The day had arrived when the Olympic Torch would start its 70 day epic journey around the United Kingdom with some 8000 people having the honour of carrying the torch. Helston was lucky enough to be selected as one of the town on this epic route. After Friday evenings feel-good event at the fence of Culdrose, the Boy and I set of early to bag a good position.

When we got into town around 8:30am the street were pretty empty, by 9am it started to fill up. By the time it got to 10am, Coinagehall Street was packed with 1000′s of people all eager to catch a glimpse of the torch. You could feel the excitement in the crowd with the cheering and waving of flags every time a car passed. You could not help but join in and wave at a bemused bus drivers on their service routes.

The torch was running a little late, but you knew it was coming with all the cheering coming up the street. It got to my position just after 10:30 with the crowd around me cheering like they had won the lottery. And then it was all over. The boy was filming and we had a full 18 seconds of the torch as it passed us. 18 seconds might not sound a lot considering how long we had been waiting, but it was sure worth it, and well worth the wait.

As the boy and I headed down to the Boating Lake to take part in the events there, the Torch Bearers from the Helston part of the routes were happily talking and having pictures taken with people. It was really great to see this and people waited their turn to have a picture taken. However, what really surprised me is these Torch Bearers were more than happy to just hand over their torch for people to hold and have their picture took with one. I am not sure if this was part of the brief, but If not I thought it was fantastic for the Torch Bearers to allow people be part of history too. After all holding a Olympic Torch is an once in a lifetime opportunity.

Here are some pictures taken during the event:

Helston 9am

9:30 am

10:30am

The Olympic Torch

A Great Moment

Tonight, along with the boy I made my way to RNAS Culdrose (It is a Naval Base, not RAF) to await the arrival of the Olympic Torch. Not lucky (or important) enough to be invited inside the base, I stood at the perimeter fence of the air station. I thought I was in a good position for the plan to fly overhead, but the damn wind changed direction in the last hour and the plan landed on the other end of the runway.

To my amazement, I would say at least 1500 – 2000 people had the same idea. It was a truly amazing site to see so many families watch a plane land. The atmosphere was great, with people generally excited the torch was landing in their own backyards.

Touch Down

The Golden Plane Taxing to the VIPs