A bad workman blames his tools I was once told (probably by a guy who could afford the best tools that money can buy). If that is true then my constant whining about equipment should suggest that I haven't a clue what I am doing. That could be right.

However, I recall an incident that occured in my teenage years while I was a member of a local Venture Scout troop.

We decided to take part in a forty-five mile hike across the hills of Derbyshire (I think) called the Four-Inns. It had to be undertaken in teams of four people and I volunteered to make up the second team of four. In the other team from our group were two young men who had excellent jobs and still lived at with their parents. Consequently they could afford to spend hundreds of pounds on equipment - Gore-Tex jackets, proper hiking trousers, survival equipment, lightweight tents etc. They also both bought themselves state-of-the-art walking boots, that were leather inside with some sort of hinged stiff plastic arrangement on the outside.

During our practice hikes they often took the lead, carrying all their gear in their top-of-the-range rucksacks, all the time comparing their superiour equipment to ours. It was nauseating.

Also in their team was a slim, stick of a girl aged about seventeen. She had no money and no equipment. She had to borrow a pair of boots for the event and struggled during the practice hikes to keep up with the group.

On the morning of the actual challenge we queued up to have our equipment inspected (safety rules and all that). The girl admitted to us that she did not have everything she needed to pass the inspection and our team, following our inspection, handed her some of our gear long enough for her to pass the check.

We all set out into the cold, foggy, windy morning and after fifteen miles I was, to be totally honest, completely out of steam. I was tired, my feet hurt and I was so cold that I thought my extremities were going to drop off. However, I knew that from fifteen miles onwards the teams could carry on as a threesome or take an additional member from another team and become five. I pulled out, feeling happy to have gone a third of the way round and knowing that at least my team mates could carry on.

I was interested to find that my remaining team members were joined by two of the other team from our group because two of them had pulled out. I was extremely pleased to see that the two that had pulled out were the guys with all the expensive equipment. With my old boots and poor-quality clothing I had managed to hike as far as they had - and slightly faster too.

The girl? Well, she was physically restrained at the final checkpoint, five miles or so before the end, because she was borderling hypothermic and her feet were almost totally blistered. Had they not held her back she would have reached the end of the challenge or literally died trying.

I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.