Ogri Rally - 24-26 August 2007

For the past few years, my mates have been telling me how great the Ogri Rally is. Unfortunately, it's either clashed with work commitments or I've not been able to get a ticket (it sells out very quickly).

This year, however, my luck was in, and so, on a lovely sunny Friday, Spike and I set off for Cirencester and nearby Kemble Airfield, where the rally is held.

When I arrived at the site, I was really impressed at how well organised the rally was, with clear signposting and ordered site layout. I always thought that Ogri was a huge rally, but it's not. It's a medium-sized rally with just the right number and mix of traders and 'socialising' area.

Usually, when I go on a rally, I don't tend to leave the site all weekend. However, I've never been to this part of the world before, so when Jay & Mark said they were going on a ride out, I asked if I could join them. After a slight technical hitch (we lost half of the group in Cirencester town centre), we set off to find Sapperton Canal tunnel. We parked up in a pub car park, and did the honourable thing and had a pint, and then set off for a walk along the disused canal bank. We found the tunnel entrance, which was blocked off, and then walked back to the bikes and rode off to find the other end of the tunnel. Again, strangely enough, there was a pub by the tunnel entrance, so we had another drink and then had a longer walk along the canal bank, and found a roundhouse, and lots of fruit trees. Sadly, we didn't have anything in which to collect the fruit, so we had to leave it.



On the way back, we called in at the supermarket and bought some ham, cheese and bread, and then back to the site for a picnic with Rainbow and Pierre O'Bollocks.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the arena area and sampled more of the very fine real ales, listened to the entertainment and talked for hours with our friends.

The following morning, disaster had struck. It would appear that the firm who had been contracted to keep the toilets functioning and clean, hadn't bothered to turn up, so by the time I needed to loo, there appeared to be only two left useable and the queue was very long, and very grumpy. I'm glad I went when I did, though, because it could only get worse.

Whilst we were thinking about packing up the tent, we were treated to a wonderful aerobatic display and I wished that I had brought the tripod for my camera. I still managed to get one or two half-decent shots though.



I really enjoyed the Ogri rally, and I hope I can make it back there next year.