Monday

Monday morning came early, with the Sun streaming onto the side of my tent and turning it into a small oven. My alarm had gone off at 0700 so I got up, ready to get off to Dartington Crystal (the official start point this year).

I wasn't feeling too hot due, I think, to the pizza at the Sunshine Cafe. There was apparently a problem with one of their curved thingys, which were actually square thingys, and they only had one on instead of two - so the pizza may not have been quite cooked. Oh well...

The run to Dartington Crystal was largely uneventful; we had breakfast there and met solidgoldmike (one of the NDMR forum members), then had a few moments to look around and have a chat. I was in the shop when Tina popped in looking for Barry, as there was a photo being taken. I made it outside just in time to join the press call, explaining I'd been "just round the next corner".

Off to Lands End then, a straightforward run in glorious weather and a great layout of cars once we got there. A couple of people from CHSW were there to hand out balloons (more on those later) and lots of people were asking us questions about the run. This year, me and Paul had photos taken at the signpost - we'll see how they turn out.

After Lands End, we headed back using a slightly different route - Terry (the organiser) was due to be interviewed by a local radio station in Truro, so we all headed that way and after a small problemette with which car park we were in, we parked up and waited for Terry.

Once on the way, some of us found that it wasn't a great idea to tie the CHSW balloons to our aerials - I had the magmount CB pulled off at about 60mph and one of the other cars had similar problems. After retrieving and regrouping, we made our way back to Braddicks.

One of the teams (Team Beer Bandits) were having trouble with their suspension settings and once back at the camp site (a couple of hours later than expected) various solutions were suggested. Some quick adjustments later and it looked like they were sorted for Tuesday.

Settling down on our chairs there was a bit of a discussion about how the day had gone, then most of us decided to go for a Chinese meal to round off the day, only to find that all the local Chinese restaurants and takeaways were shut on a Monday night. So, off to Sunshine again. Still, we found out that Bertie is a "once-a-week girl", but at what, we'll let her tell you...

Getting back to camp, we arranged when we'd be leaving (0700) so it was time to sort out and set up for Tuesday, for the run up to Charnock Richard. That's where I am now, and the run up will be the next post...