Back in December for the original selection weekend Troy made the excellent decision of bringing a mallet with him. Presumably it was for hammering tent pegs into the ground but it will prove invaluable on the trip (everyone knows you need a mallet when repairing punctures). Anyway, as you can imagine the mallet really wasn't required to hammer tent pegs into snow and neither will it be needed for us to erect our tents on expedition. Naturally though, we will still be taking it with us as group kit. The mallet will inevitably change hands many times before the summit of Jbel Toubkal.
The mallet is not just a vital tool. The mallet is symbolic of it's owners stupidity. At regular intervals we hold votes to determine who should carry the mallet based upon any reasons we can think of. Usually these will be previous acts of stupidity. The first person to be burdened with the mallet was James. During the initial introduction of the mallet and all it stands for James managed to drop it on the floor. Consequentially the whole group stitched him up and voted for him to take the mallet on the first training weekend. With it duct taped to his bicycle's toptube the mallet began it's journey.
At the end of the first training weekend we held another vote for ownership of the mallet which Ben won courtesy of him purchasing a 'bargain bike' off ebay that subsequently fell to pieces over the weekend. Ben's train ticket he needed to get back to Sheffield to repair the bike is now sellotaped to the mallet. Our current owner is now Alistair however as his trick of locking his bicycle up and losing the key just yards away earnt him the ownership rights.
Dan - For having his pannier rack slide off the back of his bike leaving half his kit in the middle of the road.
Troy - For coming on the expedition with a buckled wheel that, surpirisingly, ended up falling to pieces in the middle of France.
Dave - For chundering and having to go home early during our Agreda night out and for having to be looked after by Katie
Tom - For giving Dave so much stick for not lasting on a night out and then subsequently going home early on the next night out before our next rest day.
Keep checking back for mallet updates
