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ANNUAL REUNION. Northern Spain. 4-8 September 2002

Highlights	Lowlights
The great turn-out: 22	... but no sign or word from Halliday or Moorhouse!
	Cloudy conditions prevented climbing Peña Ubina...
... so we scrambled up La Carba (Dragon Peak) instead.
We found a great unreccied descent off Peña las Cuevas ...	... but got a bollocking for leaving Valerie and Verena behind.
The Beldons spent their rest day in Leon, ostensibly to view the cathedral, but secretly to get Gordon a new pair of boots, 15 years overdue.	Beldon's boots fell apart on the first day. This was not unexpected as he was wearing the same pair that fell apart last time we saw him — Galloway 1988! (We love you really Gordon)
Following the AGM, Beldon presented his old boots to Mad Mike for 20 years of taking the piss ...	... but Petzold thinks he left them in the hotel and Roschnik picked them up by mistake (Rupert?).
On the Saturday, nine of us on El Cornòn, 8,000ft & cold!...	... but got saturated on the way back to Somiedo Pass.
Pauline and Steve Ward received Meths mugs for attending 10 meets in record time (not that Meths is competitive!) ...	... but Axeman dropped Ballcrusher's trophy on the floor and presented it to him in three pieces — even South African Scareways' and Air Wherearewe's baggage handlers couldn't match that!
Ryan Woods was so excited at the prospect of his Suswa wash, he couldn't sleep (not having drunk so much beer as Axeman) and got up early and waited outside the hotel, but ...	... the President had overslept and had to be turfed out of bed for the ceremony ...
...and he finally caught up with Sadie, who swore she would never get in the way of a Suswa; also Jane, Judy and Gordon (about time) who returned the compliment.

Here is some more feedback from participants with better memories than mine:

· We got back fine after a week of great sunshine in England and are so busy that our Spanish trip seems somewhere in the distant past. Thanks very much for all the effort that the two of you put into the annual meet, from finding the great venue to the MGT's at the AGM. Hope we are able to get across to Ireland next year — will work on it.

Cheers and WDYFO,
Lloyd, Janet & boys

· The table, with excellent company and all the bottles of wine.
People very happy to move around and natter to one another.
The cows coming down the High Street and the all pervading smell of cow shit.
On one route that Ian and I did, the smell of horse shit — mind you they were lovely horses.
Wonderful rugged scenery, very different from our travels further on to Picos de Europa;
We stayed again at Santillana del Mar and then enjoyed the trip back to Bilbao.

We were disappointed that we did not make Prick of the Meet after the battle with the hot water, the tap, and the young lady from the kitchen — and the small towel!!!.

Thank you both again for the excellent meet. Brian and Jane

· Ian thoroughly enjoyed Spain, the mountains and meeting up with everyone. He suffered certain tribulations. His daypack was thoroughly searched at Stansted. At the bottom of every pack there is a certain amount of gunge and other residue. They even took a swab of this and tested it. It came up negative. Then Go lost the Presidential Umbrella, which had reached a very venerable state. The ferrule had long been replaced by a bit of gas piping; holes in the original tartan fabric had been patched with black material cannibalised from an even older, more decrepit umbrella. Brian AMLH put in the claim at Bilbao for the lost umbrella, while Axeman was seeing to the car hire. He told them that they had lost the Presidential Umbrella — 'El Presidente's umbrella'. They were most upset and promised to do their utmost to trace such a valuable item and even promised to phone the hotel at Sam Emiliano should it turn up. Needless to say there is no trace of the umbrella. Axeman