Rali'r Ddraig Meddiw

(Drunken Dragon Rally)

12th June 1987 - Welsh Coast MCC

This is not the Dragon Rally you may have heard of which is also held in Wales, a fact that will be blazingly obvious as soon as you get there. For a start, the weather will be much warmer. (This is unique amongst all Welsh rallies I have been to.)

                   

- Phil the Spill

This was the start of the first three-in-one rally trip I had devised around the Simmer Dim Rally weekend. I had done a few Simmer Dim Plus One, (and even a One Plus Simmer Dim), but I had not managed to fill three weekends in a row, without going home in between.

The weather for the trip over to Llanmadoc was unremarkable, and the directions for the last few miles left a little to be desired, but I found the right road eventually, and rolled in and set up without further trouble. Nothing of note happened at the rally on Friday night.

On Saturday, a fellow club member turned up. He was originally from the principality, but had emigrated to London some years beforehand. He wasn't continuing the trek with me; I was on my own for that. While we waited for the games to begin, we took a stroll down the road to the beach. Here were a number of the largest jellyfish I have ever seen. They appeared to have been left by the receding tide, but there was no way we were going to help them back into the water. We assumed their great size was due to the warm water in the bay, which was in turn caused by the factories across the way pumping their effluent into it. Either that or it was the correct size for the species.

From what I can remember at this distance, the games were well contested and suitably messy. There were a few first-rally drownings as well. One guy thought he would escape the worst of it by wearing his Belstaff. No such luck, he was grabbed, turned, (and held), upside-down and filled up from there.

Afterwards, a few of us rode back up the road to the nearest pub, (it was a bit too far to walk), where there was more choice of beverages, somewhere to sit while consuming them, and far better toilets than were available on-site. After afternoon chucking-out time, (remember them?), a careful ride back to the site.

The evening was pretty normal, with music, drinking and dancing, interrupted by a carrot-eating contest and removal of damp clothing, (actually, I think they skipped the water bit), and several quite nice trophies were handed out. I am almost glad I didn't win one, as I would have to carry it with me for the rest of the fortnight, and it might get damaged before I returned home. And so to bed.

The next stage was to Kinross Services, (M90, just North of the Forth Road Bridge), meet up with my club and onwards to the Simmer Dim.

- Phil (the Spill) Drackley