On with the bags. I do have a pic somewhere of everything I was carrying. I can’t find it at the moment, but will stick it on if I can find it later.
Basically...
· 65l rucksack on my back (clothes & general camping gear)
· Small, day rucksack on my front (all camera gear, batteries, torches etc)
· Over left shoulder is my tent (a 4-man beast)
· Over my left shoulder is an Ikea bag (15 x Strongbow, 1l port, 3l wine)
Very manageable, I thought. The others are looking similar. Jo has probably packed lightest (very sensible).
Off we trek. Cars that we pass are still blaring out the second half of the England game, but our minds are now on other things.
It’s a bit of a walk until we start to see the site proper. The bags are getting heavier. Along the way we see others in similar situations. Trolleys do seem the way forward, but some have gone for very cheap ones. Ones that don’t agree with hard, uneven paths. Broken wheels are a common sight. Wheelbarrows also look to be quite popular.
On we go. Two choices A or D gate. Gate D takes us towards “Camp Triangle”, an area where quite a few people are heading who all follow “Efestivals” website forum. We decide against it. A hunch tells us that the site will be fairly busy and maybe best to go somewhere quieter(!)
Another bit of a trek, keeping with the steady flow, and we’re at gate A. Out with the ticket and it gets checked successfully. On with the wrist band and I squeeze through a turnstile.
We’re officially in!
A 2 minute break is required. The sun is still beating down and I’m regretting quite how much stuff I have. But, off we go again.
The next route that we take is a bit of a blur. In my head, I now know the layout of the site pretty well, but at that time it was not so clear. Basically, we walked round.... a lot.
The bags were getting increasingly heavy. All of us were suffering.
We tried to go into one ground that looked reasonably clear – sorry, disabled only. On to another one that had plenty of room – sorry, family only.
A steepish path leads off to the left. A trickle of people are heading up it, none coming back. This was our choice. This was hard work. Very hard work. No choice but to carry on.
At the top of the hill, we turn right and enter a camping field, a road leads through the middle. The field gently slopes down to the right, gently(!) up to the left. A hundred yards in and we pause for a break. There are no obvious places. I volunteer to leg it up the hill to see if there are any spaces nearer the top. Ditch the bags and up I go. I’m getting closer to the “super-fence”, but the tents are thinning. I think we can squeeze in here. Back down the hill to tell the good news.
One final drag up hill and we can set camp. Not quite as straight forward as we thought, but we do all find room and the tents go up. It’s such a relief to finally sit down on my stool and take it all in.
That is made up of these...
No comments:
Post a Comment