Hi All.
Well, we had an almost normal Derwent Valley meeting on 3rd August, which was very close to being abandoned. At 5:00pm heavy rain started to fall in Belper, but I had every confidence in my BBC weather app, which forecast that the rain would stop before 7pm. Sure enough it, did. Phew!
Seventeen members set off at short intervals in search of treasure. Wandering around Belper looking high and low, in every nook and cranny, getting a few strange looks from the locals and trying to locate the answers to some pretty weird and obscure clues. Except Kim and Paul who headed straight for the burger/pizza bar.
Gary and Ann constantly gave away clues by standing close to them for long periods of time. Roger was mutinous and jumped ship as soon as he could for a pint in the first pub he came across, leaving Julie to fend for herself, and only venturing out for food. According to Kim, Paul was no help at all. Poppy (the dog) was leading a pack of four wanderers and appeared to be the only one with any sense of direction.
An hour or so later the hunters arrived in dribs and drabs at the Railway Inn beer garden. Answer sheets quickly marked whilst they found refreshment (of the real ale variety) from the bar. Ann got her coffee but sadly no cake.
As you can imagine there were a few hotly debated wrong answers, but they were not the answers I was looking for, so they were wrong. Tough!
It must have been a very easy treasure hunt as all the teams scored highly and there was only 5 points between them all. Picking up the wooden spoon with a score of 41½ out of 50 was team Poppy and her pack. The winners with a score of 46½ were Mark, Curtis and Janine.
After the presentation, we enjoyed a noggin and a natter just has the heavens opened. It chucked it down. Thankfully, we were under cover of the large pub marquee as rivers of rainwater poured off the canvas.
At the time of writing, I am still waiting for a response from our regular venue as to whether we can continue to meet there from September. Initially, they have offered to host our monthly meetings on a Monday night rather than a Tuesday. What are your thoughts? I will post updates regarding this and details of the September meeting on the Derwent Valley Facebook page, so keep checking.
Dates for your diary:
3rd to 5th September – Northants camping weekend. See Courier for more information.
7th September – Monthly meeting. Provisional date. See Derwent Valley Facebook page for details.
5th October – Monthly meeting. Provisional date. See Derwent Valley Facebook page for details.
Stay safe. Regards Colin.
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