Matthew's Touring Diary

Notes from this trip: Hello again, this trip was our second trip to a motorsport even held in Abingdon,Oxfordshire called the "Abingdon Car-
Nival" both my uncle and friend compete in the event so we go to spectate and photograph. With there being six of us we decided to use our Ford Galaxy Ghia which still tows our new Senator Oklahoma within the 85% weight guideline. We had a great journey with very little traffic and
made great time -arriving at the site earlier than we imagined. On the way we stopped off at Tib-shelf motorway services for some sandwhices
& a flask that we had prepared. The car towed really well apart from the squeeking coming from its rear springs, this was due to the rear of the
car sagging (although our noseweight was within the cars limit!). After arriving at Bladon Chains caravan club site we got set up on a grass
pitch at the far end of the site - which was no problem for this time of year as it was blazing with sun and there wasnt any rain forecast. We put
our new stone wall effect Pyramid wind-break up and its brilliant!! So convincing that we actually had a warden come over and check it wasnt a
real wall, he was stunned by it! Later that night we went for a meal and took our grandparents to their hotel and my friend travelled to the caravan
site to see us. The next morning we woke up, had some breakfeast and headed down into Abingdon where the first event would take place
a sprint. Both my uncle & friend were taking part in two different classes, we all enjoyed the day... and my uncle accidentally took out the flying
finish equiptment - oops! My best friend came first in his class and beat the driver behind him by a number of seconds, he got a wonderfull
trophy and was over the moon. We returned to the caravan after stopping at the local Supermarket - where we bought some pizza's to cook
in our caravans oven! The oven did not dissapoint and cooked the pizza's brilliantly... well mam did :) We then went for a walk around the site
and retired to bed. The next morning we woke up and headed for Abingdon once again, today the rally would be taking place and my uncle was
driving but my friend was not (the car he was meant to be driving broke down). We arrived at the air-field to find that an accident had taken
place that morning, wherby a car had knocked down and injured 3 marshalls at the flying finish. Two were air-lifted to hospital with non-life
threatning injuries and the other was taken to hospital via ambulance with minor injuries. Everyone thought the event was going to be cancelled
but in the end with a slight change of the flying finish the event was re-started so that five of the eight stages could take place. It was a good
day - James an I (my friend) took photographs throughout the event and my uncle had to retire on the 4th stage due to rear suspension
problems after overcoming previous fuel problems in the rally - a great shame. We then returned to the caravan that night for a bbq which was
also really nice. After that we went up to the caravan site playing field (at the top of the site) and played badminton. Then a we went for a
final site walk as we were due to return home the morning after. The morning after we woke up and had some breakfast, and then mam
and my sister when to pick my grandparents up whilst me and dad pitched up - we had the caravan spun around ready to hook up
by the time they returned to the caravan site! Perfect. We got hooked up just as it was starting to rain - we then left the site as it started to rain
really heavy. When we got a few miles from Silverstone we hit local flooding, the water was higher than the curbs in some places however after another few miles it had cleared up and we were in sunshine once again. We stopped off at Tib-shelf services again and made some
sandwhiches and used the flask we prepared. We then got on our way and got back home again making great time. A very enjoyable weekend.

Short Site Review: When we arrived at the site we drove around looking at which pitches were available, we decided upon a pitch in the
bottom right hand corner of the site next to the woodland dog walk. All of the pitches on site were well laid out and well maintained and most
pitches were gravel hard standing however there were some grass pitches. Pitches 57 - 62 were best suited for smaller caravans as the
pitches weren’t very long. The toilet block on site was very clean and placed well for being a central place to all pitches; the wardens were
friendly and helpful too. The site had an information hut next to the reception/site office and it had plenty of information about places to visit and
things to do in the local area. The site had a nice Woodland dog walk, where you could walk into Woodstock alongside Blenheim Palace or go
the other way and you can walk into Baldon to see Winston Churchill’s grave. Overall the site was very nice and we would recommend it to
anyone, but do remember it’s a Caravan Club Members only site.