Mersea Island 2016
Mersea Island has always been a popular destination for European scooter clubs and solo riders. I spotted plates and ‘cut-offs’ from Holland, France, Germany, Austria, etc. These visitors always seem up for the games, the dyno and partying throughout the
Personally, I’ve been attending this rally every year since 1993, and being as it’s only just about a 60 mile round trip you would have thought my Friday morning jaunt would have been a pretty simple excursion! Wrong. Everything was going fine until, just after passing through Colchester, my Auto-bretta started coughing and spluttering and finally ground to a halt. It felt very much like either fuel or carb rubber splitting – both easy fixes so I was not too distressed, and even waved a few helpful scooterists on as they gave me the thumbs up. However, after removing the panel I found I had completely cracked the inlet manifold. Terminal! It is here I should thank Goldie and Tony C for coming to my aid and eventually getting me to the site.
Anyhow after a cheery greet from the gate staff (and a bit of a p*** take on my situation) we exchanged a ‘Bobby Moore’ for a wristband, events programme and patch; and then were directed to the camping areas. With numerous previous events CDVLC have perfected this set-up with separate areas and approaches for both scooters and cars. Even though it was still pretty early (3pm) the campsite was already a hive of activity and throughout the afternoon scooters poured on from all over the UK and the Continent. Being a purpose-built campsite the facilities are excellent with several shower blocks, static and Portaloo toilets and even a school canteen style mess block. This weekend also sees several mobile food sources move in with everything from the usual burger van to fish and chips and even a curry/chilli kitchen! MI has always had a great reputation when it comes to entertainment, whether you like live acts, CD or vinyl DJs or even a ‘silent’ disco – all are available. With two festival sized marquees erected next to the bar and an alfresco barn this is a perfect setting for some live action. Over the weekend there were no fewer than eight live bands/acts playing a real mixture of tunes. Friday saw The Grain, The Kool Katz and The Talks, while Saturday featured Modern Apes, The Gallerys, The Rhythm Rockets, Small Talk and finally Johnny Boy.
On Saturday there was also a custom show, dyno and of course the legendary ‘games’ a real test of man/woman and machine. Weather-wise it kept really nice for all of Friday and right up until 5.30pm on the Saturday but by then people were in the do’s and bars so it didn’t really matter! Next year is the silver jubilee of this rally; where has that quarter of a century gone? Thanks again for all the hard work put in by the CDVLC, security staff and youth camp employees for a great weekend. Dave O.