Friday
We set off from Oxford on Friday evening after work and drove along the lovely A40 to Little Dewchurch. We stopped at a pub for some dinner along the way so we had to drive the last bit in the dark. It was pretty eerie as the last little bit was along some narrowish country roads with no street lights and very high hedges on either side. When we arrived we saw about three tipis and a central cooking and eating area. The campfire was burning and it certainly felt like the start of summer was on it's way. Peter and I dropped off our stuff in Yonder Yurt and then joined in the evenings entertainment. Claire's Dad had made a brilliant punch which was far too easy to drink!
Eventually the party moved from the dinning tables to the campfire and the guitars and drums came out for a sing along. Excellent fun! Further punch was consumed and then Al brought out his fire poi's and gave us a demo, I was thinking that that looks like fun and Peter suggested I have a go, so off I went. All was going well, I managed a few swings and then they got a little tangled behind my back and I caught on fire. Strangely enough I didn't feel like I was on fire and it wasn't until my polar fleece was put out and I could feel the scorching on my fleece that I believed that I had been on fire. We played with my night Frisbee (or should I say FlightLight) which also proved to be great fun. The only problem was that you couldn't see a) the person who you were throwing to and b) the vast number of trees around the place. Eventually we headed of to sleep at about 2am and my first night in a yurt was COLD!!!!
Saturday
Surprisingly I woke up early on Saturday morning (may have had something to do with the vast amount of birds singing away!) This was my first view of the camp in daylight, so so pretty.
Yonder Yurt (Our home for two nights)
The central area
After a bit of a clear up of last nights events and some lovely breakfast Peter and I headed off in search of a shop to buy some soap. On this drive we discovered just how pretty the area was and also how much farming went on around the area. We happened to take a wrong turn on the way to the shop and came across a lovely little village with a church with no roof. We couldn't resist doing the tourist bit and hopped out for a gander. It turned out the church was abandoned due to flooding and it's just been left, pretty cool.
After our little tiki tour we headed back to the camp and then walked down to to local pub for lunch. It was totally lovely to walk through the fields and end up at a lovely pub and have some lovely food. We spied a lovely church and couldn't resist going to have a closer look.
Once we had climbed back up the hills, past the lambs, we met up with some of the other people and headed to Broome Farm for a tour of the cider farm and some very yummy and not so yummy cider tasting.
One of many cider orchards
Perry Trees in bloom (perry being like cider but made with pears)
Afternoon Tea and Cider Tasting
Following our lovely cream tea and of course some cider purchasing we headed back to the camp for the main event, the Indian party. Peter and I were very slack with our costumes (we just had a two feather headdress each), however there was plenty of effort from other people on site. This night followed a fairly similar patten to Friday however I didn't manage to set fire to myself and we also went to bed a little earlier then 2am.Some of the better costumes
The Sunset
The Campfire
Sunday
Claire had in mind that each tipi/yurt would cook their own breakfast over a campfire on the Sunday morning. So while I was lying in blissful and warm slumber my yurtmates were starting the fire and getting the breakfast started. Needless to stay we all got up pretty quick and I think our yurt did pretty well to get a two course breakfast done in reasonable time. Following breakfast we packed up and headed back to Oxford.
It was a totally lovely weekend and great to meet so many lovely friendly (if a little mad) people.
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