We met up - mini-meet in Cornwall

[Ron Miel]

Had a great mini-meet yesterday with Alison 01326 and Isaac, at Stithians Reservoir, down in W Cornwall. It's a great place tp meet if you want to avoid crowded towns or beaches but still want the kids to have fun - but watch the weather, as it's a couple of hundred meters up. Yesterday, the sun shone and the wind was very slight. There's a smart watersports centre with plenty of parking, an excellent cafe, a secure chiildren's play area (climbing gear, swings...), picnic area, loos and views (there's also a prize winning pub restuarant, The Golden Lion, by the entrance). Thanks for posing Isaac - "Smelly Jelly" Mum said we could show your pix to Bongo Fury:

Isaac arrives in his motor (Bongos are for cissies )



"Hurry up, I haven't got all day."



"That's it. I'm off. See ya later."



"Ah, that's better. Hot work driving my big truck."



"Dump the guy in the yellow shirt babe. I've got a big truck we can cruise in."



Proud mum, Alison



Alison, Ron Miel aka David, Dianne aka Mrs M



Mrs M and cissie-wagon later, at Marazion - after fabulous seal watch from Lizard Point



Finished a great day with chopsticks at the Dynasty Cantonese Restaurant on the Helston Road, a mile or two out of Marazion - strongly recommended

This morning, the wind is howling and it's been raining hard but, if the forecast is to be believed, it's going to improve and we'll be off to Sennen Cove, Lands End and Porthcurno. Ran out of time yesterday (and Alison's Bongo was packed to the gills for camping), so we may meet again tomorrow, for me to pass on what I can remember of Haydn Callow's 2.5TD Master Class at the Stourport bash. Royalty to your charity will be Pay Pal'd over, if so, Haydn.

Back north then, via S Devon, N Somerset and Bristol. It's a great life with a Bongo, and I know Isaac's only kidding - he's VERY proud of theirs

That's all for now folks.

[cabte]

im sure i saw you today ..
was that you in the black bongo with the yellow stripes on it,
i was in the white bongo coming back from porthcurno?.

[Ron Miel]

im sure i saw you today ..
was that you in the black bongo with the yellow stripes on it,
i was in the white bongo coming back from porthcurno?.

Hi Carl. Yes, that was us - actually RTA vehicle side-compliant 3M amber retroreflective tapes, and red ones on the back. They make the black motor show up like Blackpool Illuminations in distant headlights at night. Watched out for you earlier in Sennen but guessed you were cruising somewhere. So many Bongos down here aren't there? If it was you waving and grinning as I shot past you on a bend, apologies for just the statutory wave you got back, I saw you too late to get into the same mode - here's a belated full on facial response We're probably over to St Austell area, to the Eden Project and Pine Lodge Gardens, for green fingered Mrs M, today - I'll get my instuctions when she wakes up, which (shhh!) she hasn't done yet, due to comfy Bongo We're on a site over in Hayle, BTW. Tomorrow, over to S Devon for a few days. Enjoy rest of your stay, and I'll keep my eyes peeled today. Cheers, David.
P.S. Apologies to you (who I met at Wheelquick for alarm installs), and all the North Westies I haven't yet met, for not getting over to the "NW compound" during Friday, our one full day at the bash. We got a pitch a long way from there and, as I'm waiting for knee surgery, I wasn't able to walk around the site much - just regular hobbles up to the toilet block - so we mostly met people who stopped by our van. We'll stay longer, and I'll do better, next year

[missfixit70]

Have a good holiday guys I think you've met more bonogoliers outside of the NW so far

[Ron Miel]

Hi Kirsty, and thanks. Yes, that's definitely true for us - and my hands are also tired from waving back at the amazing number of Bongos we are meeting on the road down here. Was talking cars tonight to a retired motor industry guy from Leicester, who's on the pitch next to us, and he happened to nostalgically hark back to his early days when everybody with the same type of car used to wave to each other. He thought it very quaint that we still do but I think he might now buy a Bongo on the q.t.
Cheers, David
P.S. Was "persuaded" to do more walking than usual to get round a lot of the (fab) Eden Project today with Mrs M - glad I did but oh, my poor knees!!

[Alison01326]

The photos look great, David - but did I say you could put one of me up there? Love the captions too.

