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On our travels

Camp Chicester 🙂
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1 shot willie said:
Camp Chicester 🙂View attachment 114947
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Your picture of the campsite puts me in mind of my brother, Bill. He and his wife are true dyed-in-the-wool Deb'n folk. They are not given much to travelling, but they do own a campervan. So, while I was visiting Kunming in China they were really adventurous and visited Taunton in Somerset, when I went to Lagos in Nigeria, they went to Truro in Cornwall. Then, on comparing notes, it was them complaining about there being too many bloody foreigners. They once visited Wales too, but I don't think they'll go back somehow.🤣
A couple of weeks ago they seemed to have been gripped by an unprecedented yearning to wander and decided to venture into the Norf! 😮 So far norf that they even crossing the border into the lands of the Picts and Scots. 😳
I fear they will not be going back there either, because what follows is my brother's report of their adventure! 😅

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‘ARMED POLICE. STAY WHERE YOU ARE, DON’T MOVE’
Is not a phrase you want to hear shouted across a campsite at half past midnight, but considering the scenes Lynne and I had witnessed about 10 minutes earlier, it came as a relief.
Here’s what happened last Saturday night.
It was our second night at a seemingly quite campsite on the outskirts of Falkirk in Scotland, on the last leg of our holiday up north. When we had arrived, we had noticed that one area of the site contained a close group of large caravans. Their owners all had Irish accents and there was a few dogs chained up and some feral children wandering about. Our suspicions were aroused that these may be ‘travelling folk’ but when we spoke to them they were polite and friendly so we thought we’d live and let live.
Anyway, the second night at 12:30 we were asleep, when we heard some loud bangs and crashes together with the sound of high revving engines of several vehicles. We sprang out of bed to peer out the window to see two black vans within the cluster of caravans. The occupants had quickly got out and started wrecking the travellers' parked cars with iron bars, or some such instrument, then quickly got back in their vans. Meanwhile a small white flatbed truck was driving around ramming into the caravans and cars, causing severe damage to some of them, and a car driven by one of the raiders rammed into one of the other cars. By the time the occupants of the caravans realised what was happening, the three vehicles were speeding away, taking out a few awnings on the way, and were off up the track in a cloud of dust. Some of the ‘travellers’ jumped into the cars that were still drivable and raced after them, though they soon returned, as we later heard from the police that the raiders had set fire to a vehicle, blocking the track. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the level of the violence had been terrifying and obviously, Lynne and I had sat their petrified not knowing if we were going to be a target but fortunately they ignored us.
This all happened in the space of just a couple of minutes, a ‘shock and awe’ raid, leaving the women all screaming and wailing, the children crying, the dogs barking and the men all shouting curses in their thick accents and describing the form that their vengeance would take, which we could hear quite clearly. It was dark outside but we could see them through the window, then out of the shadows came two armed police shouting a warning to everyone to stay where they were. More police then arrived, but it took them a long time to calm everyone down. A police helicopter then turned up circling the campsite very low for about 25 minutes before heading off. We’re still not sure what they were looking for.
To our great relief the police stayed all night and into the next morning to prevent the victims leaving the site to carry out a reprisal, but they only came to check on us after I switched the light on in the van. Did they really think we slept through it?
In the light of day the damage was horrendous. We talked to the police in the morning who assured us this was part of a turf war. The group on the campsite visit every year to work on construction projects but as it had grown in size, a rival group decided to take action. Unfortunately, that action occurred the night we were there. When I confronted the campsite owner about a refund, the poor chap looked totally shell-shocked and gave me the cash without saying a word. I only wish his website had been more specific about what we should expect in the 'things to see and do at the campsite' menu.
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What a well written account of events Paul......a good read ......if not unfortunate for your poor Brother and his wife......it almost sounds like a precision raid delivered by the forces.
Glad they came away with no damage.....appart from shattered nerves ......took some balls to ask for the refund.....Good on him 🤣👍
Hope it did not put them off of touring and camping Ln the future.
 
Travellers battles are nothing new, we used to witness differences between traveller families when we did the big antique fairs like Newark or Lincoln. It’s unusual that they stay on an organised site though, I wonder if the council were paying?
 
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1 shot willie said:
What a well written account of events Paul......a good read ......if not unfortunate for your poor Brother and his wife......it almost sounds like a precision raid delivered by the forces.
Glad they came away with no damage.....appart from shattered nerves ......took some balls to ask for the refund.....Good on him 🤣👍
Hope it did not put them off of touring and camping Ln the future.
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He is a published author Bill, so he knows how to spin a yarn. :)
 
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