Hannah Kaye recounts the adventures of the second training camp:
After a long drive down from Oxford the adventures began early. Firstly the arrival of our convoy was staggered massively; the trailer being the issue, as well as some exploration tendencies in some of our drivers! Devon country lanes and a 15metre long vehicle are not an ideal pairing. As it was Chris made a farmer friend in the figure of his rescuer who happened to have the two tractors needed to extract the truck and trailer from a 90degree uphill bend covered with ice. One good thing to come of it is that Chris now has a fitting person to name his name his first child after in thanks.
We have certainly made our mark on the Dulverton and Wimbleball area; in our endeavours to reach the lake we relied on much Devon generosity from bemused farmers, Dulverton residents possessed of shovels and the Co-op, which received daily visits from most of the squad, exhausting their milk stocks and buying which ever ingredients were needed for the night’s feast.
Day one’s drama turned out to be quite indicative of the determination and enterprise which was needed just get to the lake each day after the record 9 inches of snow which helpfully to fall over Tuesday night. We were interred on Wednesday because of the snow and reported 40km gusts at the lake but consoled ourselves with some friendly rivalry that the Openweight women only stuck out 24 hours on their training camp. We are certainly now all ‘nails’ (hard as-) which is a tick for our first aim of the Christmas Training camp at least! We made the most of our day stuck in the house with a romp around the countryside accompanied by some inventive circuits fashioned from compacted saucepans of snow for body weights in the dining room and core in the sitting room. Combined with some pretty energetic shovelling of snow to ready us for our expedition to the lake the next day we had at least expended some of Dobbers’ banoffee pie, another fruitful result of a day in the house. As for the next day, we would not be defeated by the snow despite the concerns of the residents of Dulverton, who definitely thought we were mad for even contemplating trying but after some heavy behind the scenes grafting from Chris, Linda, Dobbers and Georgie- our dream-team- we had a plan, a contingency and several back-ups; we would make it to Wimbleball!
So in convoy we embarked on our epic journey which would encompass a 15mile detour, now that’s dedication! I think the most surprising part was coming upon Nehaal’s car facing the opposite way to all of us up the hill having done a pretty impressive 180 degree spin! So once we had rectified that we ploughed our cars into a suitable drift, due to the lack of a visible car park, and proceeded to the next part of our journey which would ironically be by boat across the lake to reach the activity centre which was base camp. A more treacherous trip than expected because the launches, which were our vessels, once weighed down with 6 people and their kit and food provisions for the day were suspiciously close to sinking... After clambering through the snow and digging the waist-deep drift away from the door of the changing rooms we were in! Thanks has to go to all the staff at the lake whose launch-driving, snow-clearing efforts to get us to training every day were invaluable. Should you ever find yourself at Wimbleball lake be sure to look out for the ‘Oxford Lightweights’ woolly hats which were bestowed on them as signs of our gratitude.
Though an unconventional start to our first day of seat racing we made good progress. As one of those who is new to this trialling business this season, I can say that though initially scary seat racing turned out to be actually a fun experience, testament I think to some impressive organisation, numerous complicated sums and serious efficiency from Chris. Our coxes might not agree, saying numbers not being one of the more interesting parts of the job; so thanks to Caroline who’s been our sole cox for both of the camps this season. Also to everyone who took one for the team and jumped into the coxing seat to enable us to seat race two coxed fours; Georgie our Pres’ is a particularly notable example here and actually a very good cox!
One of the most fun parts, and this is a surprise entry, has been the work which we’ve been doing in pairs over the week. Though the first session was rather tentative and definitely got the blood pressure up a bit I think we’ve all learnt a lot about boat sensitivity and our technique, which as Chris will tell you was the main point of the exercise. We all quickly decided however that our main aim was to win the time trial planned for the end of the camp. Sadly this didn’t take place due the combined efforts of the snow and some impressive wind speeds which resulted in lake impersonating the North Sea and doing its utmost to soak, and sink, anyone who had the tenacity to try and row on it. Or maybe it was just to show the windsurfers a good time. So we all developed a close relationship with metcheck, windguru and various other weather checking sites available (and scrutinised by OUWLRC). However I can say with the benefit of hindsight and with the writer’s privilege that my pair would definitely have won.
So all-in-all a very successful camp despite some adverse conditions. We made some big technical improvements as a squad which were gratifyingly obvious in our final couple of outings in the eight in the last couple of days. These will provide a great start point for this term’s work and its grande finale: the Boat Race. If we can survive Wimbleball and make it a positive and productive camp we can do anything!