Sty Beck Falls

Up and out early today, Team IttH all working at the Keswick Mountain Festival.
I however also had other things to do, so a quick drop off and a return visit to Thirlmere to check a few things before biting the bullet and booking a venue for what will be my very first First Aid Course* - a test run so to speak.
The map looked promising and I know the area pretty well, but I don't want participants losing learning time in trekking - so I was very pleased to find a couple of instantly 'just right' spots that I'll be able to use for scenarios, as ever the 5 P's stood me in good stead preparation and planning prevent poor performance.

Back at the festival before 09.30 it was literally a (very) damp squib, torrential rain, v few visitors. Very poor planning on the part of the organisers meant that it was parking chaos, added to the fact that the parking machines don't take either notes or new £1 coins, half a day's parking is £7 and the phone payment system could only accept one call at a time, a lot of people just said no and turned around.
An easy amble had v few takers, but the afternoon session went surprisingly well, my first water based gig, and lots of great environmental learning from the National Trust expert who came along to inform us about the damage done by the very successful and easy to spread invasive plant Crassula which has transformed Derwentwaters eco system. We removed a huge amount, but only a drop in the Lake, it's now impossible to stop and can at best be managed and hopefully stopped from reaching other lakes.

*I'm running this first course (16 hour Outdoor First Aid L3, 15/16 July, Thirlmere) at effectively less than cost, and pretty much invitation only. Whilst I appreciate Blip is not my target audience, if anyone would like to come along then drop me a line as I'm trying to have a really diverse group on this particular course.