2010-03-13/14 - Carry on Camping

i was and still am dicki on the fixed gazelle

well that was a good if demanding trip.... the bow flyover seemed like mont ventoux to me last night as i approached stratford

left stratford at 8.20 sat morn, over to scott and rosies, there i met sparky
we all rolled over to elephant together and picked up another 8 or so peeps
and then on to tooting for the last few
out of london via some beautiful country lanes
as soon as we had passed over the M25 london seemed but a distant memory
the weather for the whole trip was pretty good, i did feel one drop of rain on my face but that was really it, it got a tad cold when we first arrived at the campsite wind off the sea but once the fires got going and the waffing started the wind seemed to die leaving us with a nice still evening and most of us warmed up again
the whisky the rum the jagermeister the gin kept the cockles warm

respect to skully who seemed to have the contents of jamie olivers kitchen with him in his panniers... marinade, coffee, pans, boilers, ti spork, you name it they seemed to be in his pannier and his singing of folk songs which really gave a pleasant feel to the evening
thanks to dropout ( in charge of business development for the fire ) , mashton ( honarary firemarshall for the weekend ) and edmundro for the waffing without you guys our fire would have been pathetic
well done to cheesecake intl who made a big effort to haul the b-b-q bike to the campsite

once the swearing and the shouting got to much i too retired to my bed and slept very well

next day we lost a few at the campsite
lost a few a mile or two down the road as they were heading to haywards heath for the train and then 9 of us cracked on for london
somehow it seemed all uphill to london and the last two three climbs began to take their toll, some real steep bumpy and twisty uphills and the legs began to burn
once we hit tooting though we seemed to get a fresh lease of life it's always the same getting back to london the dicing with the traffic the closeness to home gave me the equivalent of an epo shot and we raced the last mile or two to elephaant and castle
finally the last section home i was running on empty very tired but pleased to have made it
slumped in chair pint after pint of tea and an early night

i would highly recommend the next trip to others, there really is nothing better than a quick back to nature session, camping out doors and woodsmoke in the eyes

531 awesome trip
many thanks to scott and rosie for the hard work and effort they put in, checking the route booking the campsite, providing a lot of the food