BAMFest

Back for a second visit to BAMfest, this time with the van. Decent camping, but you couldn't come off the site for the whole weekend, so I never got down in to Bedale, being too lazy to walk, plus the 2 stages on site were permanently playing. Slightly boring food supplies. I bought some garlic cheese which didn't travel!

My van is bang in the middle of this pic.

• Bands of note were - Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra, The Most Ugly Child, Fireside Knights, Backyard Buskers,  Henry Priestman.

• Bands who were 'meh' - Martin Stephenson, very odd man and too much talking. Jon Palmer band, fine except for the lead singers lisp.

• Band to avoid - Babajack. I actually got up and walked out.

• Band who wasn't a band - Les Barker, lovely monologues, very funny in a slow gentle style

With the Merry Men (and women)

Arrived at Sherwood Forest in drizzle and the rain stayed all evening and much of Saturday.

Pauline handed me a lemon cupcake when I arrived, delicious. Shame I spilt all my coffee granuals on the floor of my van! Stupid Dowe Egbert's stopper.

Need to find a word for the time interval between saying "ooh, peacocks!" and then saying "shut UP you flipping peacocks!"

Friday night was wet and blowy, I skipped the BBQ and ate in, but lots of people did persevere. A terrible night's sleep, with the attached awning bashing the sides of the van. At 3am I relented and went out to un-attach it and thwack some more pegs in round the edges. New wellies were a boon!




Slept a lot of the next day, and then went to the quiz in the evening. Hilarious, with a mix up between ladies fingers and killer whales, plus a maths question cancelled as it was so complicated Graham couldn't even read it out!

Next day, a photo before I set off:

On the way back, called in at Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre - AVOID! Horribly tacky, from the Robin Hood themed pub, to ye olde shoppe and paved paths.

<---- Robin Hood looked like Errol Flynn it seems.

As I was there, I followed the orange, fenced path to the Major Oak. It was pretty fantastic, much more impressive than a photo can show. So I did get something out of the £3 parking charge!

Helmsley - via Sutton Bank!

On Friday evening I headed up the A1, and took the road up Sutton Bank, which was a bit nerve-wracking but I did get up ok (albeit very slowly). I found Beadlam Grange, just the other side of Helmsley, and decided to have a night in with the chilli and beers I had stowed at the last minute.

 The site was nice and quiet, just a couple of other vans, and even with the heater it was a bit nippy under the clear skies. In the morning I went in to the teashop for a bacon butty - the place was packed!

 I went off to the International Bird of Prey Centre, in Duncombe Park, which was brilliant - much bigger than I expected with maybe 50 birds. One was a real character, who did a display every time anyone walked past his cage.

Watched a flying display in the sun and could feel my nose getting redder and redder.

I took a quick dash in to Helmsley which was very busy and devoid of any useful shops, so no sun-cream to be had. I could have gone to about 20 tearooms though. Instead I decided to go back to the site and stock up at Beadlam Grange. Had another night in scoffing cheese, pate, olives, yorkshire ale. 

In the morning, back in to the tearoom for a beautiful veggie breakfast pancake, which certainly set me up for the day.

Definitely a couple of good finds here, I should come back again some day.