Curry Camp

 

July 2008 - Highclere Farm Park

 

Our annual curry camp, always arranged to take place in mid-summer so that those balmy evenings can be enjoyed to the full - someone really should inform the weather that this is what we expect ! It really wasn’t so bad, fine on the Friday for pitching up, dry and sunny on the Saturday, although blowing a near gale, but unfortunately very cold on the Saturday evening and wet and windy on the Sunday.

 

Highclere Farm Park a very good choice for caravaners and tenters alike, located just this side of Beaconsfield, only takes around an hour from MK. A large flat field, quite open, which didn’t help with the high winds, with lots of open space for the kids to run around and very good washing facilities. Why can't you get a tent peg in the ground over two inches deep ? Very strange, perhaps it was a large concrete car park once upon a time.

 

Eight families from the club came along, two caravans, one trailer tent and five tents. We created a nice big circle taking over one corner of the field. Although camping, we like a few creature comforts, like electric hook-up, but this proved a bit difficult as there wasn't enough to go around. We coped though as those, not so hardy souls in their caravans, ran off their generators. Enough power from somewhere for Richard to try out his new satalite dish ! Reg came along on the Saturday and stayed in, what looked like, one of the farm's stables, but he said it was adequate for his needs.

 

Saturday night, curry night. Where would we be without Graeme to organise us all, quite hungry I would suspect, not least becuase he's normally the only one sober enough to drive. It was far easier to create ourselves a 'set menu' and then take everyones preference. This was duly ordered and collected, a combination of chicken korma, lamb bhuna and lamb madras.

Because of the inclement weather it wasn't possible to all gather in the large gazebo erected in the centre of the circle, which was a shame, as we normally get a good fire going and huddle around. Instead we lined up and was served our curry in Richard B's caravan awning and then took it off to a place where it wouldn't freeze to the plate or get blown off it.

 

All things considered, everything we ordered from the local restaurant was very good and there were lots of clean plates. This really does show the vesatility of a curry, lets face it, you wouldn't order roast beef, two veg and yorkshire from somewhere and then sit in a campsite and eat it would you ?

 

After eating, a few of us trecked across some fields, up an overgrown path containing no less than eight stiles, to the local pub. A decent place, with a good selection of beers, but pricy, no surprise given the part of the world we are in. Who cares, a few moments out of the wind and in the warm, very warm, so warm, one or two clothing layers, out of the three or four we were wearing, had to be peeled off.

 

Most things are what you make them, a weekend with a group of friends, in the freash air, with something to eat and drink, means a pretty good time was had by all.