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Ball Raffle Prizes
Great prizes - what you could win!
by Matt Hughes on 08-Mar-12 23:27
AOAC AGM
Southbank Centre
Dean Lane, Bedminster, Bristol, BS3 1DB @ 7.30pm
To be held at Southbank Centre
Dean Lane, Bedminster, Bristol, BS3 1DB @ 7.30pm
by Helen Grimston on 26-Feb-12 22:41
Spring Ball Update
Raffle Prizes Update: see what you can win!
by Matt Hughes on 27-Jan-12 16:40
Home » News » Westward Ho! Weekend, October 2010
AOAC Westward Ho! Weekend – 1st-3rd Oct 2010, by Aj Vesudevan
The inspiration for this weekend came strangely enough from a pub quiz I went to earlier this year…..the question was “What is the only place name in the UK with an exclamation mark in it?”….having got the question correct I was intrigued enough to Google it up a few days later to find out more about this place on the North Devon coast and amongst other things discovered it had a Youth Hostel.
And so the seed was sown for a weekend to previously uncharted territory for the AOAC! Coming just a month after the AOAC Sennen Bank Holiday weekend, the hope was to make the Westward Ho! Weekend the “last of the summer sun” weekend of 2010…..as it turned out it seems that fortune does indeed favour the brave!
The Westward Ho! hostel had recently undergone refurbishment and had a lovely conservatory with a sun deck outside with amazing views of the long surf beach. We were all impressed with the spacious kitchen – very handy for the 24 of us staying there. The very helpful hostel manager, Louise, suggested The Village Inn would be a good place for everyone to meet up for dinner on Friday night. This was a traditional pub serving such favourites as steak and ale pie, salmon fish cakes etc.
Posh Andrew made the schoolboy error of ordering the curry…..as any seasoned pub goer knows, curries are best ordered in a curry house….not a pub!! Thankfully the rest of us had a lovely meal washed down with lots of lovely Otter Ale and finished off with big slabs of chocolate cake.
Some ventured into the front part of the pub where karaoke was in full swing. It was wonderful to see the locals having such fun and not being in the slightest bit shy about making total fools of themselves in front of all of us. Several of our group put their names forward to sing but in the end the locals kept it to themselves except for one song that Jon Tucker was guest vocalist.
We all had a great time at The Village Inn and as most of us were a bit tired after the working week and the drive over to Devon people weren’t on for a late night.
I had already made the plan for a 10 mile walk along the South West Coastal Path from Westward Ho! to Clovelly for Saturday. The plan was leave at 9.30am to ensure that we had enough time to get there without rushing and get the bus or shared taxis back.
Remarkably, given how much faffing time normally takes place, all 23 people joining the walk set off at 9.45am!! It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day and the shorts and t-shirts were out…..looked like we’d got lucky with the weather again!! It was the first time for everyone in the group to walk this stretch of the SW Coastal Path and we all agreed it was stunning. It was undulating and very varied terrain…..lots of shady woods, open grassy fields, pebbly beaches…..and the visibility was amazing throughout the day!!
We stopped for elevenses on a pebbled beach with the waves crashing nearby…..it was lovely to be in such a wild unspoilt place. Whilst having lunch we could see several groups of dolphins out in the bay. The walk then carried on until we got to another pebbled beach for lunch stop.
We could see Clovelly from very early on in the walk……it was very dramatically situated and looked like it was falling into the sea from the cliffs it was built on from a distance. As the group were walking at different paces, around the half way mark we split into 2 groups – Rob leading the shorter walk and myself leading the longer walk.
Rob did a great job keeping his group entertained with deeply philosophical conversations and his useful survival tips from his army days -“never knew a leaf could be so useful” was what one of the group reported back!?
As we approached Clovelly the views were simply stunning. We arrived at the picturesque harbour at Clovelly and ordered some pints of refreshing ale at The Red Lion Hotel to celebrate the end of our long walk. Due to its location the harbour was a favourite smuggling place and we all felt like we’d stumbled onto a wonderful secret magical place. While we were waiting for the taxis to arrive we wandered up the main street of Clovelly which was awesome and very picturesque. It felt like walking through a film set…..what a little gem of a village!
2 taxis then took us back to the hostel where cooking for the evenings communal meal was already in full swing under the very capable hands of head chef Ali Hobbs……Gavin and Carrie were preparing a veggie option using veggies they had grown themselves. A lovely feast of chilli and rice and apple crumble and custard was followed by Mark W producing his collection of wigs……suddenly everyone was transformed in an instant…..this was followed of course by lots of photo taking and the birth of many a new Facebook profile picture…..mine included!!
