Bunkfest 25 - Sunday

 It was another busy day!

After breakfast I caught up with one of my friends on the campsite and having ascertained that they’d be at the Railway for midday decided that would be my first port of call. I’d bought a weekend pass so could have another ride for “free”. 

After having a beer or two and watching the Abingdon Morris we caught the bus up to the town. My first activity was some food, chips loaded with pulled pork and BBQ sauce, very nice but the sauce went everywhere! I cleaned up as well as I could but the walker is going to need a good wash when I get home. 

We stopped at the Bullcroft arena as friends of friends were playing later in the afternoon, a very enjoyable set by My Mate Dave, including a guest appearance by Chalky the cockatoo for their pirate song. After that I made my way back to the campsite and relaxed for a while before finishing the evening with a couple of pints in the clubhouse.  

A football match was in the telly, it always amazes me how rugby players will keep running with two or three of the opposition hanging on to them but footballers are capable of falling when a foot goes anywhere near them. One player did a lovely bit of acrobatics in falling which earned him 5.9 from the judges and a yellow card! 😀

Bunkfest 25 - Saturday

 

Today ended up being a bit truncated for a couple of reasons. 

After breakfast in the clubhouse I decided to wander up to the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway. I was stiff after the last couple of days exertions but hoped to walk it off (I didn’t). It’s one of the smaller heritage railways but friendly and pleasant, operated as usual today by two 08 shunters, one at each end, which avoids the need to run round. The train up to Cholsey was fairly empty but as it’s a connection to the main line it filled up with Festival goers heading to Wallingford. 

Once I’d had a look round their museum and shop, and had a coffee, I wandered to the nearest festival bus stop to ride up into the town. As the bus that was there was full I had to wait, but only about 15 minutes so not a problem*. I had a stroll round the site, and some lunch, then went over see what was happening at the second arena, the answer was not much! By this stage my left leg was getting very sore and the weather wasn’t great so I decided to get the bus back to the campsite. 

I did have a secondary motive - both Scotland and England were playing in the Women’s World Cup! As expected they both had comfortable wins, England by their highest ever World Cup score despite the fact it was essentially their second team that started the match. Plaudits do go to Samoa though, a part time team who’d mostly had to take leave from their jobs were always going to struggle but they played their hearts out, they may have only scored one penalty but it got the biggest cheers of the afternoon! 

Unfortunately the one act I wanted to see on the main stage, The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, start at 21:30, the last bus back to the campsite is at 22:00, there’s no way I can risk walking back so I’m having to miss them. It’s raining quite heavily anyway. 

*A couple of people in the queue were quite impressed by the fact my compact 3-wheel Walker has a seat - one of the rails I’m using it is I can sit down when in queues and the like. 

Bunkfest 25 -Friday

 Having managed to stay dry on Thursday things deteriorated. 

It had rained overnight, heavily at times, and was still bad when I wandered over the the clubhouse for breakfast. One full English and two coffees later it had largely stopped so I geared up to walk up into the town centre. This time I took the walker as, if nothing else, it means I’ve got a seat with me. 

I generally have a stroll round when I visit, I didn’t buy anything but a couple of items in the antique arcade were of interest, there was a good model of a gaff rigged pond yacht that I quite liked but it didn’t have a price on it and was too big anyway and another stationary steam engine model but at £290 it was too much without knowing if it worked. 

After a wander it started drizzling slightly, and I was in need of a sit down, so I found myself strangely attracted by the Old Post Office who provided s comfortable seat and a pint of the local Loddon Bitter. 

I continued the wander, ending up back at the Coach and Horses knowing that was the likely destination for friends, I was right ‘cause one of them arrived a few minutes later. The afternoon was then spent drinking the best London Pride* I’ve enjoyed for a long while and listening to the jam session until finally things deteriorated  and I decided I needed food. One huge pork sub roll with all the trimmings later I decided to head back to the site. The evening was spent with more beer at The on site ceilidh and jam session. 

Overall I’d managed a lot more walking than I’ve done for a while but I was struggling towards the end and the nerve signals to my left leg were definitely iffy. For the next couple of days the courtesy bus will be running so I’ll make use of that. 

*Pride used to be a very reliable beer but for a while it’s been a bit iffy. My local took it off in the end after several bad barrels- they get replaced but it makes stock control difficult. 

Bunkfest 25 -Thursday

Bunkfest is a free music and entertainment festival held annually in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, I’ve been a few times before and it’s generally good fun. 

As it’s not that far from home I left across lunch time, grabbed something to eat on the way, and arrived at the campsite not long after they officially opened. It was the first time I’d fully pitched the tent (in hindsight I really should have followed my instincts and made sure I’d had a complete dry run at home) so it took me a bit longer than I’d have liked but overall I was pleased, particularly as I’d just got the last bits in out of the car when the heavens opened for several minutes. 

The tent itself, ostensibly the three person model, is just about right for one and, the main reason I chose it, had standing headroom. I think I got the equipment about right, the electric pump and screw in tent pegs with an impact driver both eased the pitching considerably even if they do disturb the peace a bit. 

After relaxing and having something to eat I had a slow wander up into the town to the Coach and Horses where a friend was going to be joining in the jam session. I made a slight mistake, it was pleasant sitting outside while the session got going but when I did go in there was nowhere in the bar to sit so I ended up in the adjacent room; I could still hear most of it though and enjoyed both the music* and a couple of pints of Fullers ESB. Eventually I ran out of steam and decided to walk back - as a bit of an experiment I was only using a walking pole, not the walker, which was OK for the mile or so. I had to put a bit more air in the airbed once I got back - I’m not sure if it had lost some or if I’d just not got it well inflated to start with so I’ll monitor that. 

*Most of the music and singing was good but you always get some duds, in this case a, to my mind, murdered version of When the Boat Comes In at Les than half the speed I’d expect.