Glasto mud normally goes through 5 stages of muddiness over the time of the festival as the rains descend and then (normally) decrease to allow the sun to shine:

1.   Hard mud, found under lots of green grass (that's the kind we like)

2.   Slushy, wet, face-pack mud

3.   Lethal skating mud - think of a big brown ice-rink

4.   Knee breaking superglue mud (the worse kind)

5.   Elastic mud - it's like bouncing on a springy mattress.

This year thanks to the fact that it was officially the wettest Glastonbury since time began we never got past stage 4 and actually spent most of the weekend at stage 2 and 3. But did that deter us from having a ball? Of course not...

For sure Glastonbury has it's low moments like spending the best part of an hour trudging through mud and masses of people to get to the Pyramid Stage to watch The Killers, bypassing the toilets on the way (and queuing for 30 mins with your legs crossed) so you get to there seconds before the start, then get very stuck in stage 4 mud only to find that once you've pulled yourself out and attempted to squeeze nearer to the front you're greeted with a sound system so poor that it's just like being at the world's biggest karaoke singalong in the pouring rain ("right that's it I'm going home").

But for every low there are always a lot more highs (and not the chemical kind) that make you smile and laugh again... Maximo Park, Super Furry Animals, Damien Rice, Euros Childs and The Bootleg Beatles stand up and take a bow. Patrick, Mark and Teresa stand up and take two bows. The guy who pulled me out of the mud at the circus field on Sunday afternoon, stand up and take 3 bows. The Brothers Cider stall, you can take as many bows as you like.

Glastonbury Festival is a makeshift town with 165,000 temporary but very friendly and happy residents who are out to have the time of their life despite what's thrown at them... there really is no place on earth like it and I'm already counting down the days until Glasto 2008. It was most certainly a very fitting finale to all of this travel lark.

And on that note, I'll say a last goodbye.

Viv

xxx

Footnote: If you want to see my dirty weekend in Somerset, pictures are on the site and as a treat there's a few videos too.