Camp Hill, Bedale

What an amazing day out - and what an excellent and effective way to illustrate just how unfit I am! We went to Camp Hill yesterday as part of a stag day organised for John Middleton, who's getting married in 12 days time. The entire event was organised by John's son Ben, which I have to say he did with military precision! We set off for Camp Hill with John blindfolded - he'd no idea where we were going - in fact the whole thing had been kept secret from him until just minutes before we went.

At Camp Hill we had a coffee and a briefing by the staff, and were then split into two teams. Our team went off for an hour on quad bikes, racing through forest trails and generally having a whale of a  time. We then changed places with the other group, to do some clay pigeon shooting. I didn't start off too badly, scoring eight out of ten kills in the first set. We then changed to a different discipline and I failed miserably! John's son Jack however pulled us out of the mire by scoring an incredbile 16 out of 16. That was despite never having pulled a shotgun trigger in his life before! It was also the first "full house" at the centre in several days. From the clay pigeon range we moved on to the fifty foot high climbing wall, and this is where my lack of stamina really showed. Ben, Jack and John's other son Joel were up to the top and back down several times. Other members of the team didn't fare quite so well, but I think I must have been the worst. I came off the wall with my arms and legs like jelly, and was quite relieved when time was called and we received our final scores. Despite my feeble efforts we beat our opposition by a couple of points, but I think I can speak for everyone involved when I say we had a fantastic time and we'd all go back again tomorrow!

From Camp Hill we made our way back to Ripon where there was just time to go back to the fabulous Unicorn hotel (the ONLY place to stay when in North Yorkshire), have a scrub and freshen up, before we met again the the bar for a drink, and then off to the Dragon Inn for a Chinese meal. We rounded the night off in a pub called the Royal Oak before heading for bed. What a fantastic day, which I hope John will remember for a long time to come. The weekend after next we all head off for Gretna Green - and The Big Day!!

Pictures:
Above - Thomas (rear), Jack, John, Joel, Me and Paul.
Below (left) me on the climbing wall.
Below (right) The quads in action

And if you want to see all of the pictures from our day out, go to: www.jameswilsonmedia.net/photo-galleries.htm