Wind and Rain

Well, it was more wind than anything else. Not much has been happening over the past few nights, so there hasn't been much to blog about really. I'll sum up the past few nights in this entry, to keep you up to speed.

On Thursday night, there was a disturbance further up the road, so I went up there and moved the group of six on their way. They weren't completely drunk, just slightly merry (and French) so they were very compliant with me when I asked them to move on. I spoke to a group of foreign (unknown origin) people who were talking too loudly for my liking, and that of those around them, so after a while I gave them the ultimatum, "You have two minutes to be quiet or you will be leaving the site." After that, it was complete silence. I was then approached by two males asking why I was acting 'suspiciously' in the field and if I didn't leave they would call Alex and the Police. I informed them that if they didn't return to their tent immediately, they would be leaving the site. They were drunk and didn't believe that I was, in fact, the night warden.

Last night was very quiet. After the two blocks had been locked down, I went with Archie to close the gates. Alex was still in the office, so I didn't "lock" the gates. We both walked off and checked around the site for people causing a disturbance. Thankfully, the wind and rain masked the majority of the noise emitted from most tents and the only people who were out and about were the ones who were securing their tents firmly to the ground.

Half an hour later a call comes over the radio from Alex asking us both to get to the main gate. As I walked towards it, I could see several car lights on the inside of the gate and I could hear angered voices as I walked towards the area. Alex wasn't best pleased. It turns out that because I hadn't locked the gate (Alex was still in) people had thought that it was OK to drive through the closed (and bolted) gate to their tents. Not true. I put it down to the fact that the weather was atrocious and the punters didn't want to get wet while walking to their tents. After Alex had a brief exchange of words with them, Archie tailed them to their pitch while I waited around the gate. According to Alex, there was a disagreement and they were leaving the park with a refund. I walked around the nearest park to to the entrance when I heard Archie on the radio to Alex. I was then given my next mission. I was to open the gate to let them out. After they left, I closed the gate and walked back to the Reception.

Due to the high winds and light spattering of rain, there was only two canvas casualties. Two people were asleep in their tent when it collapsed around them, shearing the poles and rendering them useless. I spoke to the couple concerned, it was their last night and they were a genuinely nice couple. So I opened up the laundry and allowed them to bed down in there for the night. Luckily though, at six, they were up and about, so the visions of a long queue of people wanting to use the laundry first thing was instantaneously vanished from my mind. The other couple didn't make any attempt to find us, they just decided to bed down in their car for the night. Unlike the first couple, who were backpacking and didn't have a vehicle.

Apart from that, it was a very quiet night. A few punters left early due to the weather (which, by five-ish had cleared up to show some blue sky) and didn't close the gate behind them.

I was looking forward to my weekly argument with the recycling company who always arrive before six. Sadly they were running late this morning and I didn't get to fall out with them. Even though I've been begged not to by Alex.

As I write this, it's currently raining, hopefully that will deter the punters from leaving their tents. We shall see.

Poachers, Teenagers and Pools of Vomit

Well, it's been a quiet few nights on the site with nothing of note to report on the blog, I'm afraid. The only thing which happened was a punter who decided to park on the grass (after Alex speaking to him about not parking on the grass and subsequently, myself reporting the punter for parking on the grass) only for me to find his car parked up outside his tent. . . you've guessed it, on the grass.

So I managed to get his attention and asked him to park in the parking bays provided. I left him half an hour and upon my return, I found that he hadn't parked up on the grass or in the car park, but on the main access road to the sewage plant. Thus effectively blocking several cars from getting out of the car park. As he had gone to bed, all I could do was report him to Alex in the morning. One punter took half and hour to manoeuvre out of the tight space opposite the guy's car. He then spotted me and told me. Luckily he wasn't angry, just very jovial about the scenario.

I then spent the night tracking down a group of five teenagers who were loitering on the site. When I found them, I was fairly firm with them. They were in the children's play area, and had moved one of the benches over to the swings. I asked them to leave, and when I saw that they weren't going to put the bench back, I politely reminded them that as they had moved it there in the first place, they should move it back to where they found it. Which they did, without any complaining or strop-taking.

The next night, Archie told me that they were on the move again. So I went off on my own and found them in a large group near their tents. I was even stricter with them than before, as I didn't want to spend the majority of the night chasing round after a group of love-struck teenagers. I told them that they had five minutes to get into their tents and be quiet otherwise they wouldn't be leaving the next day, but there and then. They got the message and within fifteen minutes, there wasn't a sound coming from their tents.

Archie had spotted them leaving the gents toilets, after being sick and missing the toilet bowl by a country mile, so I decided to be strict with them.

Just outside the campsite, is a river. The river is owned by the company and is classed as private property, and as such, fishing is not permitted. I could hear voices from the riverbank, so I decided to take a look. There were three males on the rocks next to the river with a rod in the river. Directly under a tree with a "No Fishing" sign. I advised them to take the rod out of the water otherwise they would find themselves in Police custody for the night. They were very apologetic and seemed pretty genuine to admit that it was a mistake, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. However, the next morning, I spoke to one of the river bailiffs and told him of their pitch number and he agreed to have a word with them.

This is my last night off, and it's back to work tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have something to blog about then.