SHOPStock: Review!

Well well, SHOP held it's second festival over this bank holiday weekend and rather than camp in SHOP like last time, this time, we actually left the shop - on bicycles - and camped in a field! Although, it should be pointed out at this point, that not everyone cycled as was the original plan due to - in no particular order - bad backs, lack of bicyles, lack of cycling proficiency and car boot sales.

From Bristol, we cycled to Walnut Tree Farm, 9 miles outside of the centre, as the crow flies. The route we took on the way out saw us through some lovely North Somerset countryside, with a rest stop at Chew Valley Lake. On arrival at the farm, we pitched up and then played some ball games before having a massive BBQ. To walk off said BBQ, we took an evening trip down country lanes to a 'local' pub about a mile or so away. There we endured terrifying stories of foot-eating rats and rampaging cows and even more horrifying than that - tall tales from Chasers Nightclub in Kingswood.

Back at camp it was time for a camp fire and more stories - of the 'who can embarass themselves the most' kind, rather than the Jackanory kind.

Come morning, a camp breakfast in the sunshine was on the menu, before it was time to get back in the saddle for a mostly downhill cycle home via a different national cycle route. All that was left to do was have a last pint before finally admitting SHOPStock was over. For this year...

Setting off on Sunday, with the open road, the odd hill and a just one fall ahead of us

The cycle path along the river and out of BristolA brief stop to coordinate the four wheeled contingency in Chew Magna

Onboard camera!

Arrival at camp, puncture repairs and sitting on chairs

Cat mithering and a barn

The campsite, all to ourselves. Nice innit?

We found a key under a rock and 'barn' becomes 'partaay barn'

Blue skies, lush fields, a night under canvas, what more could one possibly want? A cake. A big beautiful cake.

Get ooorf my inhaler

A real-life camp fire

Breakkie

The secret seven*

Ashton Court and it's old deers on the way home

*SHOP orginally intended SHOPStock to be available to the whole of Shop Club, til the lovely campsite we found informed us they would prefer we kept the numbers down to 12. By this point we had already exceeded the 12 by 3 bods, so we had to start turning people away. Then, circumstances conspired so that some people had to drop out, bringing us down to the perfect 12, til the morning of departure, when 3 people had logistical problems and 2 were at the other end of the country, leaving us 5 short of said 12! Safe to say we have learnt a lot about organisational matters this weekend! But, nevertheless many thanks to everyone who came and many apologies to the people we had to turn away.

Paolo, all ready set for cycle camping, only to be thwarted by bad organisation (sorry, Paolo!)