Those of us with some energy left then decided to check out the other pub in the village….The Waterside Inn…..which had a Robbie Williams tribute act playing that night. We thought it’d be good to turn up in our wigs…..we’d had enough to drink at this stage not to care what people thought!!
The Waterside was packed with the “yoof” of Westward Ho! whilst their mums and dads were probably up the road at The Village Inn. Fake Robbie Williams was very good…..looked very much like the man himself and had got his mannerisms down to a tee! He also had a good singing voice and the whole pub joined along singing “Angels” and “Let me Entertain You” amongst others! Mark W decided he wanted to be Gary Barlow for a bit and got some strange looks from Robbie while the rest of us were laughing our heads off!
One of the locals approached me and looked at my head (I was wearing a blonde wig at that time) and asked if this was my real hair or a wig!! Elise made the comment that many of the locals’ hair-dos were worse than our wigs!
We stayed to the end and everyone had a wonderful time there. The hard core carried on back at the hostel with more wine flowing and a long game of Trivial Pursuits with Jo Metcalfe feasting on cold custard in between…..eventually got to bed around 3am!
As with all hostel stays on club weekends, people tried their best to avoid sharing dorms with known snorers….I had warned people to bring ear plugs along just in case they were trapped with nowhere to go. Talking in our sleep is one thing that it was difficult to plan for……in our dorm (Rebecca, Ali, Posh and myself) Rebecca heard me say in a soft sultry voice whilst in deep sleep "mmmmmmm that's nice"…what could have possibly been going on in my subconscious??
During the night it rained heavily and when we awoke it was still raining. Plans for a shorter walk heading north along the coast were put on ice and instead a big group of us headed for the café attached to the North Devon Surf School where we recovered from the night before with a full English breakfast washed down with mugs of builders tea. The rain had stopped by now and the day was turning bright and sunny again.
At this time some of the group decided to head to the National Trust’s Arlington Court near Bideford on the way home. It was reported back by Elise that it was a really interesting place, situated in beautiful grounds.
The few of us that were left decided to walk along the beach from the North Devon Surf School towards Appledore…..it was a stunning, wide beach and we marvelled at the kite surfers whizzing past us at dramatic speeds. After about an hour of fresh sea air and walking we felt good to head back home. But not before Rebecca helped herself to the free paper weights and door stops that were in abundance all around the beach…..lovely big smooth pebbles!
We all agreed that it was a really fun packed weekend and that we’d definitely come back again next year on another AOAC trip…..and perhaps even have a go at kite-surfing???
The inspiration for this weekend came strangely enough from a pub quiz I went to earlier this year…..the question was “What is the only place name in the UK with an exclamation mark in it?”….having got the question correct I was intrigued enough to Google it up a few days later to find out more about this place on the North Devon coast and amongst other things discovered it had a Youth Hostel.
And so the seed was sown for a weekend to previously uncharted territory for the AOAC! Coming just a month after the AOAC Sennen Bank Holiday weekend, the hope was to make the Westward Ho! Weekend the “last of the summer sun” weekend of 2010…..as it turned out it seems that fortune does indeed favour the brave!
The Westward Ho! hostel had recently undergone refurbishment and had a lovely conservatory with a sun deck outside with amazing views of the long surf beach. We were all impressed with the spacious kitchen – very handy for the 24 of us staying there. The very helpful hostel manager, Louise, suggested The Village Inn would be a good place for everyone to meet up for dinner on Friday night. This was a traditional pub serving such favourites as steak and ale pie, salmon fish cakes etc.
Posh Andrew made the schoolboy error of ordering the curry…..as any seasoned pub goer knows, curries are best ordered in a curry house….not a pub!! Thankfully the rest of us had a lovely meal washed down with lots of lovely Otter Ale and finished off with big slabs of chocolate cake.
Some ventured into the front part of the pub where karaoke was in full swing. It was wonderful to see the locals having such fun and not being in the slightest bit shy about making total fools of themselves in front of all of us. Several of our group put their names forward to sing but in the end the locals kept it to themselves except for one song that Jon Tucker was guest vocalist.
We all had a great time at The Village Inn and as most of us were a bit tired after the working week and the drive over to Devon people weren’t on for a late night.
I had already made the plan for a 10 mile walk along the South West Coastal Path from Westward Ho! to Clovelly for Saturday. The plan was leave at 9.30am to ensure that we had enough time to get there without rushing and get the bus or shared taxis back.
