The ‘weekend' started off quite early, Tuesday actually, with the arrival of Mocki and Martin, Thomas met them from the ferry and took them to a local sleepy spot for the night. The next day they found the site, complained at the length of the grass and made Thomas go and get his tractor to cut it to an acceptable height, daresay he missed a bit though!

Andy arrived the next day and by Friday night we had a goodly crew of 80-90ers, SyncroAndy/Andy, Syncroand101/Jake and Claire, Flibbertygibbet/Julie and Harvey, HarryMann and JennyTyger/Clive and Jenny. The alternative Spragmans was up courtesy of Rob4x4 who arrived in a very large army lorry, if you think T25s have long gear shifts you ought to try driving this.

Friday evening threatened rain but cleared in time for the lighting of the fire and barbecue barrel. Chairs, blankets, beers and beef burgers quickly came out and soon the laughter started echoing through the otherwise peaceful night. Sitting in the smoke of the fire is not always a popular pastime but it did help to deter the huge gnats that tried to eat us, we had help in the form of several large bats flitting around us chomping up many of those gnats.

It was well past midnight when the last person went to bed.

Saturday brought in a beautiful sunny morning, several peeps went off to view the delights of the Island and its car boots sales, so it was afternoon when the playing with ‘toys' began. The MSA covers the event for insurance purposes and HSE rules had to be abided by.

Rob brought out his trials bike and with much ummming and ahhhing and jumping on the starter pedal it roared into life, many peeps had a go riding this round the field and after some instructions from Rob and Andy Cate had a go too, she even got it into 2nd gear! There was a slight hiccup when leaking petrol washed over the hot engine and unaware of this Mocki, much to our horror, rode it back to camp trailing blue smoke in his wake, this was rapidly and safely dealt with and the problem sorted. The poor bike eventually gave up mechanically to the abuse it received and despite the great technical abilities of the fellas it was put aside.

By late afternoon the mod had worn itself to a frazzle, a problem with the rear axle not being welded on properly or something like that, the front mudguard had started to wave in the breeze, one of the brakes kept seizing up and it seemed to like overheating, a problem with the coolant not getting through from the tank and radiator at the back to the engine in the front. Hours were spent by the fellas discussing and sorting these problems, well, sorting most of them anyway!

During the hotter sunny spells we were joined by small swarms of dragonflies, all hunting around and enjoying the heat reflecting off the vans.

BluTrukkie and LadyBug/John and Sue arrived late afternoon, along with DiscoDave and Mudlark/Mark and Charlie in the Tristar. Again the fire and bbq were lit and a good evening was spent by all, helped along with the passing round of a Club80-90 bottle of scotch! Clive was right about the full moon, as we sat there around a lovely fire we watched the huge glowing moon rise up out of the hedgerow at the top of the field, it moved quite fast and soon lit up the campsite with its eerie luminescence. There is something primeval about sitting around a fire, cooking food and watching a moon appear like an ancient magic.

Sunday morning was cold, wet and windy, waking up being a small problem for some as the effects of late nights and cans of Caffreys caught up. Thomas arranged a greenlaning session that took the syncros and brave Julie in her 2wd (aided by Rob4x4) along the Tennyson Trail which runs over the downs from Carisbrooke to Freshwater; there are some fantastic views up there of all the western side of the Island.

Monday and Tuesday were both hot and sunny days, the usual sort of Isle of Wight weather, not that anyone believes us now. Several peeps had to leave Monday so packing up and doing a last tour of the Island was the order of the day. The last few of us left spent a very quiet evening round a rather smaller camp fire, some people even returned to the comfort of a house for the night!

The mod was in a bad way by now and could only be used for gentle trundles round the field, we spent some time trying to get the coolant to circulate but it really didn't want to play. The alternative Spragmans came down on Tuesday, all the toys packed away and the fire pit cleaned and covered.

Julie took off for Blackgang Chine and John, Sue, Clive, Jenny and Cate bumbled along to Alum Bay to view the Needles and the coloured sand, we took a pretty route back to the ferry and the weekend was over.

It was quite sad to see everyone go, the field empty and the fun over. Many times the memories were brought up on the forum afterwards.