At breakfast this morning, Sara mentioned that she had seen
a hedgehog yesterday. That, in itself, was not startling because virtually
every walker sees hedgehogs. But they are always flat, two-dimensional things that
have become one with the road. Nobody has ever actually seen a
three-dimensional hedgehog, until yesterday.
Universal practice in scientific communities requires that
new discoveries be named after the discoverer. So it’s
only right that Sara’s discovery be named after her. Of course, it would be
confusing to name the hedgehog Sara – poor Dave wouldn’t know who to accompany
if, for example, he and Sara were invited to dinner. So to avoid confusion,
Sara’s hedgehog will henceforth be known as Sarah, the “h” signifying “hedgehog.”
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| Sarah (Image by Sara Watkins) |
It is commonly known that walkers can be a jealous lot, and
as soon as the others at breakfast learned about Sarah, they wanted their own hedgehogs. And so off they went, all pretending to be walking to
Kirkby Stephen, but each secretly searching for his or her own hedgehog. So
engrossed were they, that they lost track of where they were. That’s when
things got interesting.
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| The search begins |
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Dave and Sara
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| Dennis |
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| Lynne |
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| Dave, Sara, Lynne, Dennis and Lynn |
With a lot of pointing and misdirection, Dennis tried to get
the others to go where no hedgehogs could be found, hoping to save the prime
territory for himself. Harry and Leo took off on their own to find more
lucrative hunting grounds. I wasn’t so much interested in finding hedgehogs, as
finding the fastest way to Kirkby Stephen for a beer. Meanwhile, Lynn and Leo
were surreptitiously texting each other directions to good hunting territories.
Dave stayed at the back hoping that the commotion of the other walkers would
chase a hedgehog his way, while Lynne wondered whether hedgehogs could read
maps better than we could. And through it all, Sara just strolled on smugly,
comfortable in the knowledge that Sarah will go down in history as a highlight
of this group’s Coast to Coast walk.
