Sun 8 May 2005: Dogging take 2!

Apparently booking the date a year in advance wasn't enough, as I see we now have two cruises on the same day! For those of you who fancy a more conventional "Spokemeister" cruise, this one has the lot: twisty country lanes, river fords, and several great opportunities to get lost!

Since there was some confusion about the start point last year *cough*Bloke*cough*, the run will start from the Cambridge services on the A14 at 10:00 on Sunday May 8 and follow roughly the same route as the last one. An extra stop will make sure it's long enough this time... fnaar!

The Cambridge services are clearly marked along the A14. If you're coming up the M11, it's on the left about 3 miles after the M11 becomes the A14. If you're coming from the A1, it's on the right, about 10 miles after the big Spittals interchange outside Huntingdon where the A14 and the A1126/A141 meet.

Please fill up as you will not complete the run on half a tank of fuel!

We will be eating at the Cross Keys in Pulloxhill again.

Menu:

Vegetarian options are available, as is a children's menu, please contact me if you need them!

Starters :

Soup....................1.95
Duck Pate.............3.50
Garlic Mushrooms...3.50
Prawn Cocktail.......3.50
Trout with salad......3.75
Monterey Melter.....3.75
Combo..................7.25

Main courses :

Steaks (served with potatoes or fries and salad or veggies)
16oz Tbone............11.65
10oz Sirloin..............9.55
8oz Fillet.................10.25
Gammon..................6.95
(with pineapple or egg)

Sauces...................0.95
(Pepper, Diane, Garlic butter)

Main courses............6.95
(served with potatoes or fries and salad or veggies)
Half roasted chicken
Chicken Kiev
Cajun Chicken
Peppered Turkey breast

Fish (served with potatoes or fries and salad or veggies)
Rainbow trout............7.25
Poached salmon.........6.95
Plaice........................6.95
Scampi......................6.95

Lunches....................5.95
(served with veggies and roast potatoes)
Roast beef
Leg of lamb
Leg of pork with stuffing
Quarter roast chicken
Steak and kidney pie

Desserts :

Ice Creams...............1.95
Cherry Pie.................1.95
Choc Fudge Cake.......1.95
Cheese and Biccies....2.75

The run should start at 10:00 and will involve about 5 hours of driving and 3 hours of breaks at various places, leading to a finish time of about 18:00. However, since we will always be close to either the A1 or the M1, there should be no problems with peeling off earlier if you need to!

How to join in
Please PM me if you are interested in attending with details of
- your message board username (e.g. Zmurf)
- name of driver and passenger (e.g. Tim and Irene Cullis)
- model, colour and reg number (e.g. M roadster 3.2, Laguna Seca Blue, A1ABC)
- mobile phone number (e.g. 07999 999999)

I will then add you to the list below of confirmed participants. I need to confirm lunch orders in advance, so please don't just cancel or appear without reasonable warning. Lunch orders must be in by the 5th of May -- 05/05/05 -- easy to remember, so please do!

Remember to bring your cameras, you never know what we might come across... fnaar!

Confirmed participants so far are:

Spokey - Z1
b7 eater - M5
Mrs b7 eater - E21 Baur
Rc & Linzi - M Roadster
dario - Z4
CTB - Z3
stevo555 - Alpina Roadster S

Unconfirmed participants so far are:

RobBruce - Z3


Edited by spokey

oops sorry mr spokey didnt see your arranged meet so i will change mine

We was just going to meet up and arrange what we all wanted out of the proposed essex region!

I will make sure i do my homework next time!!!

No offence meant

Bump. Again.

A great big thanks to Dario, Rc, Linzi, CTB, RobBruce, Jungle, Stevo555, B7ETA and Jacquie and all the guests and kids for such a great day out -- I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

We met at the Cambridge services on the A14, and left very late, due to *cough*Rob*cough* not filling up. Unfortunately, the traffic was very much against us when we crossed into Bedfordshire, and a lot of the roads were not as much fun at 50 as they might have been at ... uhhhh ... 60!

Anyway, we got to the dogging car park, but were unable to spot any fun things happening.


Nosing around...


The Reservoir Doggers


I'm well hard, me!

So we headed back down the hill to the Cross Keys, home of the fearsome dragon who must not be crossed. It was here where we discovered another fearsome thing: CTB's appetite! After scoffing a two-person combo starter on his own, he tucked into a roast dinner AND dessert! Here we can see him eyeing up RobBruce's plate and Rob eating at warp speed to make sure it doesn't get nicked!





After lunch we went for a nice little bimble round country lanes and wound up at Wrest Park, and they were very nice to us.


They let us park on the lawn!


This is the back yard -- big enough to wear the kids out!


Nice little place, don't you think?

After coffee we headed off for the closing stages of the cruise. This bit was a belter, I really enjoyed it, and I think everyone else did too!

Linzi and Rc ran out of petrol, so we thought we'd lost them, but they filled up and found us again. But the devastation of Linzi's parking will remain with me for ever:



She put a brave face on it as she raced away, though:



All in all, a hell of a day!

PS I'm just kidding about CTB's appetite and Linzi's parking!



More stories and pix here