Farewell Didcot A camping weekend: Watlington, 26/27July

[Kim]

I have located and patched the leak, and it appears to be holding, so fingers crossed.

Barakta has discovered that the reception sells books and is halfway through her second.

Red kites are circling, pigeons are being ridiculous, and the sun is being hot.  I assume that Didcot is still where it's supposed to be, but don't have the energy to check.

[bikenrrd]

There's a Go Outdoors in Oxford, very close to the Park & Ride on the south side, and even closer to the C & CC campsite.

From the Clumps you can get there by following NCN route 5 through Didcot, Abingdon, Radley and Kennington.  It's a nice ride that takes about an hour.

[Kim]

Airbed still holding, so should be OK.

Barakta has discovered that the reception sells CAKE and is halfway through her first...

[andrewc]

Cake & books,   2 of the main ingredients of a good weekend camping    (along with a comfy bed).

Mega hot in Liverpool,   we've been invaded by giant steampunk puppets as well 

[Phil]

I spent longer fettling than anticipated, so have cheated by gettong the train as far as Reading. I guess it wouldn't be a yacf camping trip if preparations hadn't involved a soldering iron somewhere.

[mattc]

Just this minute got off delayed train from Scotland. This was pointed out to me:
http://notaminfo.com/ukmap

H3438/14: Warning: Demolition of explosives will take place
Q) EGTT/QWDLW/IV/M/W/000/007/5137N00116W001

EXPLOSIVE DEMOLITION OF 3 TOWERS WI 1NM RADIUS 513725N 0011603W
(DIDCOT) 14-07-0545/AS7

LOWER: Surface, UPPER: 700 Feet AMSL
FROM: 27 Jul 2014 03:45 GMT (04:45 BST) TO: 27 Jul 2014 04:30 GMT  (05:30 BST)

 

[Canardly]

S'gone very quiet hereabouts?

[rogerzilla]

My friend Becky is sleeping in her car (with two dogs) somewhere up a hill overlooking the site and waiting for 3am.  If you find a 10 year old blue Ford C-Max on your travels, pretend to be doggers for comedy value.  Then say Roger sent you and she'll probably be round here to kick my arse at 5am.

[Kim]

Just this minute got off delayed train from Scotland. This was pointed out to me:
http://notaminfo.com/ukmap

H3438/14: Warning: Demolition of explosives will take place
Q) EGTT/QWDLW/IV/M/W/000/007/5137N00116W001

EXPLOSIVE DEMOLITION OF 3 TOWERS WI 1NM RADIUS 513725N 0011603W
(DIDCOT) 14-07-0545/AS7

LOWER: Surface, UPPER: 700 Feet AMSL
FROM: 27 Jul 2014 03:45 GMT (04:45 BST) TO: 27 Jul 2014 04:30 GMT  (05:30 BST)

 

Interesting. That narrows it down a bit...

[andrewc]

If you oversleep you'll have a very loud alarm clock 

[Vernon]

We're in a field in Oxfordshire with a load of other people. This just like the nineties. 

[Kim]

We're in a field in Oxfordshire with a decent Internet connection; nothing like the 90s...

[Fab Foodie]

The earth didn't move for me last night in Abingdon ....

[PaulF]

The earth didn't move for me last night in Abingdon ....

We could hear on the other side of Wantage, about 12 miles away

[Tewdric]

Big Bang goodness vid here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-28487288

[mcshroom]

Very weird start to that video Tewdric

[Charlotte]

Team YACF inna field:



Oh, and someone only had a bloody dronecam up there...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/-TigGH5jSTA&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/-TigGH5jSTA&rel=1</a>

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'm impressed by the neatness and speed of the demolition.

Anyways, I missed all the malarkey cos I went to Fairford instead. Hope you all malarked in a highly uncivilised manner. 

[Phil]

And a very nice field it was too. It had coffee making facilities and everything

[mattc]

Team YACF inna field:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ptYbSCnHIes/U9VRFsJsUBI/AAAAAAAAEC4/e3Godq3F7x8/w2478-h1652-no/DSCF9740.jpg

Oh, and someone only had a bloody dronecam up there...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TigGH5jSTA

Good find - way better than official view.

(And I recognise the exact spot you're sat!)

[nikki]

DIDCOT, HERE I COME!

This post makes me unaccountably happy and sums up much of what I love about YACF.

Hurrah for sillybikeadventures 

Amen 

Thanks to everyone who trekked across from various starting points to come and sit in various fields, all - allegedly - to watch something miles away, not especially visible, happen for no more than a few seconds! Malarkey happened 


Photostoproveit...

A couple of before shots:






Camp YACF:




(in)action stations:




Time passes:










As luck would have it, I happened to have my camera out and pointing in the right direction at the critical moment. So, drumroll please...











...and then we went and sat in a different field with coffee-making facilities!

All my very civilised photos from the trip are at https://www.flickr.com/gp/nikki_pugh/u03Jk1/

[Flatbar Steve]

This post makes me unaccountably happy and sums up much of what I love about YACF.

Hurrah for sillybikeadventures 
[/quote]

All my very civilised photos from the trip are at https://www.flickr.com/gp/nikki_pugh/u03Jk1/
[/quote]

Great photos,  wish I could have been there. .... Bit off topic but what's your front light mount called and where did you get it. I use one bike for all cycling I do and am running out of space, maybe I should just get a roofrack and be done with it

[Kim]

That's a B&M Ixon fork crown mount - I use one on the bottle cage braze-on on the front of my recumbent.  The bracket is compatible with Smart front lights and their clones.  I think SJS have them (as do most of the German suppliers).

[nikki]

That particular one is the extra long flavour, abused a bit in a vice to bend around brake cables. Bought from here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Headlight-Holder-Busch-Muller-474DL-PB-Extra-Long-/321314114487

I'd like to see the roof rack solution, though

[Dibdib]

Continuing the threadjacking... what bolt size is needed to fettle the light to the mount? I'm pondering if I can use the same mount on a Hope Vision One...