Randoms by Rach

Woolsack & Cheese Rolling

There is all kinds of mayhem taking place outside my front door today. It is Spring Bank Holiday in the UK, which in my town of Tetbury, means it's time for the Woolsack Races.

This is a really odd event that takes place every year. Teams of people sign up for a gruelling race up, then down a 1 in 4 gradient hill (means nothing to me: sorry), carrying a sack of wool on their backs. Okay, I know what you're thinking. Wool isn't heavy. Well, no. But the sacks that competitors carry weigh 60lbs for men and 35 lbs for women.

Here is a picture of a competitor, to give you a feel of how it works:



Crazy, crazy people. Not as crazy, however, as the event which is taking place about six miles from where I live. Today is the day for the world-famous Gloucester Cheese Rolling Event. It really is what is says on the box. A whole bunch of people get to chase a 9 lb roll of cheese down a ridiculously steep hill. Here are a couple of pictures, to show you what I mean:



The person who catches the cheese at the bottom of the hill wins, well, the cheese! Every year, multiple injuries are sustained. It was cancelled a few years ago because no insurance company would cover it, It's an insane spectacle. Truly. I will never understand the bravery (or crazy) you need to do this.

I wonder where this wonderful country's weird events like these come from. I'm so glad we're a country of eccentrics, and eccentricities. It's so cool. But so weird.

Choco