When Sam woke up, Penny was already sitting by the fire heating water. Twilight was just breaking over them and he could only explain his early awakening by the fact that he hadn't slept well on the uneven ground.

"Good morning," he greeted her quietly after peeling himself out of his sleeping bag and walking over to her and she greeted him back with a smile. "Why are you up already? Have you been jogging yet?"

"I don't really feel like jogging. I think we get enough exercise with the 33 kilometers we have to do every day. Still, I have my habits and I thought, if I'm up so early, I can boil water for everyone to clean up and then for the march."

"Forward-looking as always. I think we can end the march with this. It couldn't be more team-oriented," Sam joked with a grin and Penny laughed quietly.

"Wait a while. I think the team will be very divided," she then objected seriously again.

"Why?"

"Don't you see how uninterested some people are in this tour?"

"Honestly, Pen. I don't think anyone really understands the point of it. We've always been a good team. Nobody really wants to do it."

"No, that's true, but this very dissatisfaction will make it more difficult in a few days," she replied and he looked at her questioningly, silently asking her to explain it to him. "The further we go, the more annoyed we get. They will all be in pain from running, they will be sleepy because they are all sleeping restlessly on the hard ground and we don't really have much with us to make our menu varied and, above all, to keep everyone full. All of this will lead us to getting annoyed with each other very quickly and it could lead to arguments."

"Are you secretly taking a course in psychology or counseling?"

"Neither. I'm just a keen observer...and a secret jungle camp fan." Sam raised an eyebrow in surprise before he couldn't help but laugh softly. He really hadn't known that about her.

"We'll rock it. We're the haven of peace at the station and we'll manage it here too," he said reassuringly, while Penny offered him a pot of water, which he gratefully accepted so he could go cleaning himself up. He was looking forward to the fresh taste in his mouth after brushing his teeth. "But just between you and me: I like the exams the best," he then whispered to her, to show her that her preference for the jungle camp wasn't hers alone.

"Then I'm curious to see what our Mr. Jones will have eaten by the end of the week," she teased him with a grin and he shook himself briefly at the thought before he went to wash himself.

The breakfast was meager. Everyone had a bag of flour in their backpack, but no one had eggs, sugar or even a little salt, so they mixed together a dough from the first pack and a half of flour and the boiled water, which they baked into pencakes in the pots. They tasted bland, but at least they filled them up. No one liked the prospect of starting every morning like this for the next seven days, but they had no choice. Moose, however, suggested that everyone keep an eye out on their march for berries. It would at least make breakfast the next morning a little tastier and give them a few important vitamins to boot.

However, just an hour later, their hike ended again at a very high rock face and a careful look in every direction showed them that they would not be able to get around it without losing a lot of time.

"I doubt anyone has checked whether this area is actually walkable and safe. I'd bet Boyce just tapped on the map with his eyes closed within a 150 mile radius," Ben muttered sullenly now.

"I can imagine that very well," Penny confirmed his suspicions with a smile.

"Still, we have to find a way home and it looks like we won't be able to avoid climbing," Sam said thoughtfully, still looking at the steep wall. Of course they were all experienced in climbing, but climbing a wall like this without any security from above seemed almost impossible to him.

"I'll do it," Penny then objected and went down on her knees to get her equipment out of the backpack, when Moose agreed with her and assured her that he would take over the protection from below. "If you still have equipment with you, please unpack it. Sam, you and Moose make sure the others are properly secured. I'll go ahead and put rock bolts and wedges wherever they fit. Remember to always re-secure yourself, even if I support you from above. When the first ones are up, we'll let you down their ropes again," Penny explained to them as she got ready and finally rubbed her hands on her pants. She would have liked some magnesium powder or lime to give her hands a better grip, but you couldn't have everything. She was all the more surprised when Sam wordlessly handed her a bag of flour. She looked up at him in surprise, skeptically waiting for his objection, to forbid her from doing this or for him to climb up himself, but nothing came and when she held out her palms to him, he poured some flour into them. She looked at him with a skeptical and expectant smile as she rubbed the flour into her hands.

"You are and will remain the best in this area. I won't question that. But hopefully you'll be careful?!" he asked her now and she could see the concern in his eyes.

"Of course, Sam. It's only about ten meters. See you at the top," she replied with a smile and when he nodded, she began her climb.

