Carnival Day.

It's been a lovely carnival day. It hasn't rained and the strong winds amplified by the tunnel effect of the High St. literally filled the sail of our Viking ship so that it was mainly a matter of guiding the boat and holding it back as the wind blew it down the length of the village.

By 10.00 this morning we were in the boat park loading everything into the skiff before pushing it all the way to the other end of the High St. The road hadn't been closed yet so every now and again we pulled over to one side to allow the traffic past. With parking on one side even on a normal day the traffic flow is dependant on good manners with cars having to take turns to get past each other.

 

Having made it safely to the other end we converted the rowing club's skiff into a mini Viking longship which as we explained to the judges would have a mini Viking complete with small dog sitting in it. The ship was a real team effort. Nick had constructed secure fittings for the mast which came complete with a pulley system so that the sail could easily be raised and lowered. Something that can be used in future years. 

Di and Adi painted the sail with the Viking compass and Wendy built an amazing dragon figure head which along with the shields (my contribution) will now be used with the schoolchildren that Di teaches.

I had fun with face paints and make up pencils at home and then brought my stuff along so that other people could have tattoos as well.  If I'd had more time at home I could have made my eyes even more dramatic though even what I had took quite a bit of scrubbing to remove.

We decided it was safer for our mini Viking to sit in the boat rather than stand at the front by the prow so it wasn't possible to have bubbles coming out of the dragon's mouth but that didn't matter. He did a grand job with the bubble gun and the wind kept a steady stream of bubbles blowing forwards over the boat and the carnival walkers in front of us. We'll definitely be using the bubble gun again in future years.

Here is a FB video of the start of the carnival - samba band, walkers and us at 4.45. The rest of the floats were behind us and I'll post photos once they appear on FB. As can been seen it's very much an event where everyone, local groups, families and even dogs join in.

At the end of the carnival we brought the skiff back to the boat park and returned it to its undecorated state. I took as much of our stuff as I could home where I cleaned my face, brushed my hair which looked like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards and changed out of my costume. 

I then went back down to Gill's house which had been decorated for the day (decorated houses are part of the carnival competition). We had been invited to Gill's for hot dogs and other food and drinks. For me a mug of tea was exactly what I needed after so many hours on foot. 

Refreshed a group of us wandered over to the carnival field where there were food trucks, stalls selling funfair tat, children's funfair rides, a bar and a sound stage. This year there was the largest lorry ever which tows a similarly sized trailer that sells Indian food. Unfortunately the field has very soft ground and one side of the lorry had sunk right up to the axles. That's going to be difficult to get out. 

Carnival spectators and participants set up chairs and picnic mats to socialise and dance to the loud DJ. A sort of large open air party. It's a fun atmosphere but after a while Peter and I together with Dave and his dog Jake retreated to the relative peace of a bench by the RNLI overlooking the beach. I eventually got cold and came home and Peter followed later.

Update - we came second though it really is all about taking part.