Bilbo Baggins - There, to the Somme, & Back Again!!!

[Fay]

Do a write up later

Fay

[mickw]

New members should post a message in "introductions" first

[Fay]

 

[Tony G]

Come on Fay,
I need to return to work tomorrow, and I want to find out all the nitty gritty, before I see it on the adult section of 'The Sky at Night' 

Tony G

[Fay]

Will write up asap. I am exhausted, had 116 mails , a garage full of soaking equipment, clocks and time switches  to alter, bills to sort out, washing, ironing, no food.

I could not send a message via phone on stop offs, as site wanted my password, which I could not remember, I did try.

Will write up some time today when I have gathered my senses.

[JohnP]

what it must feel like to be 'loved & wanted'...

[Fay]

  :lol:ok just starting on the epic................

[Fay]

Ok started off, got to the roundabout at B & Q & I was tooted for being in the wrong lane! I thought, well thats a good start, being I was a nervous wreck & had a 7 hour journey ahead!!!!

Had two stop offs, but could have just had the one. I felt I would need to calm down after the tunnel & slip road onto the M11!!

Met a chap, Dave, from Manchester,  at Wetherby, who I was going to follow on the last couple of hours. Good job I did as I am not sure I would have got there as the TomTom kept having other ideas on the route! I kept losing him en route & good job Dave had pulled into a service station, that I had also decided to go into, as my sat nav voice had stopped speaking to me & I had to sort it out.

He said to meet him in the layby, after I had got fuel, as there was an instant manouvre outside the service area. Well I pulled out after getting fuel and there happened to be two vans exactly the same sitting in the layby. One a bit further off. I did not know which was the right on, so had to drive up to the first & check the driver out!!!!!!!!! As you do. I could have ended up in the Orkneys!! I could imagine Dave seeing me hurtling the wrong way after the wrong car!!

Any way, passed the Angel of the North, lots of very winding roads for over an hour, Highland cattle, Hadrians Wall. Beautiful scenery &, thank the Lord, good weather.

Got to the site, which I had booked late, as all hookups had gone, but there was a new one, for some reason, it was not being booked out, that I could have.

There are two fields, one with hookups & then a bridge over a river to the upper field with only a couple of hookups.

It was not a good position regarding the mud. I was next to two of the organisers static caravan & another with members of the Sunderland society.

I could not park the car next to the tent & had to set up on the gravel road as the ground was so bad. I was a bit concerned with the river directly behind me.
A couple of the days was lovely weather & when the cloud cleared at night, it was a beautiful sky. Milky Way very prominent & Orion rising between a large gap in the fir trees was beautiful. There is  quite a large glow, in the East, from Newcastle.

Did not get any images as too much cloud, but lots of short clear spells when you could see what it would have been like. Ok for observing, but not long enough for imaging. Lots of people had a problem with guiding etc, due to the moisture in the air. There is also a huge reservoir nearby.

The camerarderie, was amazing, met so many lovely people, from all areas of the midlands & north. Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Sunderland, Sheffield, Scotland & every where else, too many to remember.

Always invited into the caravans for a warm & a chat, and a drink, had lots of help from Sunderland members. Lots of laughs.  Lost a part off the end of my power cable, well had a couple of chaps looking around in the dark, every time someone walked by & asked what was lost, they also stopped & looked. In the end there were about a dozen chaps searching around! Very funny, they were looking for about an hour!!!!! It was not found but someone had a spare I could borrow & even the next day, people were coming along with what they thought was the correct adapter for me.

Sunderland, gave me a spare hot water bottle & bits of carpet to put in the tent doorway & said that if |I was cold, I could sleep in their caravan & to come along any time  during the night if I had a problem, as the weather can be quite serious in that area. I mean I was not a hardy northerner!!! The scots opposite offered a "wee dram in my tea".

There were around 120 bookings, & so many people in the field wandering in the dark & stopping & all chatting together. In the day, you did not know who you had talked to the night before, it was very dark. Visited the observatory, wonderful view to the horizon.

Had a cooked breakfast up the nearby cafe, every morning & dinner at night. Drinks in the the very nearby pub. Did no cooking. Thank God for my new electric blanket, which I kept on all night. Lots of rain, was concerned for the tent, as I had pushed all pegs in by hand, as the ground was so soft.

Had 4 talks in the castle on the saturday, burgers etc for sale outside, trade stands, Ian King included. A Halloween atmosphere. Everyone was glad to get inside out of the cold for the day.

I packed up in the rain, which I have never done before, Luckily I had put scopes etc away the day before, while they were all dry. Also lucky to have good weather driving home, not sure how I would have done it otherwise.

The organisers work very hard to control who is coming in & where the best place is for them to camp, regarding the mud. Pete Lawrence & S@N were in caravans & I was with a group who were being interviewed, but I did not say anything.  I think it will be shown in March, not sure.

The toilets etc are not that good, unreliable hot water, also a small shop doubles as a warm room, it only takes about 8 people, but is open all night. You are trusted to put money in the jar if you buy something.

All in all, a great time, loved the people, met lots off the forums including, Dweebostar, Dangerous Dave, Tony Mozza, Moon plodger, Kevin, a lovely man with a bell in the end of his beard! I kept thinking that a cat was around, but it was his bell ringing!!   

The weather is a risk, but if you are lucky & get the skies, you would have it all, as it was we all had great company, a laugh & always the hope of a wonderful sky.

[JohnP]

Wot about the journey home - was it a 3-day epic again?

[Fay]

No, one stop in Pontefract. So lucky the weather was ok

[MarkS]

Well done Fay!

Do you think you will do it again next year?

Mark

[Fay]

It is too early to decide that, Mark. The spring weather is supposed to be very severe. Some of the people are going to go to Kelling instead because of the rain & bad ground at Kielder. It is a very long way & a lot more basic than Kelling 

[mickw]

Do you have any RCD protection on your electrics ?

I'm having bad thoughts about you, electrics and rain  

Glad you had a good time anyway

[Fay]

main problem could have been the electric blanket on all night!!!! Not sure if I have protection or not, don't think so

[RobertM]

Well done Fay and you had a wonderful time to boot.  I think it was very brave of you to strike out like that but it's a bit of a shame the weather wasn't better as a reward.

So you'll be driving to Ollies non stop next then

Robert