Going home on the bus caked in mud was funny

We arrived at Roydon Woods and chucked on our welly boots, then after an extremely long risk assesment we stumbled over some tree roots to the area which Jamie Corry somehow called a pond...
it was basically just a large circle of large grass like plants in a giant puddle.
What we had to do was dig through clay to dig out a large plastic pipe, which was supposed to control the level of water in the pond and prevent it from overflowing, but the clay underneath the pipe had eroded away so all the water was just flowing under it instead, and away from the pond. So we started digging, then we dug some more, then we threw clay at eachother... then we dug a little more...
we stopped for lunch at 1 o'clock and had our picnic :D I had a giant pork-pie (I reminded myself of Henry) and we all shared out Pringles, pizza, dip, chocolate and cookies! and Sprite, tea or ginger beer to drink.
After our lunch break we went back to digging, but it wasn't long before the pipe was up (there was quite an amusing struggle to pull it out, in which quite a few of us almost lost our wellies forever to the clay bog that was the pond...)
Then we stood for a moment in the little stream that had formed underneath where the pipe had been and worked out how we were going to block it off... we eventually decided that handfuls of gravel mixed with clay would not erode as quickly as clay by itself, and that if we carefully arranged pieces of wood and slate we could form a dam and prevent the clay from eroding and the whole process having to be repeated next year. So we stood in a line and passed gravel along it to the mouth of the stream. A few screams later and we had uncovered an eel! It looked like a small snake but Jamie assured us that it was an eel, and that yes they do bite. and that they were very slippery! after that little escapade was over and the eel had been shown the way to the bit of stream that was safe from our shovels we got back to passing gravel, and Charlie and I went to hide the wheelbarrow and spades so that we wouldn't have to drag them all the way back from the mini-van again tomorrow!
once the wheelbarrows had been carefully and cunningly concealed (ie turned upside down near a tree: who would want to steal a mucky wheelbarrow anyway?!) we went back to the pond site, where the whole group were standing on a line of clay and stamping on it and jumping up and down! this was apparently to get rid of any air bubbles so that the clay wouldn't erode as easily, but all we knew was that it was quite a lot of fun standing there jumping up and down!
eventually, it was time to trek back to the mini-bus (but not before another clay-fight) and go home.
but alas, that was not the end of the Taunton's Pond Crew adventure for day 1...
when we got back to the mini-van, those of us who had brought a change of shoes changed out of our wellies and into them, but Sarah could not get her (highly stylish, despite being caked in clay) wellies off! A battle to free her from her muddy roots ensued, and after we'd all had a tug and Henrietta had laughed until she almost wet herself, Sarah was eventually freed!
What an adventure!
and the weather was even nice for us! only a drop of rain, but we were sheltered by trees anyway.
Another thing I forgot to mention... fish-eating-spiders!! yep, the pond we are restoring is not only home to eels, but also spiders that eat fish :-S and many other things, we found a dragonfly larvae!
Despite being in England instead of Africa, we all had a really good day and coming home to a warm shower and a flushing toilet meant that we knew we were probably just as happy here anyway :)