Firstly, I must apologise for the very long length of time it's taken me to do this write-up, but I have been busy with one thing and another, and I hope everyone feels that's been worth the wait as a means to look back and remember the event back in October last year. Secondly, I would like to start by thanking Harper for suggesting Matlock as the place to hold our Autumn Event.
To be begin... I arrived at the campsite we'd chosen on the Friday evening, and managed to get all set up before it was dark and started raining (unlike in Bakewell in 2009!). The guy on the reception had said that I could camp anywhere except the bottom of the field where the eletric points were, so, knowing there would be a few more people arriving the next day, I decided to go at the top of the hill. There was plenty of space there, it was sheltered by trees, and was also flat since the rest of the field was quite steep (I'll come back to this).
Knowing that the other guys weren't due at the Premier Inn until quite late and were quite a distance away, I decided to go somewhere closeby to eat. It was here that I found out for the first time that to get anywhere you had to go down an extremely narrow single file country lane - not good when you see the headlights of someone wanting to go the opposite way! When I came back to the campsite later I nearly didn't make it back to my tent. I got halfway up the hill and started wheelspinning, and so ended up having to spin sideways before heading up the hill diagonally before doing a 180 degree turn and back across, leaving tyre tracks through the field. Fortunately I hadn't arrived back too late otherwsie I think I could have upset a few folks with my exahust after revving hard to get up the hill!
I had been a little worried about whether it would be cold camping in October, but I needn't have worried. For anyone who can remember Yorkshire in 2007, this was nothing like that, was like summer in comparison, and I slept well both nights.
The following day I grabbed a burger from the van which randomly turned up at the campsite, before heading off to the Premier Inn in Alfreton where people were staying. When I arrived the other people who were arriving that day were already there - Lee and his cousin Dominic, Dan, Stephlar, Harper, and Luke and Rachel. Whilst waiting for the others to come out of the hotel, we got a few pictures of everyones cars lined up.
Luke and Rachel had been planning on camping, however that quickly changed and although Luke claimed all weekend it hadn't been his decision, I don't think he took much persuading!
Eventually everyone else came out - Morris, Claire and Tyler, Patrick and Nicola, Stu and his friend James, and Ryder. It was at this point that we found out that they had nearly got thrown out the night before when the warden Pedro had banged on the door of the room everyone was in and told them three knocks and they were out!
We decided that we would go to the campsite so that Dan and Harper could get set up. Most of us managed to get up the hill but then... we seen that Stephlar couldn't had got stuck. Even when Morris had a go it took him a long time to get her car up to the top. Unfortunately none of us got a picture of this (though some random guy in the field did!).
Afterwards, we headed off to Matlock Bath to spend the day. It was a really nice place, and it almost had the feel of a seaside town only in the middle of the countryside, with it's arcades, cafes and gift shops all down the main street. We did eventually manage to find a cafe that could take all of us before settling down for fish and chips which was good. We then went into the aquarium. For a couple of quid it was well worth it. There was some massive fish there (as well as some small ones!), including some in the old swimming pool which had been turned into a big pool full of fish. We also went into the hologram gallery upstairs and some of them were amazing, the way they animated when you tunred your head.
We were planning to come back later that evening for the fireworks, illuminations, and boat parade along the riverbank, for which you had to get a ticket. We found out from a traffic warden that the best thing was to buy a ticket in advance so you didn't have to queue at night, and so went to the counter in the nearby museum that were selling them. What a moody so-and-so the woman there was! The tickets were four pounds but she said they had no change at all, and you either paid the right amount or tough you paid extra.
By this time it was getting towards early evening and so we headed off to the supermarket so that people could get drink for that night, and also food for the next morning for those of us camping. The trouble was... earlier that week Harper had had his driving licence stolen. Although he went through the checkout first and wandered off, the lad on the checkout had worked out that he was with our group and asked for him to be called back so he could check his ID along with everyone elses, and obviously he didn't have any. By this time the rest of our group were at the checkout and although making a fuss the bloke wouldn't budge. So... Claire came up with the idea of taking her coat off near the entrance and going back in and buying some drink. On her way round one of the staff stopped her and said "Were you not with those lads trying to buy drink a minute ago?" to which Claire replied "What lads? I've just been with my husband!".
