Andy's 40th

Andy (from Tam and Andy) decided to hold his 40th Birthday in a field with fires and music and camping and pizza. This meant we could take Waky – hooray! We headed down to Hove but it wasn’t long before disaster struck and it seemed that Waky’s brakes weren’t working, which was going to mean a quick about turn. However, it turned out I had been driving with the handbrake on for about half an hour – long enough for the brakes to react in this fashion and appear to have loosened incredibly. After about 10 minutes with the handbrake back off, he returned to normal and we arrived without any trouble.

The only problem was we didn’t really have that much booze and we had no food. I think the plan was to have bought pizza at the field, but the system was failing and people were waiting 2 hours for pizza. Jon and Anna kindly shared everything they had and we spent much of the evening with them, playing games.

As the night drew in and the temperatures dropped we all gathered around the fire. In order to keep the music going thought we had to relocate the fire to nearer our main marquee which consisted of me running with my heatproof gloves back and forth with burning bits of palettes and boxes to keep the party going. It was a great game and I only burnt myself a little. By the morning we realised just how many kids there were. They were everywhere. One car which was being driven around by someone’s Dad had 8 kids in it, all screaming and flying their arms and legs out of the windows, some even appeared to be squeezed in upside down. Others were clinging to their parents’ legs or running around causing riots. We didn’t stay long in the morning but we did stay long enough to have a few nice chats with people – Kat and Jacko, Tam & Andy and of course Jess & Rory. A great format for a party, but maybe more booze and less kids next time!

The Lakes

Sandwiched between storm chasing and Jess’s wedding was our planned trip to The Lake District, a place I’d never been to before and somewhere we so wanted to go together. And who better to take us there than Waky. And who better to meet us there than Sam & JC.

After a morning chat with BI Consultants Altius, where the likely prospect of worked was discussed, followed by answering an email from Jon at esure who had said a contract role was likely, we drove up to the Lakes, with me occasionally fretting about what to do! A good position to be in, but nothing I really wanted to think about during our weekend of fun!

We stopped at the service station where we bought lunch, some lentil crisps and discussed the quote that had just come in for sorting Waky’s rust out. Then it was back on the road, in pursuit of Sam and JC who were a good hour ahead of us. As we neared the Lakes, it started raining, but not hard and it made very little difference as we huddled in Waky, drinking some early doors Prosecco and opening birthday pressies including my birthday box of fun! The campsite was beautiful and the views stretched for miles. There were sheep in our field and horses in the field below.

The next morning started with JC’s amazing granola which gave us the strength to cycle up the hill, before cycling down at top speed all the way to a pub for an early morning pint. The pint then gave us the strength to cycle all the way back up and down the other side where we found another pub, had a second pint and teamed this up with some lunch. For me it was scampi but the lady wasn’t too happy about me asking for beans and I soon squired the reputation of difficult customer, so left the rest of the ordering to everyone else.

In this cute little town we picked up supplies for later in the day and enjoyed a cycle back along the old railway line all the way back to the campsite where the afternoon consisted of running up and down the hill, playing games on bikes and resting up in the hammock. Then it was back to the first pub for some dinner.

The next day we choose to visit Ambleside by car, but only after an amazing eggy breakfast, Waky style. The first half of the day was spent shopping for knick-knacks and I happened to find my most favourite ever earrings, one of which I have sine lost (another trip to the Lakes is therefore needed). We found a coffee shop for some tea and cakes and had a mooch, then we drove a little way out of town and hiked into the hills. 

The hills and Lakes were stunning and you could feel the wildness of the area. The views were spectacular and in reminded me of hiking in Peru, not that I’ve ever been there. It was rainy at times, but that made it even more fun and we hopped, skipped and jumped our way to the tor at the top. The way back town took us through swampy sections and we even found the cave that Hols and Mark found, just at the moment when Hols called – spooky!

