I hadn't actually got round to doing the Autumn NABD rally before, so i committed myself to go this year.
I left home early saturday morning and headed south, I found the area easy enough, but got a little lost finding the entrance to Cornbury Park , once found it was a picturesque ride to the rally site. I was a bit wary because it was raining most of the way down and the fog was a bit of a pea souper. but i needn't have worried, the weather was cloudy with odd fine rain showers, once onsite and parked up i unloaded my trusty wheelchair and headed around the camping area (before everyone could wake up and see me drooling over their machines) took plenty of pics (as you can see) and carried on my merry way, I was finding it hard going getting round and thought that maybe i wasn't as well as i thought i was, but it turned out that the field was a tad pitted, i was quite surprised especially as this was a NABD rally, it was one of most difficult fields i have had to cope with for a long time, although it was bad, it didn't ruin what was already turning into a very good time, i met up with loads of old friends and some new one, i eventually met Bobbie and Sara, by sheer coincidence they were coming out the tent as i passed ( i assumed they had heard i was on my way and were making a discreet exit, but i was to quick for them :-) ), then it was up to the man area where i met up with Gypsy and Summer, Wynne, Grav, Freak, Wankle, Saxman and Sprintbint, Beemer, STEViE, and loads more.
The custom show was on and there were some fine machines (see pictures), then the music was on, and what a fine line up it was, first up was Helena, I had never heard he before, but she was fantastic, nice laid back and chilled out music,which was followed by STEViE ( One Bloke One Mandolin), now if you haven't seen STEViE before then you are missing out on a rare treat, with just himself, his mandolin, and his husky voice he performs a brilliant set, worthy of any event, and he even gets round more than I do (which is saying something). closely following were a young band called 'Junction' now people who know me know that rock music isn't really my ideal cup of tea, i will listen to a few tracks, but a complete set is a rare thing indeed, well 'Junction' certainly were in the category and kept me seated (no pun intended) for the whole set and even had me baying for more. That in itself no mean feat, but they were worthy of all the praise they got.
at this stage i went back outside to find out that it had been hammering it down, but at least it had stopped, more partying continued all around the site, and i eventually found my way back to the main marquee, where T bone were playing, i managed to cop the last song of their set only, Next on was High Voltage a glam rock band, these were fantastic and kept the crowd moving from start to finish, and were then bullied (errr i mean asked) to keep coming back on for more encores, and fine ones they were, The Beer Monsters came on last and i managed the first three songs before it was time to head of home, it was a long day and a Trip to Brighton for the Brighton Burn-up was planned for the next day (see pics here) so i was in bed at 3am sunday and up again at ungodly hours for the Brighton Run.
points to note about this rally for me, was the ground conditions was difficult for those walking, but for wheelchair users, it was very very difficult (to the point where I have blisters even though I had my gloves on), and would ask if anything could be done about this next year?
BUT saying that it was still a fantastic rally and despite that problem, it is still worthy of a 'definite' rally in my calendar.

Yoda