We were just eating our breakfast this morning when bizarrely, as I've never had it happen to me before – I always thought it was a female trait and I'm still not sure why it happened - I had the undying urge for some 'me' time.

So I went off on my own for a walk in the woods and knowing what my sense of direction is like, I used a tried and tested method from long ago, that I vaguely remembered from my wee ninjahood to make sure I'd be able to find my way back again without getting lost.

I'd loaded up my ninja knapsack with bread that I'd borrowed from Eric at breakfast. Well, it wasn't strictly borrowing as I wasn't planning on giving it back afterwards (although he probably would have still eaten it if he'd been given the chance), but I don't like to say that I took it without asking as that could be confused with stealing. And we all know that people who steal bread can get their hands chopped off which isn't very helpful for putting up tents! So the way I see it, and I'm sure Eric would think of it in this way too, is that as he wasn't looking at the time, I kindly helped him clear the bread from his plate. It was all very innocent you see and much needed for my navigation skills as I used it to drop a breadcrumb with every step I took, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind me like those old adventurers Hansel and Gretel. Genius!

A long walk later and having had all the space I needed to clear my head, I started feeling a little bit peckish so I figured it must be nearing lunch time and so time to head back to camp. I turned around and off I went, hurriedly walking along at a speedy pace, fuelled by my hunger and wondering what exciting things we'd be having for lunch (hoping that it wasn't going to be sandwiches), as I followed the path of breadcrumbs.

I couldn't have been walking for longer than 5 minutes when the trail of breadcrumbs came to a grinding halt. As I looked down at the end of the trail at my feet, I heard a loud quack as something scurried into the bushes and hid very noticeably behind a tree, with its large bottom sticking out from either side. A duck had been eating all my breadcrumbs and there was not a crumb left in sight.

Phew! I had been thinking of using a packet of my favourite space raiders to lay the trail but I was so glad I didn't. All I could think about when I saw that the bread had been eaten was thank goodness the crisps were safe! Then I remembered that without the bread I wasn't entirely sure which way to get back home. Was it down the path on the left or up the hill on the right?

I guessed these things might only work out as happy endings in fairy tales and so not to run the risk of bumping into a witch at a gingerbread house, I ran back at super fast ninja speed, in the direction of the smoke and the smell of barbecues, hoping to find my way back to the campsite before being eaten by a witch!