Ian and I were particularly looking forward to this rally as it was the first one we did after returning from Canada last year and we had an absolute blast. We set off on Friday afternoon hoping that the bad weather would hold off until we at least arrived in Chester. The sun was shining all the way through Yorkshire bliss! Then we hit Saddleworth on the M62, anyone who knows this stretch of motorway will be aware that no matter what the weather is like anywhere else in the region it will always be pissing down here! As we pressed on we passed a cyclist, yes that’s right a bloke on a push bike going up the hard shoulder of the M62. We were laughing so hard we had to pull over at the next service station. As we were standing by the scoot the same guy on the bike approached us and asked us for directions to Bury! By this time I couldn’t talk for laughing. We pushed on towards Chester, getting wetter by the minute. I’m sure you can all imagine what I had to say about that!

15 miles from the site and the scoot decided she didn’t want to play anymore, something wrong with the clutch. Ian called Dave Bellis who had Cloud 9's number one Jimmy on standby to come and get us with the van, thanks guys! However luckily Ian managed to bodge it so we limped into the site at around 8.30 pm. Luckily the Boon’s had already put up our tent so we headed off to the bar to seek out the gang. It was great to catch up with people we hadn’t seen for quite a while and meet new faces too, Dave and Mandy (aka Captain Scarlet), Spenny and Daniel (Elton and David), Sean and Margaret, Mark B, Rob, Joey and Helen, Sue, Pauline and Dave Bellis and the Cloud 9 gang. If I have forgotten anybody forgive me I was ratted! After way too many beers we headed off to bed at around 2 am only to wake people in our area by discussing the merits of Purple Pedro! Sorry to anybody who heard us.

Lisa Botham AFSC