A better venue for this time of year you won’t find, with an onsite cabin for meeting up with friends in the evenings. This is just what we did on Thursday night and again with the poor workers after their weeks work on Friday night.

On Saturday a lovely autumn walk was to be had in the Sherwood Forest Visitors Centre where you can see Robin Hood’s Major Oak. The get-together on Saturday had a Robin Hood theme with a fancy dress competition and a raffle organised by Janet and Jim to rob the rich and give to the poor! Well, the junior member’s charity any way! Stewart Sellers brought his large griddle and by now well known Lincolnshire sausages, he was helped by Little John or was it Jim and Poppa Smurf?

Thank you to Janet and her great team of ladies for the accompaniments and pudding.

Ken Wootton took flag on Sunday morning and gave our thanks to Janet and Jim and their helpers for a super weekend.

On Friday night 19 vans arrived at Shardaroba Caravan Site near Teversal, although 1 member did turn up at the Rally Marshals house instead of the rally site, having put in the wrong postcode in his ‘Sat Nav’ (Boys and their toys).

We were welcomed in the evening with hot soup & a roll, which was much appreciated with the temperatures plummeting to well below ZERO (For the second year running).

We awoke to thick frost and beautiful sunshine with the promise of a group walk in the afternoon up to the top of the hill in the adjacent country park. This was to give us an appetite for the pub meal in the evening. We took over the pub restaurant with the choice of food being Scampi, Sausages, Fish or Homemade Steak Pie (delicious) all this for £3 a head and followed by a choice of sweets for those with a sweet tooth amongst us. To cap off the evening we had a recital of jokes by non other than Mr Jones (Geoff) plus an excellent joke by Master Daniel Sellers.

Sunday morning the sun was shining down on us as we made our way to Flag for the thank you’s. Steve did apologise for the lack of snow this year but is hopeful for next year.

The Teenage charity fundraiser was won by Emily Sellers (ladies watch), John Vernon (gents watch) & Pauline Bayliss (bottle of wine).

Pauline & Albert Sanderson were presented with a Wedding Anniversary card (47 Years) & Quatro a birthday card (10 years). Phil & Janet Davison (Maureen Sinclair’s sister) were presented a 10th rally plaque despite owning a Compass motorhome.

Thanks again Steve, Petra & Jordan for a pleasant ‘chill out’ rally.

Jim and Janet’s cheerful Christmas lights guided us in to this site and it was a nice surprise to find so many of the lovely crowd there who we had met on our first Elddis rally in France in the summer, though not the same weather!

Les and Sandra had even made the 600 odd mile journey from their home in France.

This was our first visit to the Lincoln Christmas market and it did not disappoint. The park and ride took the worry out of parking, and the stalls clustered around the cathedral and castle grounds offered many ideas for Christmas gifts. When darkness fell the lights came into their own and, added to the music broadcast all round the streets, made a very seasonal atmosphere. An experience hopefully to be repeated next year when Hazel and Len take over from Jim and Janet who are stepping down from running this rally.

The meal on Saturday night was an experience never to be forgotten. Lots of laughter and a lovely social evening and all for half price! Trust me, you had to be there. Pass the gravy please!!

All the above, together with wine and cake for Pauline’s birthday at one coffee evening and Janet’s excellent Christmas cake at Flag, made this a very enjoyable rally for the 17 vans attending – thank you to all concerned.

For those ralliers who are brave enough to turn out at this time of year the weekend proved to be most enjoyable. The site at Ripon is close to the canal and had some barges moored up, with beautiful scenery all around.

Harrogate and Knaresborough are close at hand and were ideal for some Christmas shopping.

On the Friday evening we were welcomed by David and Gwyneth in the hall which is on site. The tables were laid out with food supplied by John and Ann Harrison to celebrate John’s 65th birthday. Have I come on the wrong day? I thought to myself. I had been told that John’s birthday was tomorrow. Now for the dilemma on how to sneak back to the caravan to change into something more suitable and to get his card without anyone noticing! It was however announced by David that this was a practise run for his birthday tomorrow.

Saturday evening and we were all once again in the hall, this time dressed suitably for the occasion. The food and drinks were once again provided by John and Ann. We were treated to an excellent meal, well done and thank you to you both. The evening was most enjoyable with John and Ann’s family joining us along with David’s sister. David entertained us with a quiz of ‘music for adverts’ and a most unusual quiz of guess who the plastic carrier bag belongs to. John and Ann were presented with some Edinburgh Crystal wine glasses from all who attended the rally for the occasion of his birthday (see photo).

Flag was also held that evening with Janet Jones officiating. Janet thanked David, Gwyneth, John and Ann for an excellent weekend and welcomed two new ralliers who lived in Ripon.