It’s An Emergency!
The call-out comes by text at 7pm. I fill a flask, check the postcode for the rendezvous (RV) and respond to our co-ordinator with a journey time.
At the RV I am assigned my supports – people in our team who help manage navigation, first aid and communications and help observe the dog.
The briefing includes a description of the missing person, any relevant information like medical conditions, and we are given our designated route.
I work in front with Oddie, directing him this way and that in arcs around me, with support following a watchful 10 paces behind.
As we follow the path down the hill, the cooling air comes tumbling down to meet us.
Oddie has a rest and a drink and then he’s off again, swooping around us, checking, checking, dismissing. Nothing here. We arrive back at my van after three hours searching. It is midnight. We go back to the RV, submit our report and drink coffee.
While we’re there, the phone in the control van rings and very calmly, we are given a grid reference from another team to take a stretcher to.
In the dark, pinpricks of light stream from all directions to where another team have found our person unconscious.
The lights organise themselves into a line, throwing woodland debris out of the path of the stretcher bearers who follow the illuminated route. Hands come forward to replace aching arms.
Once the person has been carried to a suitable track, they are transferred to the back of a 4x4 vehicle to make the rest of the journey to a waiting ambulance, with all the lights of our torches behind.
Some long time later, Oddie and I creep though our sleeping village and finally go to bed.