Hurley Trips 1999

From ICCC

Trip Report

Note: All 1999 Hurley trips have been compressed onto this one page. Scroll down for earlier trips

Third Hurley Trip November 1999

Eat your heart out Louise and Nige! I think the promptness of this report must set a new world record (and therefore deserve a big fat cash prize..... yes please...).

Anyway, once upon a lovely winter's day day, crisp and cold, 10 fresh young faces met at a ramshackle hut in the middle of London...Yes, it was a dank and very cold day but loading up was smooth and (almost) quick supervised by Nige 'that Redline's mine!' and Louise 'urrr, I think I'll take a swim...' (hehe). Driven sensibly for once by a little white angel called Abbey (Nige's random friend's friend's uncle's sister's niece ??!!?) we arrived at Hurley carpark to find a minibus and trailer (inferior to ours, of course) of squaddies already unloading. Nevermind.....

After Louise's traditional nakedness in the carpark, and Abbey's prime view of Harry's hairy arse, we were eventually all changed, Abbey armed with a big fancy camera, and the rest of us (due to chronic alcohol abuse, and a v. bad memory, unfortunately I can't provide a list of names) in full on gimp gear - quite kinky really.

Down at Hurley weir the bad boys in small boats were already hard at it (including a certain Shaun Baker) and we jumped in and joined the fun. The resulting impressive array of fantastic crash and burns was amazing, in their variety and regularity. Deserving special mention was the fact that Alex 'Pah, who needs paddles?' always handrolled, and Louise and Andy's quality swims - well, at least Andy came back over.... Harry also looked suspiciously dry and Kira spent most of the time talking to her squaddy buddies.....

Meanwhile, Abbey had been following my directions to the weir on foot (I hadn't a clue...) which resulted in a nice walk for her down to Hurley lock and back, then she took some pictures of the weir from a few miles away - I said the camera was fancy.

We stayed till darkness forced us away, and loaded back up. Unfortunately I have to report outrageous hasslement and abuse while everyone waited for me as I finished my fag, and the cheeky effort of Louise to embezzle £10 (conviently "lost") on the trip home - now all sorted though I'm told.

Anyway, a good time had by all. Got to go as am desperate for a drink/food/cigarette/toilet

Loads of love (that means you Nige),

-- Rob (yes, the evil one that smokes!).

Second Hurley Trip and Freshers' Social - November 1999

Okay, since I have a bit of time spare before my lecture, and since I am ultra efficient, here's a trip report.

A dissappointing 7 people turned up to paddle at Hurley yesterday. Me, Will, Hugh, Theo, Rob, Rowan, Dan. Where was everyone else? Thanks to Rob, Will, Nige and whoever else I missed, we were able to use the trailer so plenty of room in the bus! The weir was on two gates, so the web page doesn't lie all the time. We were the only ones there, though, except for two (or was it 3?) others. No swims except for me, and that was not my fault. It tends to happen that when someone grabs the front of your boat and twists it, you go into the smelly brine, doesn't it William? Anyway, I was the only swim.

Traffic was light on the way back and we were back in South Kensington by about 5.30. This was after having to stop on the motorway to tie our boats back on at the front. They weren't going anywhere, they just looked as if they would to the drivers behind us. Oh, and poor little Rowan had to give directions to a dodgy lorry driver who'd stopped on the motorway to ask us. Mmm, there's something a bit illegal/dangerous about that, is there not?

We then collected Nigel and Nicky from the Union and drove off to Nigel's house, where we planned to get a bit to drink and a lot to eat. Nigel decided he'd have a lot to drink and a bit to eat, so finding the restaurant was not easy. We said goodbye to our bus and driver, ate some food - which was good from what I can recollect. An early end to the evening occurred when Nigel wandered off and was found trying to pick a fight with a bouncer. Bad move Nige. We made it back to Nigel's house, though, and I think a good time was had by all. Please don't start a huge discusssion if it wasn't.

-- Louise

Freshers' Hurley Trip Report - October 1999

Okay, quick trip report as is necessary after any sort of paddling experience.

A semi decent turn out from the new members - Dan, Duncan, Rob (not the useless one), Ruth, Catherine, Kira, Rowan, and Theo (I think). Plus me and Nigel and Sam, Nigel's friend.

After a few set backs (a few being the temporary disappearence, or so it seemed, of our driver, the finding of a new driver and the death of the trailer) we managed to set off for Hurley a wee bit late. 10 boats on the top of the bus is not particularly safe, but all 10 of them got there, plus the alien, which had the priviledge of travelling in the bus with us. Unfortunately, we got there one paddle down, but none the less, we all managed to paddle at some point. Just three swims (every one else was desperate not to swim, cos it was so bloody cold). Nigel started the trend - to test the team spirit of the new members. Yeah right. He was quickly followed by Dan, who did bloody well for his first time in a boat on the water. Finally Sam, our last minute step in driver, headed into the smelly Thames aswell, so Nigel didn't feel too left out.

The boats all got back, aswell, to my amazement if nobody else's. A good time was had by all, I think, and Duncan, you still owe me £5!

-- Louise