Six intrepid GG Yorkies met at St Nick's for an adventure to find the lost balsam

Given the rainy weather forecast, we'd all come kitted out in the most appropriate clothing ever seen on a GoodGym task for wading through face high nettles, negotiating fallen trees and climbing in and out of ditches. It turns out that we didn't need the waterproof trousers or jackets for the surprisingly dry evening, but they were much appreciated for protection against stings.

St Nick's volunteer coordinator, Maria warned us that we probably wouldn't see much balsam at the beginning of the trail and that we'd have to look deeper into the nettle jungle. She was very right about that

It's like a sh*t game of Where's Wally. Just green everywhere! (Tom F)

(NB. That was also the inspiration for the nearly-but-not-really pun in the report title! But give me a break - I've been writing reports about bashing balsam for about 6 weeks now...)

It wasn't long before Ed and Pete stumbled upon 'gold mines' of balsam and the rest of us followed suit.

We finished up by tipping our spoils into a rather deep hole. (Apparently Maria had tasked a corporate away day group with digging a balsam pit and then left them unattended for a while...)

Of course we couldn't resist climbing down into the pit for the final victory photo...