed to stop to collect some more pain killers. I popped into tescos to do so, and get some tea. I decided that cake would be nice for afters and headed to the cake aisle. Only to find that some poor person had had some kind of trauma in the cake aisle and said cake aisle was now completely cordoned off. I couldn’t even see down the aisle to see if my cakes were in stock! Gutted! Trauma in the cake aisle. You couldn’t make this shit up!
Next morning I was up and out ready to go to the RAF museum for the RAF stories interview. It was another really warm day, but not as warm as it previously had been. Upon arriving at the museum, I grabbed a bottle of water that from the cost, you would have thought that the bottle was made of purest gold and etched with the rarest of diamonds all the while containing mineral water that had been cried out of the eyes of a Saint!
Anyway, Jess met me by the Cafe, and we walked across to a different hangar to the "studio". It was effectively a blacked out classroom, but it did the job perfectly well. We chatted a little first and then got straight into the questions. Many ers and ums so I hope they can edit those out. It took about 45 mins but its always nice to talk about being an RAF mum, how proud it makes me and what I think about the RAF as an organisation.
Once that was concluded, Rich then met me to go for a walk, up, down and around something called The Wrekin. I had no idea what it was but apparently I was going to go up it and down it.

It was initially quite a steep climb and there is a convenient little cafe cabin about a quarter of the way up for you to catch your breath at. We had a drink there, and then as always, I needed to use the facilities. These just happened to be a pair of portaloos around the back. Now I’ve used such things before, but never like this.

I wasn’t sure whether I needed a launch code or a parachute.... Peculiar little thing!
As I said, it was quite a steep climb and at times I felt like there was no air in my lungs and it burned. My head was pounding a bit too, so I just stopped to catch my breath for a moment before plodding on.
Once at the top though, the views were stunning and well worth the trek!

Rich’s dog Merrie was bounding all over the place, almost like a springbok. I certainly wished I had her energy!

The way down was a tad trickier. It was very steep the other side, with no set path, so your footing was very unsure and there was a great risk of slipping. However, we both got down with no accidents and decided to explore the opposite side of the hill and hope to find a pub!
Merrie found all the muddy puddles just like my Frodo would have done if he were still with us!
(Merrie)


(Frodo)
Finally back at the car, I tended my foot as I could feel the possible twinge of a potential blister. Then it was off to the nearest pub of course, for a drink and a snack. Both were very welcome.
Tea that evening, was just a pasta salad and a Krispy Kreme. It wasn't long before I was in bed, I was knackered.
Next day, I wondered off into Albrighton. On the way I found a nature reserve,

and the first of Two churches in the village St Cuthbert's Parish Church. Really beautiful and full of medieval history.

The second was The Church of St Mary Magdalen. There is a stone coffin/sarcophagus within,

dating back to the reign of King Henry II, and is important as it has inscribed on it 25 heraldic shields, the coats of arms of important Shropshire families. Some of these shields are shown in the window above.

There is also a large alabaster tomb of Sir John Talbot who died in 1555 and his wife Francis Gifford.


Having concluded my wander around the church, I walked on, up to The Crown pub. I had a drink, and did some admin, before using the facilities. I was surprised to see the Ladies full of RAF and vintage memorabilia.


It certainly made a very nice change from the usual clinical look you get in some of these places. Upon leaving the pub, I decided to get some fish and chips on the way back. Sadly it was closed. Not to worry I thought, I’d head back, finish my admin in the mess and have a hot chocolate whilst waiting for dinner. Only thing was, the Mess Hall was only open for half an hour and I missed it! Good job I have a little stash of food with me. Phew!
Tomorrow, is another long walk which I’m quite looking forward to.
Time to pack up, get organised and have an early night, as tomorrow, new adventures await!

