The early arrivals went straight to the event hotel, the new Holiday Inn at Southend Airport, a top notch place to stay when you are in the region. A pre-ordered Dinner was set up for those arriving on Thursday evening. This was served at the hotel’s roof top restaurant overlooking the airport. This is where we were also having breakfast all weekend.

A couple of cars were booked in for service or repairs with Steve Tyler of British Legends who did an awesome job over the whole weekend to keep all of us on the road. Thanks again for your support, Steve!

Located just 45 minutes from Central London by train, some took the opportunity for a decent day out on Friday in the UK’s capital.

Friday night saw the hotel’s “Laker Suite” reserved for our first assembly with tasty food and a very special service for us by the hotel crew.

After a yummy breakfast off we went to the Event HQ “The Lodge”, whis is indeed the meeting venue of the MGF Register’s Essex group twice a month. And what a fabulous location that is! A marquee had been left completely to our use, where in the morning roadbooks, plaques and name badges etc were given out.

The following nice drive through peaceful county roads (until we came along, that is) took us to RAF ???, actually a Royal Air Corps station from WW I. Interesting visit with some restored historic planes and lots to learn about the time. We then drove back to Event HQ for a hot buffet lunch.

After lunch, we were back on the pretty roads of Essex and off to the car park of Colchester F.C., where we had to pass a very special driving test. The roadbook then guided us back to The Lodge for dinner, where the winners of the day’s challenges received their awards and a lot of MG related paraphernalia were auctioned off for charity.

In the morning, we hopped on a convoy drive to Event HQ for the start of the day’s journey.

On the Sunday, we were driving further north in the county of Essex among some beautiful buildings and villages, more pleasant roads and a good part of the 2014 Tour de France route. The first target point was a target point literally: the UK government’s secret nuclear safe bunker from the days of the Cold War. A couple of years ago it would have been regarded as high treason just to talk about it!

We then had our packed lunch delivered to the location and had a great break in the sunshine. Afterwards we enjoyed some more challenging driving and paid the medieval town of Saffron Walden a visit.

Then off to the last run of the weekend back to The Lodge, where we enjoyed the final dinner before returning home or to the hotel.

What a great event, definitley one of the all-time best!