Words by Angela Royston and the Ooms family

July 2006 saw J33P’s largest ever event (so far !) taking place at Seven Sisters with a large collection of assorted Jeeps, Land Rovers and a sole G Wagon, Toyota Pick-Up and Suzuki. The event saw vehicles coming from all parts of the UK including contingents from the Isle of Man and America, via Mildenhall Off Road club.

Highlights as I remember them :

• The sight of so many vehicles lined up at the meeting point on Saturday morning brought a big lump to my throat as it was such a great sight to see everyone there and ready to go.
• UK v USA up the RTI ramp on Friday evening – we should have done more of it but rain intervened so something to put on again next year
• The intrepid drinkers on Friday night, egged on by Jim Waitt, knocking back clear spirit without questioning its potency
• Eugenio putting up a tent for what I assume was the first time, eventually being helped by Janet Sykes
• Will & Dan with the self-righting tents that you just threw onto the ground and all just happened
• Getting the BBQ started – before the rain came down and we all got horribly wet
• From now on the river bed in the middle of the site will be known as the Rock Garden in honour of Mildenhall Off Road club
• Jim Waitt wining a free entry to a J33P event of his choice in the next 12 months via the charity auction
• Lots of happy people coming back to the meeting point on Sunday afternoon having braved out the bad weather at the start of the day

A very big Thank You :

• David Lovejoy and crew for once again setting up and marshalling a really brilliant event i>

• OEC for providing their RTI ramp throughout the whole weekend
• Cuffy, Kevin W & Kevin for setting out punches all day on Friday & collecting back again them on Sunday afternoon
• Dave & Janet Sykes raising an amazing £205 in the impromptu charity auction on Saturday night – thanks once again for that one !
• Everyone who brought along something to put into the charity auction
• Phill Young for offering to buy the meat and large cooler boxes
• Claire Walker for designing the much sought after event stickers
• Cliff and his team for managing the site access

As much of my time at this event is spent behind the scenes, I am not the best person to write about the event so here is the story of the weekend by the Ooms family..

Seven Sisters with the Ooms Family...

Seven Sisters Prep:
We wanted to come with the whole family to this event as we have been in previous years. As I had now finally a rear bumper with tow point, the idea was to rent a small camping trailer and take it behind the jeep to SS. Any idea how difficult it is to rent a small trailer? Luckily we found some one near by(-ish) and we could set off in one car!

We set of for the campsite in nice weather on the Friday afternoon, but somehow once we crossed in to Wales we had the first rain? Could this be something to do with the toll on Severn Bridge??? Perhaps we should pay more for guaranteeing better weather...

We arrived at the campsite at 2130hrs, not bad 200mls in 4.5hrs, the trailer does reduce the speed some what! The tent was quickly pitched (er, in the rain...) and we settled in for the night (oi, whats that noise, sounds like a harbour around here...)

Seven Sisters Saturday:
After the usual s..t, shower and shave activities we set of for the meeting point, and what a sight is was, so many Jeeps and 4x4s!! This is going to be bigger than JeepFest if we are not carefull!

Following the clear instructions and warnings from Angela (following which Jonelle was sure we all were going to get lost on the site!) and the even more clearer instructions from Mike and Dave we set off in a group of eight. Unfortunately after two maxi trials and the collection of some punches two of the vehicles had to retire for the day (Phil's off-road hot rod with transmission problems, and Will's er,... truck with a broken viscous fan coupling and a broke rear upper arm bracket).

The trails were all bone dry, and allowed good traction on the rock climbs. We dipped our feet in the lake trail, where we collected some more punches (we collected a total of nine on that day IIRC).

However, the little rats, I mean dears in the back of the Jeep were starting to act up, so around 1500hrs we set off back to the campsite, this also allowed Karen to help out with the prep for the BBQ.

Seven Sisters BBQ:
An abundance of food, an abundance of Alcohol, an abundance of WATER, hey who ordered that? It was unfortunate that rain put a bit of a damper on the bbq, there was just no way 100people could have fitted under the awnings...

Seven Sisters Sunday:
They say it is quite romantic to sleep in a tent with the rain pitter-pattering on the roof, well, "they" obviously have never done, the noise kept us awake during the night, so rather than risking breaking the Jeep due to lack of attention and slippery rocks we decided to pack up in the morning and set off back to Weybridge. The tent was about twice as heavy as before, but we managed to pack everything while keeping reasonably dry. A quick coffee with Dirk and Annelene and we set of around mid day.

And guess what, we crossed the Severn Bridge, and hey presto there was the SUN (grumble, grumble...). We made good time home and pitched the tent on the parched grass in Weybridge (hose pipe ban in place!) to let it dry. By Monday afternoon, it was ready for folding up again, but by the time we got home to do it, it was raining again...

Seven Sisters:
All in all, a excellent weekend, we enjoyed ourselves and so did the kids (special mention of Clair and Amy Walker who stole our kids, thanks guys!). Thanks for the organising committee (Angela, Kevin, Mike, Dave etc) for the weekend. The only regret I have is that we couldn't play on the RTI ramp!

Tot Ziens:
This was our last event for a while as we are moving to Brunei, for my work. The Jeep is going on gardening leave, to be ready for when we get back.

Some pictures from the event