Speaking of waving - my Mum can remember a time when anyone in Cornwall who had a car waved at another car, regardless of make. That was about 1973 Seriously when my grandpa had his first van (about 1919), he could, apparently name everyone else in the town who actually owned a motorised vehicle. We Cornish are (or at least were) very protective of the registration letters allocated to us (AF, CV and RL) and would wave at any Cornish folk outside the county (or indeed go over for a chat if we were parked - I accosted some poor woman on a campsite in France once and it turned out she had no idea what I was on about as she was from Norfolk and had bought her car second-hand there). When GL was acquired from Bath no Cornish people wanted it so it was either issued to everyone who hadn't fussed or just kept "in hand" in case it was a busy year for registrations. It was so unpopular that when new cars were purchased the purchaser would only want it on condition that it wasn't registered with a GL plate. Now that we have the new style plates some people (including my parents) have carried forward their old registration, or are requesting that the three letters on the new style plate end with CV, AF or RL).

Before I had the Bongo, I had a Fiat Multipla, and all Multipla owners wave wildly at each other too.

[Ron Miel]

Nice one Alison. I'll now find myself waving at those reg letters too, just 'cos we had a good time here. Apologies about the pic but at least it's the only one with a wholly serious, 100% true, caption - how did you get on at the library? Did Isaac sweet talk them out of bankrupting you with his fines?

Good luck sharking Carl. Hope you have a great experience, and see lots of them. No pix unless the open mouth is at least as big as a Bongo tailgate though, and see if you can get some decals on one while you're at it We'll be back next year, knees fixed in my case (well, hopefully not actually "fixed") to go for that ourselves, God of Bongos and everything else, willing

[samuel]

Ron

Glad you had such a good time down here. Lovely meeting up with other Bongoliers, we know Alison, and seeing them going in the opposite direction, Cabte!

You certainly visited some lovely spots.

Tim

[cabte]

iv been coming cornwall now for years and i must admit this has got to be the best holiday iv had im my life.
Id love to move down here but if we did we wouldnt have a holiday that would truly mark up to coming here.
My wife gets in tears when we have to leave
Im so enveous of the cornish people for having such and amazing part of the uk.
WE LOVE IT

[Alison01326]

Glad you love it so much. With the ridiculous house prices down here if you did move, you'd probably never be able to afford a holiday anywhere again (might even have to sell the Bongo and walk everywhere)!

Although a lot of retired people move here, which is a different story all together, I've met a few people who have moved down here because they loved their holidays here and once they got stuck into the old 9-5 they realised that it's not the same as you've got all the same pressures and bills as you had before, and limited spare time. I think when I lived away for 12 years I saw more of Cornwall when I came home for my holidays than I ever did before, or even now, although my job gets me out and about more than a "normal" one (I'm a tour guide). Still make the most of my spare time though and am very proud indeed of Cornwall and being Cornish.

Don't let me put you off moving here but I'd stick with the hols. I really do wonder how you're going to beat this one. Got to be diving amongst the sharks and dolphins next time, I think?? Also, you've probably had the best time weather wise too. That doesn't always happen, does it

[mikeonb4c]

What a great thread. Really enjoyed reading it. What an amazing community this is

[cabte]

ye dead right my friend has just moved here and he in a 1 bed flat for the same price we pay for a new 4 bed house ..
it would be a shame if we moved as it would spoile the fun of coming here

[BONGO-LOUIS]

ye dead right my friend has just moved here and he in a 1 bed flat for the same price we pay for a new 4 bed house ..
it would be a shame if we moved as it would spoile the fun of coming here

Hey Carl & Justine congrats on 1000 post. Glad your having a fab time and wot great weather you have had good on you both take care Gary & Tina

[Alison01326]

ye dead right my friend has just moved here and he in a 1 bed flat for the same price we pay for a new 4 bed house ..
it would be a shame if we moved as it would spoile the fun of coming here

That's worse than I thought (the first bit, not you not moving!!)

[Ron Miel]

Hi everybody. Glad to see the thread's kept moving on while we were without dongle signal after moving across (back) to S Devon.

Only just got back online at the end of a quick 24 hours here in Bristol. We have to have our dins shortly, then start thinking about returning home tomorrow - after a holiday, like Carl's, full of great times and which seems now to simply have been the longest 3 weeks ever!!

Can't believe Stourport was only 3 weeks ago!!! Belated grateful thanks to Ian and all the hard working stewards, etc., who made it such a great experience.

Home tomorrow night, and after we've done a bit of catching up there, I'll get back on this thread with more info on this holiday (including several bits of excellent news), plus I know I need to get back onto another established one, in which I started, but never finished, reporting on our recent 3 weeks in Southern Ireland.

Six out of the last eight weeks living in the Bongo, and we could happily go on doing it all summer if circumstances allowed