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VSOC Fen Frolics Rally5th -7 July 2002(1st Report by Dave Kenway, pictures from Martin Yates)
Then Sean, Leigh & Josh arrived and started to unpack their tent… But what they found was a mushroom farm, there was more strands of fungus on the tent than in the Ministry of Defence's chemical weapons division lab. As they stood there homeless and in the pouring rain, we took pity on them and invited them to stay with us, and so the weekend fun begun. As we found our way in to the small bar area, who should appear but Steve Tyson who looked to be enjoying himself in a kind of liquid way and had been since 3 that afternoon we were told. That night the band were brilliant and the atmosphere really was electric, it was a cracking first night. We had a right laugh and Steve kept us entertained all night! Back to the tent (with our 3 new tenants) for about an hours sleep and then it was very light and time to get going again, but in reality it was only 5am, so back to bed until 7am…
post article note: Just to let you know about the guy who had the accident on the Hunstanton run. His name is Ray Still and he lives near Newmarket. He has a broken shoulder, two broken wrists, some damage to his chest/lungs and some facial injuries. The good news is that he is recovering. I saw that it was mentioned in the article on the website and thought you might like to know what happened. Chris Oakley. (Centre 10 member)
A little later Sean, Bob and Paul had constructed our rocket and the countdown began as a small crowd gathered, 3,2,1….. nothing, Mmmm, after some fiddling with the wires and some improvisation it was 3,2,1 Wooooosh! 500 feet, photo taken and parachute deployed, perfect. The next flight was slightly less perfect and with parachute failure the rocket came down on a golf course half a mile away, but Paul & Bob retrieved it and its next flight is scheduled for 27th July 4pm at "Rock around the Cock", photo's to follow at the end of the season.
Fed up with burgers and bacon rolls and still sadly missing Anne, Events organiser extraordinaire, Sarah rose to the challenge and booked 22 of us in for a Tai meal at a local pub. Alex tried to get us a small coach but in the end it was 1 cab and 15'ish bikes that shot off. Anne turned up just in time to join us. Leigh got a ride on the back of Vbobs (nice number plate mate) V Max and arrived laughing hysterically with plans to buy a Vmax as soon as possible ! Caroline kindly bought Anne and Nick down in the truck and we all squeezed up to get them on the table's which were 2 seats short. Our table was served first and the sight of Steve, Alex and Bob staring at us dribbling in anticipation gave us a warm feeling of satisfaction inside, or was that the chilli's ?
Another brilliant time had by all and thanks to Centre 10 for all your efforts.
Next one is Rock around the cock at the end of July, if your going don't forget to look for the rocket and say cheese !
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We set off for Cambridge in good spirits but the July weather did its best to dampen them, 3 soaking hours later and being lead brilliantly by Bob we arrived in Ely. We found our centre 14 buddies and straight away got chatting, Bob & Julie however just concentrated on putting their tent up in the dry… and what a good idea that was, 10 minutes later, chatting over, Sarah and I struggled to put up our two bedroom bungalow in slippy mud and driving rain, real nice.
The run out to Hunstanton was well attended and brilliantly marshalled, [other centres take note], only 5 marshals, no heroics, and we all arrived safe at the coast in glorious warm sunshine and parked in what looked like a custom made bike park right on the front. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours wondering around and then found a model shop selling rockets that take an Arial photo from 500 feet, so we bought one, between four of us….
Back on base camp I was offered a go on Anne and Nicks CB400 and after following Nicks instructions carefully (make sure you rev it) I disappeared down the A10 at 100mph at 13000rpm, Mmmm nice, on my return Leigh was waiting to take it out so off she went and came back 10 minutes later grinning ear to ear, "great fun!" she said to Nick who had come to retrieve it.
Back on the bikes and 3 gear changes later we were back in VSOC world and up to the bar, the girl band called Naked, (but weren't) and really weren't a patch on Fridays lot (who's name escapes me) but again a great night and it was dry so we spilled outside onto the balcony. The bar closed about 2 hours too early at 11.30, and those members in the know had a few bottles of booze stowed away to keep them going strong until 3am, then security escorted Mr.Tyson back to his tent and locked him in so they could go to bed at last.
Sunday morning dawned cloudy but dry and feeling a bit melancholy (I hate packing up to go home) and tired out after another restless night we all packed up and one by one we departed. A few of us popped into Ely for a last coffee and a quick look at the cathedral before once again hitting the (dry) road home.