At the weekend, David Clark called up and told me to get moving. The Caterline Cartie Challenge was starting!

(Dear reader, in Jockoland - a 'cartie' is something with four wheels, steering and brakes, that you sit on and run down a big hill. No engine, no springs, no car stereo. Simple. Effective).

A fantastic day was had by all. Not only was the 'local' supporting pub The Creel Inn - one of the best in Aberdeenshire, but the rain stayed away. 26 carts of various shapes, colours, and professionalism did three timed trials down 'the brae'. I'm guessing the brae is about a mile long, and drops at least 500 feet. A nice, gravel technical set of curves at the start (at the top of the cliffs), followed by a long sweeping corner down to the boathouse at sea level.

I was really surprised by the marshalls. Clearly, the dozen or so folks had done this before, but were tooled up with walkies, dayglow jackets, first aiders, the lot. Very well organised. Just look at the rules for entrance to see what I'm talking about:

Design 1. Cartie must not have any parts to aid speed, for example (but not limited to) catapults, elastic bands, pedals, hamsters, motors, propellers, jet engines, balloons, pigeons, warp drives, teleporters, springs or anything else like that. It's not complicated. It's just a free wheel gravity powered cartie.