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Batcamp 2005 - 26- 29 August 2005 Since the discovery of kite festivals
in the summer of 2002, we rather gave up on the idea of going camp on our
own, but over the August bank holiday a dozen of us (including half a dozen veterans of the first ever batcamp)
decided to revive the old traditions |
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The plan was to set up camp on the
Thursday night so's we'd not have to waste time on the Friday, but what with one thing and another, by
the time we'd unloaded the Espace on the Thursday
night it had already been dark for an hour so we thought
we'd put off setting up until the Friday morning. There
was a bit of a delay in setting off to the Batfarm
on the Friday morning as we suddenly remembered that
Martin's tent leaked at Teston kite festival, and
so there was a quick side mission to town to buy him a new tent. |
Then
on arriving at the farm there was some consternation when we realised that
"Poof 1", the
flagship of the Poof fleet had sprung a leak, so there was a two hour mission to Dymchurch to
buy a new rubber boat. And then half an hour was wasted discussing
the merits of buying an inflatable shark. (more of that later..) And whilst we were at the seaside it
would be daft not to have an ice cream as well, or to miss out on a
walk along the prom.... |
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...
but bear in mind that some of us had promised to do all the camp setting up
so when
others arrived they could get straight on with cooking tea. There's no denying that by 4pm with
still no tents up, we'd left things a bit late. Still, a concerted effort, and no one
was any the wiser about our time-wasting. Tea was good !!, and we sat up till
the small hours telling knob jokes. |
Some
of us are more camp than others. Some were comfortable in just our undercrackers. Others
cannot perform the justly famous armpit washing ceremony with four layers of
clothing on. Bernie however felt the cold. |
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It's
something of a tradition that Saturday lunch is scoffed at a local pub. There's
quite a few pubs round the Bat-farm that are good. The Smarden
Bell is a four-pinter !! (and the food's not bad either) |
Back
to base camp for a cup of coffee and a well deserved
rest. Drinking
beer to excess is hard work, and whilst some of us slept it off, the more
hardened drinkers
continued the "fish challenge" at the fishing pond. |
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Now
with only three layers on, Bernie cooked rice for the evening meal – "Chicken a la Hooch", which at the
time was
something of a tradition at Bat-Camps. After a good scoff, we sat round watching the stars, satellites & shooting stars till late, but not so late that we
could see Orion. |
That
night there were a lot of strange sounds, the strangest of which emanated
from "Hobbiton", home
of our friend newly arrived from the US of A |
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After
a chilly start, Sunday became really hot, so hot in fact that several layers
had to come off ! And then it was time for the Battle
Royale...... |
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There's
no denying the battle didn't start as well for the pirate fleet as it might,
with one third of the fleet falling in the pond rather than gracefully alighting
the battle crocodile. Also it didn't help that "Attack Mode Crocodile" was a bit of a flop in that the
inflatable crocodile was easily
captured by the opposition. We
came out of the pond thankful that it was Lisa who'd bought the inflatable
crocodile, and that we'd decided not to buy the
inflatable shark at Dymchurch. Still, history is written by those who
can be bothered to write it, and the pirate fleet was eventually victorious. |
Meanwhile
back at the camp some of us were still soaking up the ambiance. Others were
soaking up the Hobgoblin. Quite a lot of that got soaked up !! Which leads on to the piss-catorial challenge in which some were more pisc-ed than others. |
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Having
been told he snores like a girl, Luke Warm was determined to throw off the
accusation That
he fishes like a girl too. Which was a silly thing to do, as it
turns out that girls are at best at fishing, and they aren't scared of maggots or
the fish either. |
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The
Scores:
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We
caught well over a hundred tiddlers and, having braved the electric fence and
moved them into the newly dug out pond, it
was tea time. Bernie did the rice again. The rest of the evening was spent
around the camp fire. However our Webmaster can confirm that Orion
was there when he had a 4 a.m. tiddle. |
The
Monday was forecast to be the hottest day of the weekend, and so after a
quick fishing session that
we shall gloss over, pausing only to mention that the amount of fish caught
is not as important as the fun that is had (which is only the case when someone else
catches more) we
packed up and moved the stuff back to the car park via Tina-power. |
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There is an on-line archive of photos
from this camp – you can see it by clicking here