Wed 6th June 2012 - Bouldnor Forest.

This week Team GG were at Bouldnor Forest, which is also home to the Hants & IoW Wildlife Trust here on the Island. Although the weather was down to be wet and windy, the car park was full to overflowing (perhaps everyone was "Jubileed Out"?) Once our hosts for the day had explained the tasks and showed us around the site, we split into two main groups. Team A tackled the "usual" GG jobs of cutting back overgrown areas while team B decided to invent yet another GG Olympic Sport. This time we decided to call it the long distance, uphill, loaded barrow, endurance team relay race...! As with most GG sports, the rules are very simple.... in this case it involved a huge pile of "as dug" (described later), wheel barrows and shovels as available, then muster as many contestants as possible for the event.

The game starts at a pile of "as dug" which consists of well compacted stones, earth and clay. Taking a shovel, the first obstacle is to try and shovel the compacted material into your barrow (pick axes and forks are allowed when attempting to break into the pile). Once loaded, the barrow is pushed as fast as possible towards the tipping area which has to be at the top of a hill and around 200 yards away from the as dug pile. The contents of the barrow are then tipped out and "handed over" to the Finishers who grade the rocks, rake the soil and then compact it down into the rutted track. This relay race is run for as long as there are contestants still standing OR there is no more "as dug" available.

As we worked our way higher up the track, we were soon able to appreciate the wonderful wooded areas and the excellent views down over the foreshore and across the Solent. The rain showers did hold off for the session although it did tip it down in the early afternoon! Well done to all those who attended and good luck to Team GG at London 2012 later this year......

Many thanks to Carrie for the photographs this week.