Nothing to do with nuts on bits of string! Conkers is the campsite near Moira in Leicestershire where the Round Britain Rally entrants have their last meet of the year. This year I was brave and took my tent – last year I was in the youth hostel but I didn’t enjoy it and decided to risk the cold and damp this year, with the promise of sleeping in a heated awning if it was really freezing! That’s the thing – sensible people take caravans or campervans, but Sheila, Carol and Ian, and I brought tents and we were all very glad Jim had his caravan and enormous heated awning for the evening gathering. This year there was no frost so I slept in my lovely big Outwell Oakland S tent – it’s tall enough to stand up in, and large enough to have a proper table and chair making camping still possible in spite of encroaching arthritis! Have to admit I went in the car, it’s just too cold on the trike at this time of year.

As I hate motorway travel I drove up via Swindon to Stowe and got on the Fosse Way – it’s a wonderful road, took me all the way to the A5 and it’s not far then to Conkers – I know it takes longer but there’s no stress and I get to see all the wonderful countryside. Dinner from the chip van on site on Friday and bacon sarnies courtesy of Carol and Ian for Saturday breakfast, then I went to have a look at the Moira Furnace just along the road as I never got there when it was an RBR Landmark. Interesting site alongside the Ashby canal and lots of photo opportunities including a family of Buzzards – didn’t manage to get more than one in the frame although there were at lest three of them!

Back to the campsite for the barbecue cooked by ‘Mommybear’ Vivien but missed the group photo so no record of ever having been there – boo! Quite a few folks turned up on Saturday to get their RBR photos marked by Graham and it was good to see old friends and meet new ones.  These camping get-togethers are almost the only time the rallyists meet exceot when (rarely) they turn up at the same landmark at the same time, oddly this year it happened to lots of us!

A good evening of boozing and chat in Jim’s awning – the RBRers are a great bunch, all different and with different bikes and different ways of approaching the rally but all slightly mad and totally addicted to riding round the British countryside looking for ‘landmarks’ which may be anything from a castle – easy! – to a memorial stone hidden in long grass – not quite so easy – and there’s always the question of whether it was the right stone!  Finally snuggled into my sleeping bag, quite cosy as I had my tent heater and hot water bottle! We had no rain the whole weekend so I was packed quite early and home before 4 – 346 miles there and back to NOT get my photos marked as I forgot to bring them but it was worth it for the company and the craic. That’s my last camping weekend for this year, it’s going to be a long winter and we’ll all be suffering from ‘cabin fever’ long before next year’s RBR starts on , appropriately, the first of April!

The rest of my pics of the weekend and my vist to Moira Furnace here