2010-03-13/14 - Carry on Camping

The Brooklyn is just about the coolest thing I've ever seen.

The happy little campers are on their way.
About 15 of them left the E&C.

I'm ready...New handlebar harness is done which means my bikepacking setup is practically complete.

want

Have fun everyone.
What great weather for it.
Positively balmy :D

Now waiting for train back home to Norwich from Liverpool Street. Me and Ed went up over Ditchling with Cheesecake to see Brighton and train it back.

BIG thanks to Cheesecake for arriving like the cavalry on his BBQ bike. And well done for racing those motorbikes towards the sea.

BIG thanks to Ed for not murdering me in my sleep. And for letting me go first (lifesaver).

BIG thanks to Scott and Rosie for dinner, a place to stay and a wonderful ride. Well done, guys.

BIG thanks to everyone else who I chatted to.

Right, back to eating digestive and annoying fellow commuters with my aroma du camping.

Aroma du camping is great, however the gases eminating from my rear end stink of sausages!
Took the real bike out after dropping the BBQ Bike off, was so rewarding to spin with that tailwind on the way home!

Was brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

Great company. Thanks everyone, special thanks to R & S.

Thanks Tricity, Scott (and most of the other people), sorry I had to bail out at Redhill on the way back, but I would have just slowed you down. Nothing to do with my weary old bones and lack of riding for the last two months, of course.
Hope the farm was worth the visit and I'll see you soon

tim

Everyone seemed to get the equipment pretty much right, only one mechanical and some very-well judged pint/food stops. Thanks so much /Rosie, Scott and all attendees for my fist foray into 'proper' cycle touring. More later, but now I need to collapse into bed... something to do with all the 'campfire' smoke I inhailed last night.

And that was Owen Read shouting 'do a skid!' on a country lane near /ditchling, wasn't it?

No it was owen reed. coooooeeee!

Out of about forty people that said they wanted to go sixteen people set off for Blackberry wood and nine people set off to ride all the way home.

The ride out to the campsite was good...the ride home from the campsite was even better as i had a thoroughly enjoyable group of people to ride with.

The camping part should have been great but was ruined for me by one person being unable to handle his drink and acting like a disrespectful prick..everybody knows who i'm talking about so i don't need to say your name.
I'm not one to pussyfoot around so i'll tell you exactly what i think here.
Shouting at the top of your voice for hours saying shit like "people who bring children into this world are Satan...they're sadists...this world sucks, it's fucking shit" at nearly midnight when there were parents with children camped about fifty feet away...saying shit like "why the fuck do these people bring all their belongings with them...and seventy pounds of food...i don't want to know these people...i don't want to have sex with these people"...and the icing on the cake was "Rosie is asleep in that tent over there when she organized the ride...THE CUNT".
Only Rosie wasn't asleep...and neither was i.
That kind of disrespect for the people around you is a pisstake, and you're fucking lucky i didn't get out of the tent, because i wasn't exactly in a good mood by that point.
Skully asked you several times to talk quietly, to have some respect...but you kept shouting him down.
First impressions are usually pretty close to the truth...and the impression i got from you is that you're a disrespectful prick.
If anyone else disagrees then feel free to post your opinions.

Thankfully you didn't ride back with us so i was able to salvage the weekend with the great ride home.

Huge thanks to everybody else who came along.
Well done to Fred to for riding through the darkness to get there...shame your knee trouble prevented you from enjoying the ride home.

Right, that wraps that up...i'm off to try some Fanny Bacon!

Thanks Tricity, Scott (and most of the other people), sorry I had to bail out at Redhill on the way back, but I would have just slowed you down. Nothing to do with my weary old bones and lack of riding for the last two months, of course.
Hope the farm was worth the visit and I'll see you soon

tim

It was great having you there Tim...those hills were bloody long and you put in a great effort to make it so far back too.
The farm was great...i got marmalade and pork sausages and fanny bacon!

Was that from the fanny farm? I sniggered at that on the way to the downhill of doom

Was that from the fanny farm? I sniggered at that on the way to the downhill of doom

Yeah...it's an oasis of tasty treats.
I'd have preferred to ride down that hill than up it like we did.

i got marmalade and pork sausages

I just want to stress that the marmalade was IN the sausages...i didn't buy a jar of marmalade AND some pork sausages.

I fell through the front door and collapsed in a heap about half hour ago. After saying goodbye I made my way back home, without a map, through what can only be described as the pretty 'Tibetan' villages that dot the peaks of East Sussex and Kent! My choice of roads was appalling, I even rode about 5 miles on the A21 from (Royal) Tunbridge Wells on an extremely frightening five inches of hard shoulder in 'Autobahn' traffic. But even after riding more vertical than horizontal miles and almost killing myself in the process I can't stop thinking about the excitement and fun I've had on this memorable weekend.
So thank you my new found friends and peace and love to you all.
Andrea.

