Fairies and waterfalls in the mountains...Part 1...(it's bound to drag on)

So it finally arrived, the big '50' Nantcol meet.  What started as a random comment by Cathy 'I want to dress as a fairy'....quickly developed into a camping meet where a load of solo campers, middle aged women and their reluctant OH's all agreed it would be fun to dress as fairies and elves or anything quite magical (no unicorns were in attendance).
Now the men weren't as forthcoming with the enthusiasm, so we were a bit thin on the ground for nights in shining armour, but you can't keep a good piss head down and the women were all game for it

I arrived late Thursday before the droves arrived, Anne and Steve were firmly established on their pitch and gave me much appreciated fairy food (beef curry and rice) to keep me going

Cmon hurry up and pitch our house....

All pitched Friday evening and completed Saturday morning - not used to this kitchen tent set up now, really should have dragged Tillie there :(

Not a bad sized solo pitch

Barley decided it would be a good time to develop chronic lameness, and Homer was walking around with his zimmer frame, so I dragged my 2 labrador crocks up the hill just for the sadistic pleasure of it.

you do realise we have got to walk all the way back down now ??

I popped out Friday morning and got some provisions then took a shortcut back. A crap shortcut.  I was within 3 miles of 'home' and managed to take 45 mins to get there. However I am now an incredibly talented gate opener and shutter.  To make the detour even more excruciating Homer howled every time i got out the car to open the 20 gates that lined the road around cwm nantcol (cwm contrary to popular belief doesn't mean 'valley', it means 'massive detour around stupid skinny road where sheep stare at you and locks the gates quick before you come round the corner')

crap shortcut scenic route with 300 gates and not much road

Overlooking the campsite (was a lovely view and well worth the 45 mins excursion. I am lying) I could see everyone setting up. So I hid for 20 mins till it looked like no one needed any help

Drove down and parked up as I had to 'bagsy' a pitch for my daughter Christie who was arriving Saturday - and would chew my ear off if I didnt save her a pretty patch of grass, within reach of my cooking and kitchen facilities so that she didn't need to bring much

Everyone arrived stress-free and no diasters to report... (well apart from Rach's camper blowing up and getting a hire car, Intents shedding her trailor all over the A road, Margo's lights not working with the trailor, which meant ditching it and buying a roof box, Ali's exhaust dropping off and requiring welding en route...everything seemed to go to plan nicely)

Sensibly Margo arrived in plenty of time to get pitched and settled...about 10pm....they started to pitch the bell...

Daughter (Christie) and her OH arrived the next morning and promptly did their 20 minute Mr Men pitch and were settled

Ali had deserted her husband and brought along the little un, Tom.  Using the invaluable childcare manual, 'The Oldham guide to parenting', she soon had little Tom settled with his can of Koppaberg whilst she pitched up

In fairness Ali thought the can was empty (which it was cos he had drank it all) and may have been slightly my fault for leaving it nice and handy while we helped Ali pitch.

And so with the arrival of Gilly & Chris, Flogs & Liz, Christie & Matt, Gulliver, Anne & Steve, Intents and half the valleys kids (some of them she does actually own), Margo & Jerry, Andcow and Paul, Cathy & Alan, Jon & his lad, Rach & Dan, Tim the Giant, Ali & Tom, and a few more kids thrown in belonging to them all.  My OH, Steve arrived after everyone else to ensure he had no involvement in pitching or setting up the tent (by my request)
The names have not been changed for reasons of anonymity, I don't know their real names.  I think Steve is called Steve though

The forecast for the Sunday which was to be the 'Fairy Day' was abysmal 6 months prior to us going, but amazingly we woke up to blue skys and an evasive round hot object, which is believed to be known as the 'sun' south of Europe.

So with a greasy spoon breakfast down our necks, the frivolity began.  First up to the Anne face painting salon was Gilly (we all hid behind bushes to see what she came out looking like first)

Once Gilly was finished with a nicely painted new persona we all started fighting to be next in line

It was one thing having painted faces but then we were all a bit shy about getting changed. Except Gilly. Yup first up in full fairy attire came our sado masochistic whipping fairy

So we all went for it and changed into our 'outfits'.  So ready to party, my 50th demure party dress was yanked onto me by steve (too bloody tight so I couldn't breathe for the first few hours)

sitting on cock rock

Time to hit the river...

 

I have no idea what I am doing either...

Homer obviously wasn't that impressed

 A sad but kind of glowy moment, where we all stopped to remember Glynnis who we 'lost' last year.  I'm sure she was wearing a tutu looking down on us

After the 'photoshoot' we all caned the booze, a game of musical chairs (where my cruel daughter tried to push me out - no decency in letting birthday girl win at all)  At least Barley looks horrified (see I brought one of them up correctly)

And the bestest ever birthday cake made by Rach!

My very own edible Tillie!

We were all a bit shy about the dancing..but guess who got up and danced first?? Pure class Gilly's version of Gangam style fuelled by a few glasses of vodka....

Unfortunately I never got the video of Gilly head banging to 'I am the music man', but I'm sure it will appear one day on youtube...

I could go on forever loading pics, so I stuffed them all into a video (10 minutes of it....) if you haven't got bored of us all yet!

Was a brilliant day, thank you everyone!