Another crazy week

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

As the dreaded GCSE's loom ever closer (we start with English on Monday morning), we have also found ourselves catapulted into the Ten Tors weekend again - which seems to have arrived suddenly and unexpectedly, despite the training weekends which have been going on since before Christmas.

For those of you who aren't au fait with the West Country tradition of Ten Tors, the brief synopsis is a horde of young adults yomping their way around and across Dartmoor doing either 35, 45 or 55 mile routes in a set time (start is 0700 on Saturday and teams must complete their course by 1700 on Sunday), in teams of 6. There are a myriad of different routes and different sub-rules for each length of route but the really amazing thing is that you have to carry all your own kit (including tents, cookers, food, spare clothes and food etc, etc) and the oldest entrants are just 19.

G did the 35 mile route 3 years ago during the hottest weekend they've ever had for the Event. They were so seriously concerned about dehydration and sunstroke that water was helicoptered to the top of each Tor (did I mention that - as the name suggests - each route takes in 10 Tors, where the teams have to check in to prove they've completed the full route?).

T did the 35 mile route last year and never took his waterproofs off! This is his team coming in:













T (who was also team leader) is on the right.

So - this year G is attempting the 55 mile route. I say "attempting" as - to be honest - trying to walk the 55 mile route makes the 35 miler look like a walk in the park. I'm not taking anything away from the 14 and 15 year olds doing it as it's a heck of a challenge in anyone's book but 55 miles is crazy, crazy people.

There is absolutely no foregone conclusion that they're going to make this one. We are going to be more anxious than they are and will be sitting glued to the computer all day Saturday (as the teams check in at the top of each Tor their times are automatically, electronically updated on the website - v sophisticated!) and will shoot up in the car on Sunday as they approach the end. We aren't aiming for any records here - it's going to be a long, hard slog - but the anxious parents will be with them every step of the way (in mind, if not body!).


Simultaneously, we are trying to launch the new Cornish Organic Wool website this weekend! This has also been one long, hard slog from the time the server was hit by a hacker nearly 12 months ago. I'm not even going to begin to list the catalogue of disasters which has hit this new website but it culminated in the geeky, nerdy, designer dude throwing all his toys out of the cot last week and refusing to work with us any more. Poor Thomas - who does all the "look and feel" and makes the whole thing easy for us to navigate and who made the Knit Wits site - is now trying to haul it all together and FB is trying to help! It's looking really good and, when Thomas has worked his magic, it will work but - boy, oh boy - it's been a sweat.

They say these things come in threes so we have - GCSE's, Ten Tors and new website.

What a weekend!!