The wall was steep, with few cracks in which she could reach or place her foot, but many cracks and crevices in which she could place her pitons and chocks. It took what felt like an eternity, but Penny reached the edge without any problems and secured herself to a tree at the top before securing the rope down. One by one they climbed the rock wall so safely and even if one or the other slipped, Penny at the top and Sam from below always kept the ropes tight and the climber safe. Sam was the last to climb up and as soon as he got there, Penny and Elvis pulled him over the edge so that he too could join the group again and have solid ground under his feet.

"One thing is certain: it's going to be a long day if we want to achieve our goal," Sam objected after he had thanked the two of them and the view of a dense forest opened up to him. They had only been hiking for an hour until they came across the rock face, which cost them almost another two hours. Helen, Jodie and Lizzie, as well as Tom and Ben, were not used to such efforts at all, which made them already seem exhausted and they sat up, groaning softly, when Ellie asked if they wanted to go further.

After a late lunch break and another 5 hours of hard walking, they finally reached a large meadow by a stream. It was already dark when they set up camp and prepared the food, but they were still a good 8-10 km short of their daily target. They would have to make up for this somehow in the next few days, otherwise Boyce would have to plan another day without them if they encountered any more adversity that would drain their time and energy.

"Why don't we build a raft and sail along the stream? We would get ahead without having to move," Tom suggested over dinner and everyone looked at him attentively, almost hopefully.

"The stream doesn't run towards Pontypandy. Until we come across one that does, we'll have to walk for at least four more days, if I saw that correctly on the map," Sam now objected.

"Then we don't need a raft anymore. Then we're already in the Pontypandy Mountains anyway," Moose remarked and Sam nodded in confirmation as he shrugged his shoulders in embarrassment, which caused everyone to groan.

"Stop being so depressed. We should concentrate on resting so we can be fit again tomorrow."

"That's the right thing to say. You go jogging every day and hiking is one of your hobbies. You're used to that all, but most of us aren't," Ellie replied to Penny in a bad mood. "You can't relax on the hard ground still have a good rest."

"I'm used to sleeping in a comfortable bed, like all of you, but we have to make the best of the situation. We're all in the same boat," Penny replied, also a little annoyed at Ellie's accusation.

"If we were to sit in a boat, at least we wouldn't have to walk," groaned Ben, who had just finished his dinner and was now massaging his calves to make it clear how much the running was bothering him in the form of sore muscles.

"It's starting sooner than you thought," Sam murmured to Penny who was sitting next to him as he thought about their conversation from the morning and she just shrugged. "Maybe Elvis should play us a song, something funny, maybe something that everyone can do? A bit of campfire romance," he then suggested, hoping to lift the general mood.

"I'm more for rock songs than campfire songs. I wouldn't know what to play," Elvis then objected, before he thought of something. "Why don't you do it yourself, Sam. You've done everything before. Did you know the bank by heart?" Sam stiffened under everyone's curious stares that were now directed at him.

"Yes, Sam. Why not?! Everyone always sang along when you sang Sweet Home Alabama or Nothing Else Matters," said Helen, who, like Elvis, had grown up with Sam.

"I...I haven't...I mean..." he stammered embarrassedly as he caught Penny's questioning lookaat him. He certainly wouldn't make a fool of himself here. Singing their grandfather's seafaring song with his brother was one thing, but entertaining a dozen colleagues where he was a leader was quite another."I don't like singing in front of people and you know that."

"Oh come on, Sam. It won't be that bad. Your voice may be a little deeper now than it was back then. But that can be a good thing. You don't forget to sing and play the guitar. It's like riding a bike," replied Elvis and Sam handed over his guitar while everyone spoke encouragingly to him. Everyone now wanted to hear what Helen and Elvis knew.

Sam sighed in annoyance. It had been years and now 11 friends were in his ears because one of them had spilled the beans. He had absolutely no desire to do it and was just staring disgruntledly at the guitar in his hands when someone gently nudged him from the side. He looked up and saw Penny, who was smiling encouragingly at him with a silent request in her eyes. She was curious too and he would never disappoint her. So he picked up the guitar and played the first chords. Pretty much everyone recognized it straight away and so Sam didn't have to sing Country Roads alone.

