Agree with all the above.
Gareth, Warren and I met up at 8.00 on Friday morning and had a leisurely ride to the Dolwen garage cafe where we had the rare (for us) experience of having our fried breakfast in the morning (we normally get there around lunchtime). From there we meandered to llanberis via Capel Curig and Pen Y Pass. The ride to the top of the pass and down the other side has to be in the the top ten of my riding experiences. Gareth was towing a trailer so he waved Warren and me on and we had a hoot. I'm sure we could have gone faster, but we had a blinding laugh.
Once in Llanberis we dumped our kit in the bunkhouse and wandered around town. This year's camp shop bargains were some £1 stuff sacks and a stainless steel folding spork. By early evening the bunkhouse was full of smelly riding kit and two mountains of luggage, one was called Mount Dalby, the other Mount Crustyclown. We ate in the cafe downstairs and retired to the conveniently located nearby pub (it took longer to put my coat on than to walk to the pub).
The following morning we breakfasted in teh cafe and set off for the rally. Mark had some tyre issues, but thanks to SteveD he made it the site (and later to a nearby town to get it fixed). Once at teh site we bagged a nice big area and attended to the club erection. With the gazebo up we surrounded it with our bikes and tents.
The site was superb, with a long steep(ish) climb up to the camping fields. Some riders made complete *******s of themselves on the track, including more than one 'adventure' bike rider.
Given the importance of the afternoon's rugby game (Wales vs England) the lads had established the location of several pubs in walking distance before they had unpacked their bikes. After a nice sunny afternoon of bike spotting and (in simon's case) tipi envy, we set off on a mile walk to the pub. We got there to find it packed out with like-minded rallyists, but we still had a good time. On our way back to camp Gareth decided that we could take a footpath through the woodland up to the camping field. There then followed one of the maddest 15 minutes of my life as five of us (only two with torches) trudged uphill through brush, thicket and scrub until, by some small miracle, we emerged almost directly below our encampment.
We then drunkenly cooked 2 million burgers and three pots of stew. Some of us decided to 'pop' into the beer tent to see what the band was like. We stayed until the end of their second set. They played lots of rock n roll and blues and put on a superb and humourous show.
We returned to the gazebo to find Steve Dalby, Terry and Mark sitting in their underpants around three insanely hot charcoal burners (well ok, they had their coats off). Nibbles were passed around, matters discussed and beer drunk and then I retired to bed.
We woke to find a heavy frost and had trouble getting water out of frozen containers into kettles, but we managed to brew lots of coffee and cook several more tons of bacon before packing up and heading home.
The ride home was bloody chilly, but we made good time.
Over the weekend I bumped into several TC and SidecarsUK forum members which was good fun. We met up with XTwill in a garage in Dolgellau and he reported that his (and his mates') C90 trip had been a hoot. Trophydave entertained us with some good singing and dancing in the beer tent
Bruce was there on his Norton, the Dragon wouldn't be the same without them. Was your ride home OK Bruce?
GC
