2008 News

Carting Tests at Bo Peep: Weekend of April 5th/6th

Carting tests at Bo Peep are simply the best.

We descended upon the caravan site near Banbury on Friday lunchtime in glorious sunshine with rather depleted numbers. Only the Mercers and the Leybournes from Horsham Newfs were camping that weekend with some day visitors on Saturday in the form of Mark Kingsley and Rebecca & Linda.

We were joined by our friends from other Newfie groups and quickly set to catching up on all the gossip.

Keith was running around half naked, stripped to the waist, showing off both his new tattoo and his rather fabulous physique. It was a sight to behold. Mentioning it here simply displays how fabulous the weather was on that Friday.

Our camping friends were however missed and we look forward to them rejoining the fray for Mepal and Beale Park and indeed finding some new playmates to drag along for our devilish weekends of fun.

So, Friday was spent setting up and it did seem to take an age but eventually the caravans were positioned, awnings were erected, the carting ring was put up and the obstacle course laid. As soon as these chores were complete, the picnic table was positioned and the boys settled themselves in for the weekend with red wine at their side.

Saturday saw a relatively fine day albeit a tad chilly and a drop or two of rain. The carting tests began with Ange as test manager running the day like clockwork. Georgia attempted to make tea and coffee when requested but given the rain, various childcare duties and her forgetful nature it was a pretty hit and miss affair with people expected to help themselves most of the time.

We had lots of passes in general with a couple of passes in our group for Alfie and Diesel. To be fair we didn't have a lot of entries due to our depleted numbers so we did pretty well. There were no major issues, no histrionics and no complaints. Good news for the smooth running of the day but not great reading for this article!

We had a good meal on Saturday night and off to bed early. Mark was staying over in the Mercer awning so we bundled him off to bed with lot's of duvets as it was a tad cold.

But none of us expected the sight we woke up to the next morning. The Leybournes were the first up and upon opening their blinds were met with 4 inches of snow laying beautifully thick on the ground. It was a proper winter wonderland with all the trees covered and branches hanging heavily with snow. So pretty. We shoved the children out into the whiteness and went to check on Mark to ensure he was still with us.

Keith waded through the snow drifting up the side of Mark's tented bedroom and knocked on the door .... a voice returned from within, Mark was still with us but completely oblivious to why he had been quite so cold in the night.

Hot drinks all round as people started to appear from their beds. It was so beautiful.

The children tried sledging, a snowman was built to keep an eye on proceedings and the tests were cancelled as our Newfies started to collect snowballs all over their feet. That must be so uncomfortable!

Some fun activities were arranged with a Level 1 Snow Test created to amuse us all. We then went on to do Level 2 properly as the snow melted but unfortunately we were not able to undertake the tests with the longer hauls.

Kev and Ange disappeared off for the afternoon to arrange a romantic rendezvous for Loxley and Aoife. You'll have to ask Kev about the coupling, it makes for a funny story but not one that would be appropriate to print.

All in all it was a great weekend but please come back soon our absent friends, you were missed!

Georgia Leybourne