Party In Pembrokeshire

Wet. That is the only way to describe the experiences of Hiking Club members last week. Events kicked off at Alton Towers on Wednesday when the new committee were officially initiated with a soaking on the log flume. The Rapids and Ripsaw ensured that the clothes clinged well in to the night at the Rig where the President, Richard, demonstrated his fascinating new pulling technique by showing an unsuspecting (eternal?) 30-year-old birthday-girl the rides he had been on. The Teacups, one of the few rides the wussy Treasurer, Matt, agreed to go on, proved to be the most sick-provoking of the day. That was 1-0 to the girls because the lads pleaded sickness as a defence for their unco-ordinated spinning action. Lisa, Claire (social sec) and myself were left dismayed at the wild accusations made by Alton Towers’ staff who claimed that we were “too old” to enjoy the bouncy castle. Bollocks! Our top tip for anyone planning a trip on Nemesis or Oblivion is to dispell any ride-induced fears by singing ‘American Pie’ as loud as possible for the duration of the ride. It works, honestly!

On arrival at our campsite in St Davids on the Pembrokeshire coast on Friday night, a moonlit stroll to the beach with beer in hand started the weekend as we meant to go on. “Wake up it’s a beautiful morning” and “always look on the bright side of life” were Matt’s songs of choice for the alarm call on Saturday morning. Emerging from our tents we realised the irony as we were expecting to see the stunning coastline and blue skies, but were confronted with fog, which meant even from our clifftop perch we couldn’t see the sea. Spirits and the weather lifted by the time we set of for a walk on the coastal path. Before lunch with the sun blazing the clothes came off. Lucy assures me that her powerful zoom lense will have recorded the skinny-dipping in all its splender. A lunch break at a pub in Solva gave us some much-needed chance to slap on the suncream and fill up the water pistols, although for those of us that are still pink and peeling it would seem to have come too late.

The evening got of to a burning start with a BBQ, campfire and plenty of candles on Chris and Mark’s ‘morning after Mandy’ birthday cake. The beach played host to the evenings entertainments, including a surprise cream attack which made twister a very slippery experience, myself and the other unsuspecting victims decided that a midnight dip in the sea was the only cure for a creaming. Uncontrollable laughter was heard coming from the less foolish members huddled around the campfire as, scantily clad, we ran into the sea.

Sunday brought continuing sunshine. The hardcore hikers trekked up the nearest hill leaving the rest of us chilling on Whitesands beach, where the girls nobly let the lads restore some pride by allowing them to win at rounders and volleyball. One last trip to the pub, after scouring the coast for food and it was off back to Nottingham (where the travellers on S5 very narrowly avoided another creaming after they all crashed out!) It remains only to say thanks for a great week guys, especially to Dermot for his generousity not only flashing his body, but also his money when he bought us all ice creams (fancy sponsoring the club?)

Becky ( Secretary )