The first person to get stuck was Tim in the Disco, not sure if he has a mail access, I got stuck
first on Sunday.

After all the rain Battle was in superb condition, the sun even came out on Saturday so everything
was as perfect as perfect could be, that is until the sad news that the site was closing and this
was the last ever event.

So we made camp, had a few beers and set off to catch up Tim and Damian, they'd gone on ahead as
they were only down for the afternoon. As we got to the end of the tea hut run there they were, Tim
upto the chassis on his Disco (needs bigger tyres ;-) he was winching himself out, and had been
doing so for some time, sadly the electric winch had over heated and that was the end of that.

After a bit of messing about we dragged him out and proceeded on our way, bypassed the bomb holes as
we thought we'd keep it nice and easy to start, got as far as the bottom water run without incident.

The water run was deep, very deep, I was once again in the lead and just managed to get through with
the water lapping over the top of my bonnet, Heidi followed as did Lyndon, sadly the deep water put
a end to Lyndon's new V8, he got it running again but that was the begining of the end.

Tim bypassed the water but had managed to get stuck on his chassis again (need bigger tyres ;-)
Damian tried to drag him out but was getting stuck on a tree stump so Billy came to the rescue in
his 90.

Damian, Nick and Tim had to head home so the next plan was to get back to base, Tim was still having
clearance problems (needs bigger tyres ;-) so Pete Allen kindly tied the Disco to the back of his
Rangie and dragged him back onto firmer ground.

In the second group James had managed to destroy his CVJ, he too needed dragging back to camp, not
sure who did the honours, not the best of starts to the weekend.

Back at camp for much burning of food and beer, then as darkness sets in time for a night run, the
plan was to keep to the easy stuff. The problem was that all the easy stuff at Battle had long since
gone, so the once easy routes turned a bit nasty, both Ray and Mike lost tyres popping them off the
rim, Marc got crossed rutted in one section and proceeded to break his fairleader, generally it was
a not the best of night runs.

Sunday up bright and early and the sun was out, nice breakfast (thanks Paul) and off into the
wilderness, this time in smaller groups, we started with a nice run round the whole perimeter road,
keeping away from the really nasty stuff and we managed to get round without anyone getting stuck,
twas a really nice start to the day.

Back to camp for some 11's and to say hello to JAG who'd brought Daisy for some pasture and Alex
who'd brought his new Bob'd Rangie out for a play.

This time we thought we'd do the perimeter road backwards and all was going well till I managed to
get caught on my diffs in a rather nasty hole, having made it easier by clearing out most of the goo
both Heidi and then Lynne proved that it was not that difficult and sailed through. Further round
the course I once again got caught on my diffs, something that's not happened for ages, my own
fault, not enough speed !!

After being eaten alive by the Horse Flys's we decided to head back to camp, this by doing the tea
hut run backwards, fantastic !!

Once back at camp I'd had enough, had a cracking couple of days, the "3" was totally plastered in
deer poo but everything was still working so I thought I would quit while ahead.

A good end to 8 years of playing at Battle, thanks to all who came and lets all keep our fingers
crossed that Ian opens up a replacement soon.