Hibernation

26th Jan 1990 - Hedgehog MCC

I have a sheep on my shelf, labelled "Longest boy"! Perhaps surprisingly, this is from Yorkshire instead of Wales. The reason behind it follows.

It was a dull and damp day when the hardier members of the ABC assembled at an early hour to head up to Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire for the Hibernation Rally. Some hadn't thought it was going to be as wet as it turned out, so they struggled into waterproofs which seem to have shrunk since the last time they wore them. After insulating ourselves sufficiently for the trip, off we went. It took a few hours to travel the distance, but we made good time and there was still enough light around when we arrived to set up the tents before a trek down the road to the pub.

The evening was quite enjoyable but, of course, not as boisterous as when we have a marquee to ourselves.

After closing time, all of us wandered back to the site and made use of the small catering marquee the organisers have.

 

On Saturday, following a substantial brekkie in the club's tent, our group decided on a wander about the countryside. It was on a trip like this, two years back, that my girlfriend of the time had a slip which left her covered in mud for the rest of the weekend, but none of us suffered such a mishap this time and we all returned, dry to the site for a rest before opening time.

I lost track of when we went to the pub, or how long we stayed there, but I know we went outside at one point so I could take a photo of a few of us in the light snow, which was falling, but not settling.

Another fun, but not too rowdy night followed, where one guy got covered in foam, but I never found out why. After this, we all went back to the clubs cafe tent again and had a pleasant wind down, where prizes were given, including the Long Distance one mentioned above. I was just lucky that the Twits MCC hadn't come along this year and that I lived a couple of miles further away than the rest of my club.

It was quite bright on Sunday morning, but cold, and some of the snow had settled, (or it was a thick frost.) Some of us had more of a problem getting out of our tents than others, but we eventually got everybody packed, suited and booted, and set off on the road southwards.

- Phil (the Spill) Drackley