Moans about traffic and camping

[Yorkshire Chris]

It was definitely the toilets you could smell at the bottom SE corner of the field. We were sitting about 10m back from the Radio Oxford tent and the smell was eye-watering for a few short spells. Not good whilst busy stuffing down a foot-long hotdog...!

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

I think it was more agricultural.

[Chris]

For didds....field 3 is the area behind the cricket pitch beside field 1&2....runs down the side of the tennis courts too. For backpackers only. Some thought you could be dropped off by car at your backpackers pitch too! Some expressed surprise when told they had to walk in from the road!

[Malcolm]

 Some expressed surprise when told they had to walk in from the road!

Snowflakes everywhere  

[vince42]

Arrival was as per normal for us i.e. at the crack of lunchtime straight into 7b this time - so the nearest we've been to the field and setup by 2ish to a celebratory home grown cider.

Departure as per usual - pack up in morning and head to village the leave in the afternoon.  As we were in middle of the field we got to watch the queue develop around 10.30 ish and could see the traffic grinding to a halt - probably inevitable with several fields emptying on to one road.

As we were departing stoppped to help someone change a wheel.  They tell me that the AA/RAC charge for changing a wheel off road?  Saw the AA and RAC presumably jump starting a few cars as well.  Does nobody except me carry jump leads these days?  Maybe I should leave my number with campsite control to save the AA vans pushing up the road the wrong way.

Re smelly toilets - were they using a different chemical in the loos this year?  Something more environmental but perhaps less odour repressing?  The loos in 7b were foul smelling from thursday on though mainly clean.

[Polly Oxford (Andie)]

We were slightly trepidacious of the loo situation this year as we had small grandaughters in tow. Needn't have worried, always found the loos both on and off the field immaculate, and small girls used them perfectly happily, apart from running out of sanitizer one evening. We did use the field 2 loos when the arena tardis queues were long though.

[H (Heather Smith)]

For didds....field 3 is the area behind the cricket pitch beside field 1&2....runs down the side of the tennis courts too. For backpackers only.

Err, backpackers and motorbikes, unless that changed this year?  I hope not, planning on being their next year...

[bassline (Mike)]

I've now long abandoned trying to get there for the gates to open and to be on two or three. I much prefer to arrive mid morning and drive onto four, no queue or fuss.
However.....
I don't know if the parking crew were beginning to panic about the space left, but unlike previous years, and indeed like others on the field already, where your space meant you could park your car and your tent, one behind the other, I was initially given a spot that had room for my car with about a foot square space behind it, and enough room beside it for a one man ridge tent. Me and the guy next to me exchanged puzzled looks, when one of the crew directed another car between the two of us, leaving me barely enough room to open the car door and, just about, enough room to erect a toilet tent !  
Then an adult came over and sent me over to a fresh new line which was infinitely better, and I started to do the thing. A couple of cars together turned up. The folk inside got out, and the steward moved along the line. The woman in one car asked me if I had enough room, I said I guess so, and she promptly moved her car from the opposite side of the one next to mine, and parked it next to me, so that they had a cosy little wagon formation, where each of them could access the boot of their car without getting out of the tent. This left me with enough room for my tent, but not enough room to actually put it up. Having to insert the poles at a really tight angle caused me to put a tear in the loop part - nothing serious, but it will only get bigger each time I use it. I did my best, but unfortunately, at one point the end of my pole scraped along the length of her car. In the end I had to take my partially constructed tent down again, put it up in the access lane, and drag it into position, which wasn't exactly easy and it blew over twice, before I could peg it down. Apart from that, all was ok. As time was by now marching on, and I'd been awake for an hour and a half short of two days, I grabbed a well packed and therefore reasonably priced breakfast roll from the butty wagon on the bridge, washed it down with a pint of cider from the Lion, got my wristband, programme and t-shirt, watched FC Acoustic and Feast Of Fiddles until they played Kashmir and went back to the tent for a couple of hours kip.