Jessica Gallagher - Cardiff Paralympic staging camp

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Category: Jessica Gallagher

Well after a long flight to London we have arrived into Cardiff, Wales where the Australian Paralympic team are based for our staging camp. It's a fantastic setup with not just the athletics team but also swimming, cycling and table tennis here with more teams expected in the next few days. It's not often we get to see the other sports so it's nice to be able to mingle and meet new people from the other sports. It's my first time to Cardiff and it is a beautiful city and the people are super friendly. Our hotel is located across the road from the historic Cardiff Castle and I can't wait for my day off to go take a tour. There are so many stunning old buildings around and the weather has been perfect for training. Sunny and warm is a nice change from the 4C I was experiencing in Melbourne! Yesterday one of our incredible volunteers took me and a few others out for the 'local' tour of Cardiff. A beautiful city of 300'000 people we went to the church where Rol Dahl was born, the Cardiff bay & barrage, past the usual few castles, a magnificent Recital hall amongst others. One of the most exciting times of any Paralympic games is receiving your uniform and this year is no exception. Our team kit providers 2XU, RM Williams (ceremonial gear) and ASICS (shoes) have out done themselves.

Everyone absolutely loves everything and I can not wait to wear it once we get to London. Cudos to the APC to for being so well organized, in groups we turned up to a warehouse where we re-tried on our sizes, had any alterations made and left with a suitcase full of gear!

So life over in Wales is moving along nicely, perhaps the main issue with the group is the inability to find a decent coffee. Plenty of searching is being done by the staff but their optimism levels seem to be diminishing with every new attempt- in particular the Melbourne based staff who have already resigned to the fact we will all be drinking terrible coffee for the next month!

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