Friday 25th May 2007 rolled along and Ric and I caught the train to Chester where Wee Andy, Ally and of course Kev picked us up (Ric bought a Frenzy earlier in the week and went to Wallop to pick it up - 9.5m 04 in Red, £145 - Bargain). After a long car journey - Ally and Andy spent over 10 hours in the car that day, but it was only 5 or so for Ric and I - we finally arrived at Middle Wallop Airfield and started putting up tents and finding people to say hi to. Jon and Jango didn't arrive 'til gone 11 so Ric was a bit tired - they were lending him a tent - but we eventually went to sleep about 2ish.
Saturday morning started off ovrecast, a quick pilots briefing for the traction field users at 9 and a queue for people to get their insurance. We went out fairly quickly and spent roughly 11 hours out - a nice wind (could have done with a bit more but I was happy enough) and sunshine. Took the GPS out but not beating 15mph which was a bit of a let down having been faster than that downhilling! That evening was the Film Fest - we sat in the car and watched it on the inflatable screen like a drive in cinema because it had begun to rain by that point, some very good entries and some not so good ones but everyone put in the effort and it was a good laugh for all. I only saw half of them, me and Wee Andy went for a wander because I had a headache.
Sunday was wet. This is somewhat of an understatement, as it rained heavily and consistently for most of the day. We spent most of the morning in the beer tent chilling and playing with circus toys (some people making this more dangerous than necessary, looking at no-one in particular) and Ric went home, he wasn't enjoying it which is fair enough. 17 of us decided we'd go to see Pirates of the Carribean in Salisbury, but when we got there (wet and muddy, as kiters are) it was fully booked until 7pm - we got there at 3.30pm ish. So we decided to go bowling instead! When we got to the bowling alley, that too was fully booked so we looked into the laser games held there in a childrens play area (think Wacky Warehouse, Jimmy G's, Charlie Chalk's Fun Factory etc.) and ten of us decided it would be great fun. There were 5 people on each team (Buggiers vs. Boarders), and then we went in. 3 people from the buggiers ended up injured, and 2 of us ended up in hospital - no prizes for guessing who was one of them! Luckily though this meant we got to sit in the warm and dry and miss the karaoke for a couple of hours, although I strongly suspect that in the ball-pit environment we make much better buggiers than laser gamers.
Sunday night was windy. The registration tent went first, followed by the St John's ambulance tent, followed the tent belonging to the St John's volunteers, with them still inside. Lots of other tents had been demolished by the 45mph gusts coming through by the time we returned from the hospital, and we decided to sleep in the car - me and Kev had the front seats of his Punto, and Wee Andy slept in the back.
Monday morning came after a warm and cosy nights sleep to see the part of the tent Kev and I were sleeping in was flat. I'm not sure if that spar snapped but another one did. The tent Ric had been sleeping in was 2 inches deep in water inside, James' tent stayed up well and Ally's tent didn't even move.
Wee Andy and myself did our written papers for the Enduro licencing and then we headed north! Ally and Kev came back to Bangor with me - when we got back we went straight to the beach where the wind was onshore at 15mph and the weather was sunny!
All in all I had a fantastic weekend, even with the rain - more Happy Wallop Memories.
