We had a lovely long weekend meet, from Friday night until Tuesday morning, two nights at each site. We arrived by car, foot or tricycle but all in small tents!

Windermere Club site is well appointed, with a good backpacker cabin on a nice tent field, and more famously (or infamously) an on-site pub. Oh, and a supply of picnic tables which you can borrow to place beside your tent!

My first ALC Meet of the spring and first longish ride with my Surly Disc Trucker. Home to Nottingham was about 95 miles (including detours around HS2). I had done a few 60 mile trips and thought muscle memory would carry me over the line.

Michael: “This was my first ALC Meet. Being a cycle-camper for the best part of 30 years, I had intended to get the train to Darlington and cycle over to Barnard Castle with my camping gear, but a bus-replacement service for the journey home on Sunday put paid to those plans. Reluctantly, therefore, I decided to drive to the event.”

Rich: “The Canterbury meet was my first time going to an ALC meet by motorcycle. To be fair, it was just a different way to carry the same gear that I would camp with whether by foot, bicycle or car. It did however mean I got there quickly without being stuck in traffic.”

Elaine: “The January meet at Salisbury was the third time I'd camped with the ALC, and as with the previous two meets everyone was really friendly and made me feel so welcome. The site was clean and tidy and its close location to Salisbury and a pub made it a super choice for the weekend.”

Darryl: “For the December meet, I travelled down from York to Burton on Trent by way of Cross Country Trains. Amazingly, given it was Cross Country, the trains were on time. After I had had a short sit down to recover from the shock, I made my way by bike to Conkers club site, by way of the back roads as far as Castle Gresley and then signposted trails through those parts of The National Forest known as Tunnel Woods and Moira Junction.

Rita: “Thanks to Martyn's brilliant route planning, catching the 217 bus (top deck of course) was the ideal route to Trafalgar Square. Susan, you will be relieved to know the 217 also goes to Cheshunt (the other direction) to save you that route march you were forced to do to get to use WIFI at the pub. Glad you recovered from that experience!”

The first camp of the "Association of Cycle Campers" was held near Wantage from 2nd. to 5th. August 1901, and was in every way a success. One of the greatest benefits of such a camp is that those who have little or no experience of camping get useful hints from others who have some knowledge of the art of living under canvas.