Drumming up numbers to visit Cuttlebrook Koi Farm was not too difficult an undertaking for our valiant forum moderator, Donald. After a few months of spreading word around the forum that Cuttlebrook would be opening its doors to them exclusively for the day, Donald found that there was by no means a lack of interest from his fellow forum buds.

Beckie and I joined 60 or more of the Koimag members at the ever sunny Koi farm in Oxfordshire one Saturday in May. We were amazed to see such a fantastic turnout of forum members, all keen to be the first to get their hands on a top Koi bred by Mark and Lisa Davis right here in the UK. The family rarely open the farm up to members of the public so we all felt quite privileged to be guests at their fantastic location.

And the day wasn’t solely taken up by the perusing of Koi ponds – there was business to be done as Mark and Lisa put on a treasure hunt, which saw various forum members dotted all over the grounds searching for the next clue in an attempt to win the £30 voucher to spend at the farm. There was also a judging competition – which was seemingly harder than it looked! And a short talk from Mark about a large mystery invention of his... But you’ll have to be a visitor to the farm on another special occasion to find out what it was!

Look out for our full write-up of the day in the Summer issue (issue 136) of Koi.