Remarkably, given how much faffing time normally takes place, all 23 people joining the walk set off at 9.45am!! It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day and the shorts and t-shirts were out…..looked like we’d got lucky with the weather again!! It was the first time for everyone in the group to walk this stretch of the SW Coastal Path and we all agreed it was stunning. It was undulating and very varied terrain…..lots of shady woods, open grassy fields, pebbly beaches…..and the visibility was amazing throughout the day!!
We stopped for elevenses on a pebbled beach with the waves crashing nearby…..it was lovely to be in such a wild unspoilt place. Whilst having lunch we could see several groups of dolphins out in the bay. The walk then carried on until we got to another pebbled beach for lunch stop.
We could see Clovelly from very early on in the walk……it was very dramatically situated and looked like it was falling into the sea from the cliffs it was built on from a distance. As the group were walking at different paces, around the half way mark we split into 2 groups – Rob leading the shorter walk and myself leading the longer walk.
Rob did a great job keeping his group entertained with deeply philosophical conversations and his useful survival tips from his army days -“never knew a leaf could be so useful” was what one of the group reported back!?
As we approached Clovelly the views were simply stunning. We arrived at the picturesque harbour at Clovelly and ordered some pints of refreshing ale at The Red Lion Hotel to celebrate the end of our long walk. Due to its location the harbour was a favourite smuggling place and we all felt like we’d stumbled onto a wonderful secret magical place. While we were waiting for the taxis to arrive we wandered up the main street of Clovelly which was awesome and very picturesque. It felt like walking through a film set…..what a little gem of a village!
2 taxis then took us back to the hostel where cooking for the evenings communal meal was already in full swing under the very capable hands of head chef Ali Hobbs……Gavin and Carrie were preparing a veggie option using veggies they had grown themselves. A lovely feast of chilli and rice and apple crumble and custard was followed by Mark W producing his collection of wigs……suddenly everyone was transformed in an instant…..this was followed of course by lots of photo taking and the birth of many a new Facebook profile picture…..mine included!!
Those of us with some energy left then decided to check out the other pub in the village….The Waterside Inn…..which had a Robbie Williams tribute act playing that night. We thought it’d be good to turn up in our wigs…..we’d had enough to drink at this stage not to care what people thought!!
The Waterside was packed with the “yoof” of Westward Ho! whilst their mums and dads were probably up the road at The Village Inn. Fake Robbie Williams was very good…..looked very much like the man himself and had got his mannerisms down to a tee! He also had a good singing voice and the whole pub joined along singing “Angels” and “Let me Entertain You” amongst others! Mark W decided he wanted to be Gary Barlow for a bit and got some strange looks from Robbie while the rest of us were laughing our heads off!
One of the locals approached me and looked at my head (I was wearing a blonde wig at that time) and asked if this was my real hair or a wig!! Elise made the comment that many of the locals’ hair-dos were worse than our wigs!
We stayed to the end and everyone had a wonderful time there. The hard core carried on back at the hostel with more wine flowing and a long game of Trivial Pursuits with Jo Metcalfe feasting on cold custard in between…..eventually got to bed around 3am!
As with all hostel stays on club weekends, people tried their best to avoid sharing dorms with known snorers….I had warned people to bring ear plugs along just in case they were trapped with nowhere to go. Talking in our sleep is one thing that it was difficult to plan for……in our dorm (Rebecca, Ali, Posh and myself) Rebecca heard me say in a soft sultry voice whilst in deep sleep "mmmmmmm that's nice"…what could have possibly been going on in my subconscious??
During the night it rained heavily and when we awoke it was still raining. Plans for a shorter walk heading north along the coast were put on ice and instead a big group of us headed for the café attached to the North Devon Surf School where we recovered from the night before with a full English breakfast washed down with mugs of builders tea. The rain had stopped by now and the day was turning bright and sunny again.
At this time some of the group decided to head to the National Trust’s Arlington Court near Bideford on the way home. It was reported back by Elise that it was a really interesting place, situated in beautiful grounds.
The few of us that were left decided to walk along the beach from the North Devon Surf School towards Appledore…..it was a stunning, wide beach and we marvelled at the kite surfers whizzing past us at dramatic speeds. After about an hour of fresh sea air and walking we felt good to head back home. But not before Rebecca helped herself to the free paper weights and door stops that were in abundance all around the beach…..lovely big smooth pebbles!
We all agreed that it was a really fun packed weekend and that we’d definitely come back again next year on another AOAC trip…..and perhaps even have a go at kite-surfing???