"Well, puberty has definitely been good for your voice, Sam," Helen said with a smile as Sam finished the song and he replied an annoyed 'Thank you' while everyone gradually joined in because they had an encore from him "Oh come on Sam. Don't let them beg you like that. Play one of those songs, please," Helen then begged with a grin.

"What does one of these songs mean?!" Lizzie asked confused.

"You'll see that when Sam finally sings it. We were on a school trip and he sang one rock ballad after another in one evening. The girls almost melted and one or two would probably have run into the room after him, when the teachers didn't keep an eye on it," Helen said with a laugh and everyone turned to Sam with a smile, who was now sitting there with a bright red face. This was slowly going a bit too far for him, as his colleagues got to know him here.

"Helen, please!" he growled displeasedly.

"Oh come on, Sam. It's just us here and we're all adults. Nobody's going to want to crawl into your sleeping bag tonight just because you're singing to us," Penny teased him a little because she too had become curious and didn't know how much she was disappointing Sam. He wouldn't mind sharing a sleeping bag with her, but that would always just be wishful thinking. Still, he had to consider for a moment whether Penny knew the power she possessed - he simply couldn't deny her anything.

So he gave in, played a few chords and finally settled on All for Love. If he seemed unsure during the first two or three lines, he then closed his eyes and completely lost himself in the musical confession of love from the film The Three Musketeers. There was an instant calm in the group. Nobody made a sound anymore, didn't dare move and even less breathe, while everyone was covered in goosebumps.

Nobody could know, but one or two could imagine that behind his closed eyes Sam saw Penny, for whom he sang this song and for her alone. When the last notes of the guitar had faded away, Sam looked around and saw one with a smile, the other with a surprised expression on his face, but ultimately all sitting there speechless before they applauded him.

Sam blushed again and handed Elvis his guitar back, deliberately ignoring further calls for an encore.

"I think we should go to sleep," Malcolm then rescued his friend. "We've got another long day ahead of us tomorrow if we want to make up for the rest of the time lost today."

Everyone agreed with a groan and everyone grabbed their backpacks and got ready to sleep. 20 minutes later, after everyone had brushed their teeth with the boiled water and worked themselves into their sleeping bags, peace slowly returned to the camp - apart from the fact that Ben and Malcolm quickly sawed again, like lumberjacks.

"Why didn't you want to sing?" Penny whispered to Sam after she was one of the last to slip into her sleeping bag. Since everyone slept where they had previously sat, she was given the place next to Sam again tonight.

"I haven't sung in ages, but when I hear myself, it doesn't sound as good as you all do," he replied with a smile. "It's not easy for me to allow something like that to happen. If you just let yourself be a little more relaxed, so you let yourself go too far and maybe even embarrass yourself with that, this will only eat away at the respect that others have for you. There are people who take advantage of this. I would be a bad team leader if no one stopped working because they don't listen to me of a lack of respect, right?"

"You are and will always be the best, Sam. If you show us new sides of yourself, it won't change the fact that everyone here knows that you know your job 200% and that you know what you're doing."

"I can only give that back," he replied with a smile and she smiled sheepishly. "Whatever. Maybe Boyce is really right and this week will change something between all of us - and I really hope it will only be for the better. It's for sure hard for some people to open up, but maybe the mood will relax a little instead of just getting worse due to hunger and tiredness."

"Every beginning is difficult, as they say, and just as hiking will become easier for everyone every day, it will also become easier to warm up to each other and to accept the new sides that we get to know here with astonishment but also admiration," Penny said now with a smile.

"And what we've gotten to know so far do you admire? The men's deafening snores or the women's moaning about their swollen feet?" Sam replied jokingly, grimacing for a moment as if he were in agony with the thought of how Helen, Lizzie and Ellie had previously held out their feet to him to show their suffering. As if it was his fault that they were here.

Penny smiled softly before answering, "Your voice is something I haven't heard from you before and I find it very admirable." She smiled widely as Sam demonstrated his. "Goodnight, Sam."

"Goodnight, Pen. Sleep well and have nice dreams," he replied, before they both closed their eyes with a smile and quickly fell asleep.

To be continued...

You see... I can't really get away from my two favorite characters. I hope it doesn't bother you and that you're still enjoying the story so far?! But I will try to let others come to the fore.