We then went our separate ways for a bit, so that Dan and Harper could drop their cars off at the campsite and have a drink, and I would drive them for the rest of the evening. Fortunately no one got stuck driving up the field this time, although everyone was looking at us hoping we would get stuck!
We then headed back to the Premier Inn for our meal and it was a chance for everyone to relax and talk about the day before heading back into Matlock. It was reallly busy on the streets so we parked up a few miles outside the town centre so caught a bus into town on the park and ride, before we just got back in time for the fireworks with ten minutes to spare. They are really good and went on for a long time, I'm sure you'll agree from the photos:
We then saw the boats display, on this various boats were lit up in lights and again was well worth seeing. I have to apologise that due to the dark conditions and not having my tripod
I didn't manage to get many decent shots:
Before we left we had a walk around the fair where Patrick had a go on the hook a duck. At first he wasn't happy with his prize but eventually managed to persuade the woman to let him have a spongebob squarepants one.
We had to leave in order to get the bus back before it finished at 10.30, but when we got out to the bus stop we saw a queue over half a mile long with twenty minutes to go.
Some of the group decided to get a taxi back to their cars while the rest of stuck it out waiting. We were almost near the front of the queue, literally three or four people in front of us when it gopt to half ten when that particular bus got full, and the bus conductor turned round and said "Right that's it, there's no more buses now!". Sensibly they did keep running the buses till everyone had gone, I thik there'd have been a riot otherwise!
After getting back to the cars, at this point we said goodbye to Steph who was heading home, and then split up for the night, with me, Dan and Harper going back to the campsite and the rest going to their hotel. We decided to get some sauasages cooked for supper before heading off to bed, however as they were taking a while to cook Dan decided to "speed them up" by pouring half a can of Fosters into the frying pan.
In spite of this, they did taste quite good to be fair though!
We got up fairly early the nest morning in order to have breakfast and say goodbye to Harper before he headed off early for a hockey match. Although we'd helped him pack, we'd forgot one thing - one of the seats we were sitting on was his.
Fortunately the road you had to drive by to leave the village went 10 yards behind the trees near where we were camped, so should have been easy to catch him... except... when we went up and waved at Harper he just waved back and booted it off own the road. A quick phone call later and he had half a mile of reversing up a twisty single lane road to meet us again, get his chair and say goodbye for a second time.
Before leaving I got a couple of shots of our camp at the top of the hill and the result of driving through the all that mud in the campsite.
Me and Dan then drove back to the Premier Inn and found out about another run-in with Pedro from the hotel the previous evening, before saying goodbye to Luke and Rachel, and then heading towards Bakewell.
However... I managed to get separated from evryone else soon after leaving. When we left the Premier Inn we were going to head off and find a petrol station before heading to Bakewell, but about 30 seconds after getting onto the A38 I felt this juddering coming from the back of my car and it was then I realised that my boot wasn't shut properly! Not wanting all my camping gear to end up in the middle of a busy dual carriageway I had to slow down to make sure it didn't fly open, and then jump out at the next set of traffic lights and quickly shut it. Unfortunately by then everyone else had booted it off, so eventually I managed to contact Patrick to tell him I'd meet up with everyone in Bakewell.
I arrived there and got parked up in a big field and then had a walk into the town centre to where everyone else was parked on the side of one of the roads, before jumping in with Ryder to try and guide everyone to the carpark where I was. Because I'd arrived in Bakewell from the other end to everyone else, I had a bit of a job trying to direct him there, and in the end (after a lap round the cattle market!) we ended up in the other side of the field - but with a river in the way and only a pedestrian bridge to get to the side I was in! Thanks to Lee for taking the photos here.
It's not a massive apot Bakewell, but somehow we did manage to get split up and lose each other about three times walking between the carpark and the pub.
After having a late lunch and all buying some of the big Bakewell tarts from the bakery it was time for us all to say goodbye to one another and go our various ways home.
I would like to end by thanking everyone for coming to the event and making the weekend what it was, and I hope you have enjoyed this write-up, and I hope that everyone enjoys everything that goes on this year also.
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