With COVID killing the ability for anyone to travel anywhere we were grateful that the easing of restrictions meant that we could meet up. We debated about doing the AO show again but decided that we weren’t ready to be that close and personal to unknowns just quite yet.
A quick bit of searching around identified Nash Oakland Wild Camping as being ‘relatively’ central to most folks, and when we say relatively central we mean some folks had a two hour journey, some had seven hours.
As we got it booked post lockdown and with businesses re-opening it originally started out as a weekend but as it got closer it seemed folks were keen to make the most of it. In the end half of us went, arriving on the Thursday and departing on the Monday the others arrived on Friday and departed on the Sunday.
FYI – Nash Oakland can be found here on the book of Face. https://www.facebook.com/Nash-Oakland-Wild-Camping-101228188362376/
Postcode LD82LG
Our hosts at Nash Oakland, Rick and Shirley were very welcoming to their excellent wild camping location. Considering we all turned up at different times and had to be directed to our “pitch” individually they couldn’t have been more helpful and easy going. Very welcoming and knowledgable about the local area and the 60 acres of woodland that they have. Shirley even joined us during our quiz night and helped out, I’m sure Rick would have joined us too but he got cornered by Dave for a chat probably about trees. The question is would we stay here again. Damn right we would; it’s excellent.
Where we pitched, it’s an idyllic location as you’ll see in the pictures that are attached below, relatively flat, large and with a stream running adjacent to it. Perfect for what we needed. Access was either by crossing a ford or a couple of miles detour via England, into Wales briefly and then back into England. Everyone crossed the ford, even Keith in his London taxi wedding car. ?
Base camp was quickly established and indeed it was as if some of us had been there for almost a day (transpires that’s not far from the truth). Downside to setting up early is that it gives you more time to start on the cider and as experienced by Mr Lovejoy he peaked early and was in bed by 10pm. Lightweight ?.
Obviously with four full days of camp life there’s a lot of talking, banter, drinking, sleeping and eating going on. Roy did a sterling job with keeping us fed in the evenings (and also brekkie) and if you’ve never had Roy’s meat in your mouth you’ve not tasted excellent food.
I’ve tasted Roys Meat and I’ve tasted the Rainbow. Andy did a superb job of keeping the never ending kettle boiling along with the obligatory delivery of a never ending supply of Lynnes Welshcakes. Along with that – we had a most excellent cheese spread by Mark for our cheese and port afternoon. mmmmm.
One of our regular members was unable to attend due to piss poor planning by his manager despite it being booked weeks in advance. He was missed (Tig, not his manager) so we built our own little effigy representation of him. Sadly for him it also doubled as our support stand for our dart board so throwing darts at him seemed like the right thing to do. As a member of the emergency services, he gallantly chose service over recreation. He will be mentioned in despatches. It was unanimously agreed that his manager is in need of some re-training.
Endless conversations were had about a multitude of subjects and covering all aspects of history; it really is a most excellent and enlightening weekend.
From my brief (very brief) notes and drunken hazy memories some of the giggle and discussion points include.
- Things Andy would do to a watermelon if he had a drill.
- Dictaphone that magically told Rory to F*** Off.
- How we think Chards bodily functions might be responsible for the Suez Canal being blocked.
- Recycling of pop bottles and why isn’t it done now.
- Genders. There are two. Blokes and not blokes.
- Sitting round the camp fire is like being in an old people’s home telling the same stories over and over again whilst some of us are sitting in the vinyl chairs for obvious reasons.
- Mexican wave.
- Knives made by ADG should now be considered entering a new phase, knives from the pre-General era being highly sought after as much as ones from the General era.
- It seems that Nash Oakland is the home territory of the Chard faceless Otter. Rather elusive and only seen at specific times of the day.
- Why there’s still no change from the Ice-cream shop – eh Rory ?
- Is there a need for fur loincloths when heading to the North of England
- In case Team B are struggling to answer the question – Name a character other than Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movie; the answer is Woody.
- Beavers might have been seen eating the faceless Otters.
- Why do we have arguments about the floating battleships in Thunderbirds – it’s because it was called Cloudbase and actually was in Captain Scarlet.
- Ardbeg “Supernova 2nd edition” just pipped Laphroaig “The 1815 Legacy Edition” at the inaugural BOOBS whisky tasting session.
Some things we think we’ll do for next time around are :
- Local cheese boards for the cheese and port afternoon.
There we have it; a cracking weekend and a bit.
Good for the soul, good for the heart, good for the camaraderie but not so good for the liver.
With that in mind there’s only with remaining to say : General.
Here are some photos and video from the event.
Chards –
Craigs –
Keefs –