Where's Bertie? to everyone's surprise, he didn't spend the night at Waltrop, per my main post for the day, but did a late flit to the Stellplatz at Werne, where it costs €5 for 24 hours.
Just as the light was fading out of the day, we had a 'stay vs go' discussion, which came down on the side of 'stay'. During the late afternoon three gatherings of people had appeared in* the car park. Two of those groups were causing us no disturbance at all. The third group, sitting in deckchairs between two cars, were also initially unobtrusive. Then they started playing music.
The initial stay vs go assessment was perhaps swayed by the fact that we were enjoying watching the cricket (The Hundred), but also employed the sound logic that as there were two small children present, it was unlikely they'd be partying until the small hours.
The reversal of our initial stay vs go decision, at 2115, was based on three occurrences during the previous 15 minutes:
1) both cars with children had left (the two cars between which everyone had been sitting) but the music hadn't stopped (I'd thought one of the cars was the source of the music);
2) the occupants of three more cars plus one scooter had arrived to join the fun;
3) the music was gradually being turned up, notch by notch.
On the one hand, the party may have broken up an hour later (and, to be clear, the only issue was one of the music disturbing us; there was no hint of rowdy behaviour), on the other hand, past experience has shown that these gatherings often go on until the early hours. We weren't in the market for being kept awake that late, so we pulled ourselves away from the cricket (Trent Rockets were setting such an easy target for Southern Brave that it looked like a forgone conclusion anyway), made Bertie ready for travel, and hit the road.
Our destination was only 18km along the road, but was reached by a succession of 50 and 30km/h speed limits, so it took the best part of half an hour.
Arriving at an unknown Stellplatz in the pitch dark isn't ideal, but it didn't take us long to see that all of the official motorhome spaces were in use. The reason we'd chosen to come here was that the motorhome spaces are within a huge car park, so even if they're full, there's plenty of other space available, and with Bertie being so small, we can fit him into a car space. The problem in the dark is being able to see any restrictions that apply. We thus took what appeared to be a safe option, by popping Bertie in between two motorhomes that were already parked (yep, in a huge and largely empty car park, we parked right next to two people, but I think it was acceptable in the context). Mick then went out to pay, but returned with our wallet intact, unable to find a ticket machine. So, we both went out and scoured the car park, but still to no avail. Payment was going to have to wait until morning. We returned to the cricket.
What a match! At the point we rejoined the action, it seemed certain that Southern Brave was going to fail spectacularly to meet the modest run target that had been set for them - so much so that it was questionable as to why we were bothering to watch. Then the Rockets had a bowling nightmare for a couple of sets, giving away free balls and wides. Add in a couple of spectacular boundaries, and suddenly Southern Brave was back in the game. They ended up winning with 5 balls to spare - at which point we declared it to be bedtime, confident of a quiet night.
Innocuous-looking gathering, before the numbers swelled and the music got louder.
(*actually, one group wasn't in the car park. They were using a low wall on the other side of the road as a picnic table, which resulted in two deckchairs being sited on the road, immediately opposite the car park's entrance/exit. Bizarre choice of location for a social gathering, we thought, but then we choose to kip in car parks, so who are we to judge these things?)
Just as the light was fading out of the day, we had a 'stay vs go' discussion, which came down on the side of 'stay'. During the late afternoon three gatherings of people had appeared in* the car park. Two of those groups were causing us no disturbance at all. The third group, sitting in deckchairs between two cars, were also initially unobtrusive. Then they started playing music.
The initial stay vs go assessment was perhaps swayed by the fact that we were enjoying watching the cricket (The Hundred), but also employed the sound logic that as there were two small children present, it was unlikely they'd be partying until the small hours.
The reversal of our initial stay vs go decision, at 2115, was based on three occurrences during the previous 15 minutes:
1) both cars with children had left (the two cars between which everyone had been sitting) but the music hadn't stopped (I'd thought one of the cars was the source of the music);
2) the occupants of three more cars plus one scooter had arrived to join the fun;
3) the music was gradually being turned up, notch by notch.
On the one hand, the party may have broken up an hour later (and, to be clear, the only issue was one of the music disturbing us; there was no hint of rowdy behaviour), on the other hand, past experience has shown that these gatherings often go on until the early hours. We weren't in the market for being kept awake that late, so we pulled ourselves away from the cricket (Trent Rockets were setting such an easy target for Southern Brave that it looked like a forgone conclusion anyway), made Bertie ready for travel, and hit the road.
Our destination was only 18km along the road, but was reached by a succession of 50 and 30km/h speed limits, so it took the best part of half an hour.
Arriving at an unknown Stellplatz in the pitch dark isn't ideal, but it didn't take us long to see that all of the official motorhome spaces were in use. The reason we'd chosen to come here was that the motorhome spaces are within a huge car park, so even if they're full, there's plenty of other space available, and with Bertie being so small, we can fit him into a car space. The problem in the dark is being able to see any restrictions that apply. We thus took what appeared to be a safe option, by popping Bertie in between two motorhomes that were already parked (yep, in a huge and largely empty car park, we parked right next to two people, but I think it was acceptable in the context). Mick then went out to pay, but returned with our wallet intact, unable to find a ticket machine. So, we both went out and scoured the car park, but still to no avail. Payment was going to have to wait until morning. We returned to the cricket.
What a match! At the point we rejoined the action, it seemed certain that Southern Brave was going to fail spectacularly to meet the modest run target that had been set for them - so much so that it was questionable as to why we were bothering to watch. Then the Rockets had a bowling nightmare for a couple of sets, giving away free balls and wides. Add in a couple of spectacular boundaries, and suddenly Southern Brave was back in the game. They ended up winning with 5 balls to spare - at which point we declared it to be bedtime, confident of a quiet night.
(*actually, one group wasn't in the car park. They were using a low wall on the other side of the road as a picnic table, which resulted in two deckchairs being sited on the road, immediately opposite the car park's entrance/exit. Bizarre choice of location for a social gathering, we thought, but then we choose to kip in car parks, so who are we to judge these things?)
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