Presidential Camping Trip 2025

"It is my honour to have been asked by our chairman, Luke to be the President for Halifax Round Table for the 2025/2026 year. It's something of a mentoring role to help guide the Chair and offer my brand of "wisdom' if required during our more formal meetings.

I also have another job which is to organise the President's Trip usually held at the end of January.

The strap line for Round Table is "Do More" and I try to tick that box most days.

We'd had a discussion, and I'd announced that I wanted to arrange a President's Social Event. I was open to offers, and the consensus was for a camping weekend.

I had a few requirements - decent facilities that would allow a family oriented gathering, and a nearby pub. The other requirement was that the campsite would need to be an hour's drive or less from home.

I settled on the Between Rivers Campsite which was, quite handily, in the large garden of a pub, and the facilities included a shower block.

That'll do nicely, I thought to myself. And it was reasonably priced.

So, about 20 of us rocked up for the weekend, we got the club gazebo up - a massive team effort considering it has no instructions and extra poles to bamboozle even the more experienced tent erectors.

Saturday morning saw ominous weather coming in which proved to be the case as it started raining shortly after breakfast.

There was no way that Boules under the gazebo was going to keep everyone entertained for the whole day, and a decent contingent decided on a rainy walk of a few miles with another pub in mind which turned out to be more fun than it sounds. Felicity did a sterling turn fetching us a couple of miles to a second pub that served food for lunch which was above and beyond the call of duty.

We were blessed in the end as the weather cleared just in time for us to fire up the barbecues for dinner. Somehow I ended up becoming Mum for the evening, but cooking on a grill with a (home brewed) beer in my hand on a fine evening is a happy place for me.

Conversation, laughter and excellent company with friends and family was the hope for the weekend. We got that and more, as we reinforced and deepened our bonds if fellowship and friendship."

- Regan Dickenson, Round Table President 2025-26

It looks like we'll be doing it again next year. We had spare tents for the non campers, so not having one isn't a bar for participation.