I don’t know if it’s me just getting older, or the winters getting longer, but this one in the UK seems to be dragging on forever.
I remember years ago when I started buggying, there were around 15-25 of us local to me, we would meet up every weekend at a local buggy spot inland, every week we would be there unless it was pouring down with rain….even if there was no wind we would still go, and just sort gear out check buggies, have a laugh and so on. Then if we were ever blessed with an Easterly wind, we would have a road trip to Mablethorpe, having the group, encouraged everyone…you had to be there, and you made all sorts of excuses to get out of family events if that wind blew east, and once on the beach ,that was when the fun really started, it was so much better than an inland field, and you never had to worry about fences and trees etc.
Gradually over the years all of the people I used to meet up with packed up for one reason or another, that saddened me for a couple of reasons,
- I had made some good friends flying kites, and
- Road trips would become solo trips, and the most important factor….you didn’t have that group there encouraging you to go.
So, what happened, well gradually over the last few years I have buggied less and less, I have even become a fair weather buggier these days, I have in the past driven to the beach in a blizzard and -2 degrees, then add a bitterly cold 25mph easterly wind, then travelling 50mph in a buggy, the wind chill factor must be around -10-15….I can’t believe I used to go in such conditions. I only tend to go now when it is really quite good conditions, my local beach is 1hr 15minutes away, and with fuel now over £6.20 a gallon, now we fill up in Litres you forget just how much it really is, added the fact of not car sharing and solo trips and the lowest salary in decades, adds to my buggy trips getting few and far between.
Even though I am not on the beach as often as I would like, does not mean I am forgetting the sport I love, I do generally spend most of the cold winter months in my garage making buggies and parts etc, plus I never stop searching for anything new buggy related on the internet.
I tend to go on about 2-3 long road trips a year, solo again,(unless its overseas, then the wife loves the sport) mainly to the North West at Bolton Le Sands, where I meet up with old friends and we have a great time on a great beach, the last time I went though, unpredictably the weather turned bad, and I never even touched the beach, it was under water. I am now though looking forward to the meet in South Wales, Pembrey at the end of May…’No Barriers’, see the advert a few posts below, Pembrey is always my longest road trip in the UK, so I hope the weather Gods will be good to us, my last visit there at the ‘Life’s a Beach’ event was perfect, the beach is one of the best around these shores, years ago they used to use the beach for land speed records.
The last two years I was blessed enough to be able to travel to Nevada USA and run the great Ivanpah dry lake bed with some of the best people in the sport, I will miss that a lot this year, so I am hoping ‘No Barriers’ will be a good substitute.
Summers evening at Mablethorpe having just broken the 50mph barrier with the PTW Superbug and a 6m Ozone Access
Roll on the warm weather and sunny evenings, there is nothing nicer than buggying the shore line on a summers evening as the sun goes down with your friends.
Have a great season, let the wind Gods be good to you.
