Hey,

So that night after the paintballing we had a quiet night as we had to be up early the following day to spend the whole day walking on the glacier.

We arrived at the glacier office and got kitted up with boots, crampons(spikes to attach to boots), and rain jacket (oh and wooly hat and mittens that Andy wouldnt let me wear). Then we took a short coach trip to the galcier car park, from there it was about a 45min walk to the base of the gacier. Once there, they told us how to attach the crampons and how to use them. They then told us that we had to split our selfs into 4 groups of 11. Group 1 would be the hardest group to be in as there wouldn't be any steps and their guide would have to cut them as they go and group 4 would be the easiest as all the other groups would of cut the steps b4 them, this group was for unfit and not very confident people. So once it was time to chose groups, Flo, Dave and Emma went into group 1 and me and Andy went into group 2 (due to neither of us being the best with heights) but we soon noticed that there were too many people in group 2 so we decided to man up and join group 1, as we walked over to group 1 the woman from group 4 said that group 1 was full and we would have to join group 4 !!!!!! No chance !! we told her that we didnt want to go from group 1 to group 4, but the nice woman that she was didnt care (we didnt like her !!!). So we had to join group 4, she then changed her mind again and said that there was one place in group 1. I was about to walk over untill Andy grabbed my arm and said he would kill me if i left him alone in group 4. So eventually we set off. The walk up was pritty uneventfull and as we were i group 4, not very challenging. Half way through the day we stopped for lunch (jam sandwiches we made the night b4, oh and me and Andy bought a power bar incase we got stuck up the mountain.... we have both seen Alive) Once we had caught up the the others due to there being no possible way to get higher we all set off back down. (The Franz Josef Glacier is the fastest moving/changing Glacier in the world. Its constantly changing, melting and re-freezing so the paths that the guides change every day). On the way down we noticed that it was getting alittle harder and we had a few VERY tight cravaces to squeeze through. Andy managed to get seriously stuck at one point, im ashamed to admit i was helpless to help as i was busy laughing too hard (he gets his own back later). We could all see the guides getting a little concerned as we were not making any progress down, we were now just going sideways when we would of been almost down by this point (4pm) It was also getting much colder as the sun was setting and the clouds coming in. All the groups would just stand together in a line while 2 of the guides would go ahead and try calve a new path. After quite a while me and Andy heard one of the guides over the Walki Talki tell the other guides "Ok were just going to get down now as quick as possible, regardless of client safety" !!! Andy said heraing that put a nice warm safe feeling in his tummy ! so we set of on what a much more challenging path.

As we eventually neared the bottom our guide (who was now our most hated woman) warned us all that form this point on 80% of accidents happen, as me and Andy were chatting away and making jokes at the back(to be honest like school boys) she asked us if we were listening "yep" we replied, so we carried on, within 5 steps i managed to smash my knee against an ice BRICK, i swear to god that hurt so bad, i even drew blood, Andy was in stitches and stated that now 82% of all accidents happen. Then within another 20 steps Andy almost fell over, i turned around to laugh at him and as i turned back i managed to catch the spike of my right boot in the lace of my left boot, Andy said it took 5 seconds for me to fall over, my legs felt like they were tied together and i just toppled forwards on to the rock we were now walking on, and..... smashed my other knee and again it drew blood. So now walking around with 2 bloodied knees we made our way down..... i did fall another time but tried to disguise by pretending i was just taking a quick lie down....dont think i got away with it.

It was a shame to be in the bottom group but we managed to make it a laugh and was good to of walked on a Glacier.

Hope your all well

xx