Spring into WildAx
The WildAx Owners’ Group offers its members two meets each year. For this spring meet, our twenty-third, we did something a bit different. We often choose Camping and Caravanning Club sites for our meets as most of our group seem to be members, and so we decided to join a star camp, offered by the Bellingham Club site. This largely involves expert astronomers visiting with large telescopes for us to gaze at heavenly bodies.
Our meet started on Thursday with a wine reception (bottles donated by WildAx) and a heavenly quiz led by member, Shaughan Seymour, followed by a wild camping song he wrote for the event.
The serious astronomical weekend started on Friday with a general introduction to stargazing by Robert Ince, a well-known professional scientist and amateur astronomer. It was a wellexplained, interesting presentation, marred only by the weather outside, which was cloudy and raining. No stars to see on Friday, although we were treated to a brief view of the northern lights.
Sadly, there were no stars on Saturday night, either, as the weather was again poor, but we saw an interesting film of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. It was not a glossy feature film, but was compiled from original clips of the preparation for the journey to the moon, landing and return of the crew after their historic mission. After it finished, mulled wine was offered by the site staff and enthusiastically consumed!
Although there was a disappointing lack of stars to look at, it appeared that everyone had enjoyed our visit to the wilds of Northumberland and its fantastic countryside so much that I was asked to request a return visit! We had 46 members attending in 25 ’vans and most WildAx models were represented.
The campsite is high-quality ( five stars), and the staff very helpful, especially the franchisees, who have been running star camps and other events here for several years.
Although there are 70 pitches, we had the campsite to ourselves as the club room is only licensed for a limited number, and the star camp event dictates no ambient light (we got almost used to wandering around in the dark).
The site includes camping pods, a good shop and nearby walks guides. Bus stops outside the site allowed members to visit Hexham and see its lovely abbey. Bellingham, a lovely and interesting village, was within walking distance.
It was an extremely enjoyable meet, with several members ‘meeting’ for the first time, and with others delighted to meet up again with old friends.
Catherine Tranmer, Group moderator