One week to go, I contacted my UK friend to confirm the address of the show and check the weather forecast, it was good !. Living in north Germany, we had not been to the UK before and never driven on the left side so we were a little nervous.
Friday morning our preparations were complete and we headed to Vanwest 2008, a 6hr drive got us to Belgium for a ride on the ferry which arrived in Dover soon after.
A further 4 hours of left side reminders, a pleasant drive in the countryside and we entered Sparkford, immediately we could see hundreds of camper pop tops over the hedges and flags flying in the afternoon sunshine, it was quite a spectacle, we were excited and relieved to have arrived at the Haynes International Motor Museum.
Hello’s were said and we set up camp, everyone was friendly and relaxing in the evening sunshine, we made some new friends and shared beers around the Barbie.
‘Bars open’ came the loud message !, we freshened up with a hot shower and wandered around to see the band, ironically called ‘ The Ginga Hitlas’, it was a fun nite before we hit the sack.
‘That’s the uber bog !’, came the shout from a young child as I emerged from my camper with a fat head, it was already hot and people were cooking a strange English breakfast, it smelled ok so we dined with our new friends and swapped stories.
As we strayed around , there were many parts and VW things for sale among the hundred or so traders, we watched a T5 bus being bombed and listened to a tech talk before checking out the autojumble, cars for sale, club displays and special 60yrs of the bus display. There was also a photo board of last year and a magazine library - we borrowed a few.
Choice for food was varied, we ate and listened to live music by ‘Kayla Kavanagh’. It was getting very hot by now so we escaped the sun and watched the Pinstriping Demonstration and workshop whilst the kids did the colouring competition and treasure hunt. We were also given a box and some tape to build a kids camper !.
Time for some track action, we watched as several vehicles laid down some rubber and got it loose around the impressive test track, these included several fast splitties, baja’s, buggies, golfs and even a sunbeam tiger V8. As the sun cooled off, we built our bus, watched the Poy circus workshop do some tricks and finish with a fire show, the kids loved it !, ‘Kayla’ did another set and we headed down to the family disco and competitions, this was followed by ‘The Emperials’, Ska band. In the Madness everyone went one step beyond and got baggy trousers, another great nite - never done the Oaky Coaky before.
Sunday was spent with a fat head, watching more track action, more bus bombing, kids competitons, bus displays, kids drag racing and generally looking around the trade village before the trophy presentations, it was a very chilled out friendly show.
Before too long, it was time to, pack up, say our goodbyes and nurse our suntans off to see some friends in Bristol. We thoroughly enjoyed our first British VW show experience and will certainly be back next year.
Kind regards
Bernd and Nancy ( Germany)
VanWest is proudly sponsored by: |
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| Brickwerks | Products and services for the T3 |
| German Swedish French | New parts |
| Gasure UK | LPG Conversions |
| Heritage Volkwagen | Bristol's local VW Dealership |
| Syncrospares | Parts and accessories for the VW T3 4x4 |
| KGC Bristol | VW paint and bodyshop supplies |
| Styleline | T4 interiors |
Thank you to everyone who helped make VanWest such a great weekend and thanks also to him/her upstairs for bringing out the sunshine, so it's TanWest this year rather than VanWet last! Phew!
Can't wait til next year? Then take in Bristol Volksfest in June or maybe Oktoberfest in October (when else?)
