A Thief at Dawn

I had caught him red handed. There he was only 5 metres away, in the early morning light and I had spotted him trying to escape with his haul. Guilty. You could tell by the beady look in his eye. He stared back at me with a look of defiance on his face. I quickly felt around me to see what I could lay my hands on, just in case things turned nasty, but nothing came to hand. It was just me and him. I eyed him up again. He had a look of confidence about him that was concerning, but I felt sure that I outweighed him. I opened the door a little further. With an aggressive swish of his fluffy tail, he was off up a tree with the freshly snaffled peanuts.

The New Forest in Hampshire is supposedly a low crime area. That is assuming you only count crimes committed by people. Our nocturnal nut smuggler was our second visitor. The previous evening, another resident, a New Forest pony had tried a smash and grab routine, rooting through the back of the van on the basis that it would take a brave person and several seconds to remove it. Luckily, it was ushered away, empty handed (or is it empty hooved ?)

This was the Windy 500 camping trip at Ashurst camp site. Hardly a strenuous trek to test the machines to their limits. Hampshire is only an hour or so away from Weymouth and nobody had to come that far. Surely nobody would have any problems with such a short little jaunt ?

Team 6 in Milly had other ideas though. Coming up from South Devon means traversing the notorious Telegraph Hill, the graveyard of many vehicles. A phone call from Lucy and Jim informed me that once again, this fearsome hill had taken it's toll on Milly and they were being repatriated to Teignmouth for some urgent repairs.

We arrived later than expected and soon located Robin and Sam of Team 46 with Trigger, their multi-terrain Mitsubishi van. Also there were Adrian and family of Team 37 and later on we were joined by Jeff from Team 32. Team 27, who will be Team Newlywed (seems wrong to call them that before the event) arrived in Olly, their white limousine. Just the sort of vehicle you need to camp in style. A huge boot and (if you aren't transporting the full complement of 8) plenty of room inside.

The weather held out. Alcohol was consumed. Tall tales and hopes and plans for our vehicles were discussed until after dark. Team 6 arrived 24 hours late and impressed everyone with the bedroom, kitchen, lounge of Milly.

The journey home proved problematic. Well, it would have done if anybody had stopped suddenly in front of us. Jezebel's brakes can prove to be a little temperamental. It's a problem with old brake fluid apparently. It picks up air bubbles, making the brakes very spongy. Something that needs addressing before any further trips I think.

She is taking shape inside. Obviously not as fast or as sophisticated as Milly, but the floor is pretty much in place, the insulation is installed throughout and we have a place to sleep when needed. The rest as they say is mere garnish.