This years Birty Dastards main event was their 10th Anniversary celebration. The weather was surprisingly good seeing we were expecting some rain – we always expect rain!
It being an Anniversary year the event was opened up to other clubs with additional food stalls and musical entertainment provided.
There were no major incidents thankfully; the truck that was on the verge of rolling over was stabilised and brought back down onto four wheels and the people that got stuck in the ‘sheep-dip’ were all laughed at and then winched out.
Although punches are put out on the site they are only used for people to try out different areas and to give a goal to reach. Most of the time they provide entertainment for the people stood around giving friendly advice / abuse 😉
Going to the same sites every year doesn’t really allow for a large variety of images. I tried to add the perspective of the slopes to the images this year but I think next years events I will try a different photographic tactic (unless it rains!). I have found that travelling around in one truck tends to mean that I focus on that truck. Walking the site instead of being driven may mean that I get to be in areas I may not normally find myself in.
So September was time again for the annual trip to Cheapfest – I know this blogs a little late! ;). The Friday turned out to be good weather for putting out the punches, the night however was horrendous rain, turning parts of the site to a muddy mess.
For the first time in a while there was a night drive up to the trig point and a small but impressive fireworks display. Rich lead the convoy of cars to the point. However, he didn’t lead back since he got lost. He won’t be allowed to forget that in a while!
For the off-roading trip this time around, we were off to West Harptree, a new site we had never been to. From the top of the site it looked quite flat but once down over the dip, there were loads of places for the trucks to play. I normally walk around a lot of the site but this one was a little too steep and rocky, so I had to get a lot of lifts. It was nice to go to a new area with new challenges and the guys think there is a lot more to explore next time.
Cheapfeat is the annual Birty Darstards event near Stourport-on-Severn. I was very pleased it was a dry and sunny weekend. I have to confess I don’t really like camping much and seeing there are no showers just portaloos, I’m just glad it wasn’t muddy!
The first task is always setting up the punches and then the trials sections. Punches are an orienteering punch attached to a measured length of string, secured to a stake or pole then hammered into the ground. The idea being the driver has to get the passenger wing mirror as close to it as possible for the passenger to punch the card attached to the truck. It’s all done in good fun and punches in more challenging locations on occasion miraculously move from their original starting point 😉 The trials section are a series of gates or markers which the driver has to pass through without touching them, stopping or reversing.
Some new friends were at this year’s event 🙂 They were very friendly and were quite happy with a scratch on the nose.
At the beginning of June I was invited by Birty Dastards to go off roading with them. I had never been off roading so this was going to be a whole new experience