The efforts shown by all more than made up for the amazing foods we treated ourselves to from a quick shop stop on the way out of town. And we ended the night with firepit BBQ delights, dancing and music loud enough to drown out the in JC’s words ‘twat on a guitar’ that always seems to spring up in these situations! A thoroughly enjoyable and memorable time in The Lakes.

Waky Races

A rare opportunity arose to race Waky at Goodwood together with a bunch of other Brazilian Type 2s. All thanks to the efforts of a bunch of Brazilian Type 2 enthusiasts who opened it up to everyone in their forum. Although we don’t tend to go on these organised excursions, and opt for the more tranquil camping occasions with mate, we couldn’t pass this up.

It was so amazingly convenient for us too, with the inital meeting point set to be Hindhead. We turned up slightly late, needing both a pee and a drink but all hopes of this were soon quashed as we were directed into rainbow formation. There was no way we got stop at a gassy and risk falling out of colour alignment.

We made it all the way to Goodwood without and the sight of the on-site toilet was almost too exciting to fathom. It made me nearly wee myself. Me and Tim parked up at the side and made a cup of tea. I ate a hot chocolate sachet and then had a cup of tea.

A break in the actual day’s racing was when we were able to take to the stage. Unfortunately strict rules of no overtaking limited the ability to actually race, although a few slow coaches stuck to the sides so we overtook them and pretended for a fleeting moment it was for real.

After a couple of rounds of the track, we headed back to get some refreshments. We queued up for tea and cake and then quickly realised we had all we needed in Waky so we headed back, popped his top and made a coffee. His popped top, as anticipated, drew in the crowds and soon Waky was covered in admirers, asking our names, his name, what we did, where we came from. Everyone was very sweet, introducing themselves and their respective buses (none of which I can remember now unfortunately). We listened too and told some interesting stories, then after a while decided to head back home, stopping at the pub on route. We had had the opportunity of lunching with everyone in Arundel but we had done the fun part and made some friends so it felt a natural time to go. And be the unique 3 that we are. (Sorry, OK Pilks & Owlly, 5)

1 Year Anniversary

I can’t really remember much of this Waky adventure, hence the need for this blog but we defo made it to Hurst View to celebrate Waky’s first anniversary. To not remember it, it must have been epic!

Fun on the Cornish Coast

Hols, Mark, Sam and the dogs started the journey a little earlier than us but we all managed to find each other in the pub right next to the campsite where we had a few beers and ate some monster munch. Hols had found a very conveniently located campsite in Poole – Beacon Hill Touring Park that was quiet and had charming little pitches hidden in the woods. Unfortunately it’s far from charming guests weren’t too pleased the next morning to find the dogs off leads, barking at The Hornet and jumping in the pond. We didn’t stay long. 

Off to Cornwall we went. An unfortunate spillage of red wine in Waky required a good clean up job in Corinne’s garden rather than the jaunt to Mark’s grandparents. So we left the others to it and amused ourselves after the cleanup with pints in the sunshine and a quick stint at the owl sanctuary! Owlly was very excited.

That night Thai was on the menu. Corinne found us a great place to eat in Truro where we joined up with her sister. I drove us home via a huge supersomething where we picked up wine and Crabbies and lots of chocolates. Unfortunately Timbo wasn’t very well but an early retirement to Waky did the trick.

The next morning we pottered around Corinne’s beautiful cottage before heading out to sample breakfast at a beach hut where Mark used to work. 

An exquisite veggie breakfast gave us the energy to surf sinkholes, jump rock pools, and once again tease the muts with The Hornet. After some dozing with Corona in the sunshine we headed to one of Mark’s old locals which had a bouncy castle in the car park and Mark even got recognised by a few old faces.

And this was where we departed. The others decided to hold on for another day or so, but we needed to head back for work the next day. We tried so hard to find a place to eat with some evening sunshine on the A303 and then as luck would have it, we found our very own American diner in the heart of Devon that had just about everything you could imagine on the menu and came complete with milkshakes, stacks of onion rings, iconic American wall hangings and amazingly sticky ribs! How we can’t wait to head that way again.