30/04/2006 - FLANDERS CLUB VISIT

Event Location:

Flimwell Site

Event Format:

Team challenge With Punches and Sections

Organisers:

Bunny, Chris, Si and Stoo

Winner:

N/A - Fun event only.

After much organising and time spent planning and emailing, the weekend had arrived. A weekend of fun with a Belgium club, camping, beer and mud!! What could be better! The Twinaxle had spent proper money on food and a Firkin of Spitfire! Would anyone turn up? Would all the money be wasted? I arrived Friday night at 6:45, Adam was waiting and soon Stu, Alex and Mark turned up with tents! They had obviously done this before, because within an hour we had a cooking tent, tent for cover, sleeping tents up and a fire lit!! Now we just had to wait for the Flander's boys and gals! Great, at 23:45 they turn up, eight Land Rovers, club vehicle and lots of happy voices (Flemish and English - their English is fantastic). Tents went up in minutes and beer open in seconds. Sit round the fire, laughter songs and merriment commenced! I started to relax it would be a great weekend.

Saturday morning approached and our Chef (Alex) made everyone breakfast (used his own ingredients and would not take money from the club)! Weather looked ok! Took the Flemish brigade around the site, on foot! They could not wait for Sunday and the inter-club fun trial day!! But first we had laning in Kent to introduce them to. Peter, Paul and Karl (not feeling very well) turned up on time and soon everyone was off to Jim's workshop/shop, from where the laning would commence. I hung around the campsite and soon Stoo and Si were setting things up on the site for the following day. By 5pm most laners were back and the BBQ was lit and Alex went into cooking mode! Firkin setup and drinking commenced! The Flems had their own beer but loved our Spitfire (I think they agreed that our beer was nearly as good as Belgium beer)!! What a great party, people kept turning up, we had lights, fire light, good company and loads of drink! The drinking went on until silly o'clock in the morning, laughter, fun, drinking games and rocket fuel were the toast of the night/morning.

Sunday morning was a slow start (would Chris get up). Breakfast again was cooked, but nothing flash, just scrambled eggs (eggs provided by Graham and Amber). I think the scrambled egg had sixty eggs in it! That's the biggest I've ever made. By the time Chris was up and the event was ready to run we had 28 cars, many with co-drivers. Chris, Si and Stoo had done a stunning job setting up the multi discipline event and everyone set off with great gusto! Marshals did not need to do much, as everyone helped everyone. Brits and Belgis where mixed up and nothing was too much with regard to helping out. The lunch time BBQ was ready on time, and a real feeling of mixed club spirit was evident as members from each Club helped pull or fix damaged vehicles. The afternoon was as good as the morning and I did not hear or see a cross word all day. Everyone got stuck in and the day was a huge success.

By early evening most of the Twinaxle had left, once the vehicle wash had been completed!! It took forever, as jet wash refused to play! But still, everyone was mellow and just enjoying the day. What a great bunch of guys and gals we all are!

The evening found Adam and I sat around the campfire again! Less drink but just as much fun, then at 11ish it started to rain (perfect timing for rain as far as I was concerned - I was knackered and ready for bed). Goodnights were said and tired heads laid to rest. The following morning the Flander's team were up and de-tenting. The site was left clean as a whistle and by 9:30 I was waving them off.

WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND! WE ALL MADE SOME GOOD FRIENDS AND I THINK WE CAN SAFELY SAY THAT WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT EVENT!