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London Bridges Run Sun 11 Jul 2004

(A Nightmare Called London)

ButtonIt and DK organised a run in London to try and cross as many bridges as possible from Tower Bridge to Windsor Great Park. The main thread can be found on MINI2 via this link, and the post-event feedback and pictures thread can be found on MINI2 via this link.

It was an event every bit as chaotic as DK had anticipated.

The turn-out was a disappointing 50%, with only 25 cars of the 50 expected, and with only 6 MINI2ers sending apologies for non-attendance. The low turn-out was particularly disappointing for this run, since the organisers had capped the number at 50 cars in an attempt to keep the event manageable, and had been forced to turn people away for months before. Well, at least the smaller number of cars made it easier to manage, and only just!

Cars left the start car park in groups of up to 6 or 7, and were immediately separated by other traffic and by traffic lights. Even walkie talkies (click here for Apple's guide on PMR446s) did not help: not only did most cars not have them, but those who did kept receiving communications from the other groups! It was a real nightmare trying to keep the convoy together. Imagine how bad it would have been with more cars!

DK was in a group of 3 cars led by scooperman_uk with Trainman as his navigator. Shortly after the roundabout at Wandsworth Bridge, scooperman_uk discovered that he had a nail in his run-flat tyre, which meant a 30min or so delay while he tried to maintain the tyre pressure in order to continue with the journey. At this stage, it was decided that it would be best to head straight to Windsor Great Park and forget about the rest of the bridges.

Once at Windsor Great Park, there were confusions about which car park should be used. In the end, the Sevill car park was chosen. There, the weather was kind to the group, despite having threatened to rain all day, and everyone seemed to enjoy the picnic.

After the picnic, most of the picnickers travelled together to a quiet pub called The Robin. This was not the pub they had planned to visit, but they wanted to avoid more parking charges. DK et al had a much needed de-stress drink after a chaotic but fun event!

DK would like to thank, in no particular order, Harpo, Trainman, nathy03, N31L and scooperman_uk for their support in this event.

Not many pictures were taken by DK as the traffic did not allow any stoppages. Please find below some of the images taken during the day. All in all, it was a chaotic fun day out, and definitely not for the uninitiated!