Animals Fae Naboombu
20th Anniversary Rally
Rothesay, Isle of Bute
July 6th 7th & 8th 2007
I’d been looking forward to this one for a long time, for two reasons, one was because one of Scotland’s premier clubs was organising it so it was bound to be not too shabby, and secondly because I’d never been to Bute before. It’s good to visit new places, keeps it fresh. Places like Millport, although good do get a bit samey if they’re on year after year.
And despite ordering, for us a healthy number of advance (cheaper) tickets we had a number of casualties on the Saturday morning. Two breakdowns, another deciding not to bother as the rain at Kelso had put him off camping for life and most sadly a family bereavement which was only found out about when we stopped for petrol in darkest Ayrshire and resulted in a u-turn for member involved.
Still, at least Ross the New Age Mod had been “representing” the club on the island since the Thursday and once he gets over his fondness for throwing up in his tent we’ll be proud to proclaim him as one of us.
The remaining few, despite the normal repairs en-route timed the ferry well, we only had to wait 10 minutes and we were off. A nervous journey over due to a very short GS side stand was made bearable with some liquid refreshments whilst catching up with the rest of the scooterists. The 30 or so scooters on this ferry the focus of plenty of flashing tourist cameras, thankfully the sea wasn’t too rough and there was no sound of a falling over Vespa.
On first appearances Rothesay was much bigger than I expected, a few miles from the ferry we hit the campsite, thankfully only muddy in places and we had made it without a single spot of rain which was a miracle in itself. A friendly welcome and an excellent “goody bag” was received. First sight of Ross with his unusually unstraightened hair was a source of much amusement. Once the very new tent was finally erected after much head scratching, with no help at all from Ross & Julie who decided to pull up some deckchairs and enjoy the spectacle rather than help, rascals, we didn’t really hang around on site for long as there was valuable drinking time being lost.
After waiting for a bus for an eternity (wasn’t really but it seemed like it as we were gasping) it was into the town, bite to eat in the slowest chip shop ever, God just wasn’t for letting us get a drink anytime soon it seemed, a quick phone call and it was off to meet up with Ross, Raymie, Pigeon, big Ken, the Belgium lot and Shep & Co. Amazingly Olivier our friend from Belgium was directing us around town with his hand drawn map of all 19 pubs in Rothesay. I think all but one was sampled and that was just an oversight. Highlight in one pub was a piper who treated us to a good few tunes and in return received a good few whisky’s for his troubles, he was due to play at a wedding later, not sure if he made it. Must remember though that pipers and small pubs don’t go, my ears were ringing and I kept hearing Scotland the Brave for a good hour or so after. It was a good merry bunch we had wandering around the town and a good laugh was had by all. The natives were very friendly which is always good. Back on site Mr S had his Armando’s entered into the custom show but failed to win anything blaming a west coast bias. I’ve also seen photos and videos of some fun and games which people were getting well into the spirit of. Nothing to do with the cheap drink being sold on site obviously.
Not sure what time we eventually staggered into The Pavilion, an excellent sized venue, with a humungous “Welcome To The Isle of Naboombu” banner hanging from the front, a nice touch ! It was busy enough but could obviously take a lot more if needed. The usual mixture of mingling and chatting was interrupted with frequent visits to the bar. The band Scarlet Blue who had reformed for this one off performance played an excellent set and went down very well. The dance floor filled up nicely after the band with the usual sounds being played and then the band came back on around midnight for a couple of numbers. An instrumental I think at first, I thought it was a mistake to come back on as the dance floor which had been packed emptied rapidly. But then I took it all back as the lads done an Ocean Colour Scene classic which I really enjoyed and the dance floor filled up nicely again. Sad to see the band go but what a way to go.
Not much to say after that, I have vague visions of a massive pizza, walking the few miles back to the site and chatting to a few people around the tents before collapsing at what time I know or care not.
The Sunday drive home was an adventure in itself, stopping every few miles as one of us couldn’t cope with the after affects of too much partying. It took us 3 times as long to get home as it should have. I won’t embarrass the person involved, but she rides a GS scooter with her hair cut neat, feeling rough in the summer heat. (Townshend eat your heart out !)
So, to summarise, what a way to celebrate your 20th. Rothesay was an excellent venue, bags of potential. Big thanks to the AFNSC. What better place to celebrate your 21st, eh lads? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Al Bundy.