Thankfully you didn't ride back with us so i was able to salvage the weekend with the great ride home.

I've spent the weekend writing several thousand words on how to build a data warehouse... and all the time I've been glancing out the window pining about how I could be on a country lane right now, friends around, fresh air to breathe in, gently rolling along.

But you make it sound like I really had no reason to pine at all. Was it really that bad? You've made it sound like a miserable weekend as your account so far is the most complete.

Here I am kicking myself that I couldn't be there, and you almost make me thankful for it.

I do hope others chime in and say otherwise, because it still sounds awesome, and I really hoped you guys would have a brilliant time.

I've spent the weekend writing several thousand words on how to build a data warehouse... and all the time I've been glancing out the window pining about how I could be on a country lane right now, friends around, fresh air to breathe in, gently rolling along.

But you make it sound like I really had no reason to pine at all. Was it really that bad? You've made it sound like a miserable weekend as your account so far is the most complete.

Here I am kicking myself that I couldn't be there, and you almost make me thankful for it.

I do hope others chime in and say otherwise, because it still sounds awesome, and I really hoped you guys would have a brilliant time.

Only the camping part sucked for Rosie and i...the riding was great.
Our tent was only about 15ft from the fire so we had to hear all the shit...hearing yourself being called a cunt after putting all the work in can't have been very pleasant.
It won't have been so bad for everyone else as their tents were in a whole different pitch.
I'd like to think that everybody else had a great time.

I'm a tad confused as to who is who. Could we have a key? Preferably with a little innuendo, as the ride was called Carry On Camping.

Like so;

Sparky = the one on the cream Thorn and the green jumper with an insatiable appetite for sausage.

The camping part should have been great but was ruined for me by one person being unable to handle his drink and acting like a disrespectful prick..everybody knows who i'm talking about so i don't need to say your name.
I'm not one to pussyfoot around so i'll tell you exactly what i think here.
Shouting at the top of your voice for hours saying shit like "people who bring children into this world are Satan...they're sadists...this world sucks, it's fucking shit" at nearly midnight when there were parents with children camped about fifty feet away...saying shit like "why the fuck do these people bring all their belongings with them...and seventy pounds of food...i don't want to know these people...i don't want to have sex with these people"...and the icing on the cake was "Rosie is asleep in that tent over there when she organized the ride...THE CUNT".
Only Rosie wasn't asleep...and neither was i.
That kind of disrespect for the people around you is a pisstake, and you're fucking lucky i didn't get out of the tent, because i wasn't exactly in a good mood by that point.
Skully asked you several times to talk quietly, to have some respect...but you kept shouting him down.
First impressions are usually pretty close to the truth...and the impression i got from you is that you're a disrespectful prick.
If anyone else disagrees then feel free to post your opinions.

Thankfully you didn't ride back with us so i was able to salvage the weekend with the great ride home.

This was me, and I am really sorry. All said here is true. Didn't want to ruin it for anyone. Especially for you guys. There is no excuse for my bad behaviour.

Once again sorry. This supposed to be an epic adventure, and I've ruined it.

Sparky = the one on the cream Thorn and the green jumper with an insatiable appetite for sausage.

You have a cream Thorn! Photos please. Especially if you have photos of the touring setup.

Edmundro - dashing woollen/tweed/ikea poncho, green surly trucker

+1 to what Scott said- what an awful, awfully offensive man he was, shameful way to act in public. Again, other than that perfect.
Wonderful ride down although I was really flagging the last 3/4miles after somerfield and was glad to arrive in such a lovely place.
Thank you to Scott and Rosie for organising a lovely ride, thank you to Mashton for being my sausage buddy and hill bombing companion, thank you to sparky dicki, joe, ben and everyone whos names I've promptly forgotton for making the evening wonderful.
Special thanks to cheesecake harvey for cooking for us, providing some excellent banter and leading the way into brighton this morning. You kept a champion pace on the bikebq even if you failed the beacon. Spinning into town overtaking veteran motorbikes is something I won't forget soon...

Ti arrosporks ftw.

This was me, and I am really sorry. All said here is true. Didn't want to ruin it for anyone. Especially for you guys. There is no excuse for my bad behaviour.

Once again sorry. This supposed to be an epic adventure, and I've ruined it.

Well done mate

Can we link this to the popcorn thread yet?

Oh, and I'm really sorry for not joining you for the ride home but due to being pretty beat on arrival I was worried I'd slow the pace and cause unnecessary hassle. Hope you had as enjoyable a ride home as we did over the beacon and down to the sea.