Two contestants remain : Laurent and Jacques. Both of them are separated by just one pole. We know that the carousel is turning very quickly. Unbalanced, the maypole oscillates enormously. The poles still turn but badly. The whole carousel is shaking enormously because of the unbalancing of the poles. They oscillate as well. On each revolution they vary in height… Some seconds at 60 degrees, a second later they fall to 30 degrees and rapidly rise up to 90 degrees compared to the maypole… It was this that adds to the difficulties of our contestants. Up to then, Jacques, the heavy, stocky guy, held out; Laurent is in quite a good position but had one boot less…There is no question of him changing poles. The other free poles are quite well oiled now.

    Due to the strong vibrations and strange oscillations of the poles, our two finalists have slipped to the bottom of their poles… and struggle enormously. Laurent’s last boot arrives at the bottom of his pole… He holds it quite well leaning on the sticky metal… but he is very tired. Jacques is incredibly strong… so he is at the top of his pole. Half of his body is in space. He is held only by the force of his hands and his arms.

    My friends, we are now approaching the denouement… Jacques, who has experience of rubber boots still has his two boots on his feet. The centrifugal force is at the maximum and the oscillations of the poles behave like a whip. It looks like it’s lashing out. At each stroke of the whip on its pole, Jacques’s boots want to leave him. After some time they are half off… Jacques knows that he has to keep at least one boot on in order to hope to win. Laurent gets more and more tired… Centimetre by centimetre, inexorably, he slides right down to the bottom of his pole.

    Jacques makes an attempt to save at least one boot…He is on the point of losing both his boots if he does nothing. Even worse, his left boot is half off. He turns through 180 degrees. The bottom of his foot points towards the heel. So he lets one boot go, while with his free foot he is able to slip his last boot towards the top. He lets his last boot fall and tries to recover the other. His free foot is however very oily and every time that he thinks that he is in a position to push his boot towards the top the rubber slips under his foot… The bottom of the boot is difficult to reach. His foot dangles down and moves enormously due to the wind, the oscillations and the vibrations. So due to this the boot finishes up at the end of his toes… He tries to put his foot perpendicular to the leg of his boot in order to lock it and prevent it coming out… but a final lash of the whip on his leg – the last move of the pole – despatches his last boot into the sand.

    We have a winner : Laurent. The carousel is decreasing in speed but Laurent is totally exhausted. He feels himself fall on the mattresses. The carousel continues to lose its speed : Jacques lets himself hang at the end of his pole then puts his feet on the platform. Laurent is congratulated by everyone including Jacques.

     Practically everyone is delighted with this unforgettable experience… only Marcel did not really like the exercise ; at the end he continues to detest rubber boots. Laurent himself really loved it : he had won 1,000 euros but he still prefers walks in rubber boots in the forest and to amuse himself by sinking in the mud with them. He really loves the suction of the mud and the sound that the boots make as they come out. But on their side, François and now Pierre had won a tasty and strong experience. Pierre has already hastened to undergo again the experience of climbing with boots which are too big for him and to manage to reach a climax at the same moment as he loses them.

Signed : Martinbottes

Tournoi de carrousel en Nora, by Martinbottes
translated by Alan
page 4/4 © AMBC, 2009.

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