9 August 2012 (Thursday) - Off to Teston

The plan was to get to Teston Bridge Country Park by 10am, and we did just that. There was a minor disaster when we realised that we'd left the key to the car's roof box at home, but that was nothing that a quick phone call home wouldn't cure. Or nothing that a quick phone call home wouldn't cure if only people would actually answer the phone...

We met up with the warden as planned to collect the key, we met up with Dick, exchanged a few insults, and were putting tents up by 10am. For some strange reason our communal mess tent "Brown and Smelly" didn't go together as easily as it might have. I've no idea what the problem was. As we worked, so more campers arrived. Even more might have arrived earlier had the Rear Admiral not forgotten his air beds.

I made a start putting up the banners. They look good, but do take a little while to assemble. A dozen banners took over an hour, and then it was lunch time. With lunch scoffed we had time for a quick bit of geocaching; it transpired that there were three within two minutes of where we'd set up camp. And within a few minutes not only had I found three more geocaches but I'd made more converts to geocaching.

It was a hot afternoon, so much of the afternoon was spent slobbing and drinking lager. Not an unpleasant way to wait for tea time to come. Tea was worth waiting for; chicken strips was very nice. As was the home brew I'd knocked together for the holiday. And with tea eaten and washing up washed up we relaxed and had a few beers. There was a minor mishap when someone got themselves locked into the overflow car park. I didn't have the keys to that. But I was reliably informed that this was a problem which was soon cured. It must have been - within minutes of the problem arising I was drinking port. I quite like a bottle of port in a tent after dark...