Beltring 07
War and Peace - Beltring 2007 aka P & W
As it was the 25th Anniversary of the show, Gareth and I were looking forward to a ‘great’ time and booked the whole week off work to make the most of it!
Our plan was to leave when we were ready on Saturday 14th and therefore no last minute rushing, but nearer the time for off we felt a little deflated - don’t really know why, but we were. We decided to still go for the week but stalled our departure by making a fruit cake that takes an hour’s prep and two hours cooking and for some reason could not bring ourselves to lug the kit bag out with our Dutch uniforms - same went for the radio aerial mount, camo net and extras.
We had also planned to take at least two of our vehicles, but ended up with just our Heidi and headed off for a quiet trip down the A12 and M25. Phew!!!! - every other bugger was on there too and the M25 took two hours to travel just a few exits. We at last arrived travel weary and ready to climb into a tent. But after booking in, the real test began. Where do we push in amongst the roped off corrals? We were under the impression that by getting there super-early, we could have our pick in the Americas Field. This was made a little more difficult because we had sort of promised our friend Thorsten we would reserve him a spot next to us for two other vehicles and six friends of his. We did find this elusive spot but it was opposite the ‘Heliport’ which would set up later in the week.
After setting up our one-man Dutch tents we went in search of buddies and EMLRA who should have had their usual spot on the ‘highway’ to the arena, but were absent. We eventually found a few members in the opposite end of our field and had a chat with Mick Bone (from Harlowstan cum Trotskiland) plus Jan and his wife. A few explanations were bandied about as to where the EMLRA pitch was, but we were happy as always on our own.
Sunday 15th
Found our ‘local’ club EAFVG in the shape of Andy and Maurie who were awaiting arrival of all the rest. Had a quick walk to market to see how many traders were setting up and bumped into other members, Paul, Kelly, Chris and Ian aka PICK who were busy bargain hunting already and only six stalls (slight exaggeration) were there to peruse. We all decided to have lunch together over in the Hop Farm Cafe and enjoyed getting stuck to the tables. For some reason, the varnish had gone ‘off’ but they were to be replaced soon. Had another stroll round with PICK and made arrangements to go out to dinner with them that evening at the ‘local’ Brewers Fayre(?) Had great fun here, especially watching P attempt to eat a mammoth Chocolate Sundae that was meant for two. He could not do it and this is all I am prepared to say.
Monday 16th
Went to visit EAFVG and found Ed and Martin had also arrived. Chatted to them for a while, but because tea was not offered, buggered off quite soon.
Had another look round the market and just a few more traders had turned up - really thought that the traders would have got set up by now as the green machines and their humans drove in at a rate of knots. We had arrived Wednesday in the past and everywhere was raring to go, so the slow progress of that ‘show feeling’ was a mystery. Maybe it would arrive tomorrow?
Had visits from Maurie on a bike, Mick on a Tomas Slowped (slopehead) and Paul on his little hairdryer on wheels which Gareth had a quick ride on. Seems to be quite a craze, getting yourself a runaround for the show!
Talking of visits, had quite a few from our friend Stefan aka Taffie who can talk the hind leg of a donkey, but is a good laugh! He is a very careful man with his money, except where vehicles of the green kind are concerned!
Sylvia Benub had left us a message in Heidi’s guestbook to say that she would be looking out for us at Beltring and this she did, when she pulled up in her Dodge ambulance to invite us over to the next field for drinkie-poos that evening.
On the way to Sylvia - we went in search of Steven and his wife, who own a Dutch Laro ambulance and have a wealth of knowledge and odd bits for sale, not forgetting radios of the Philips kind. Very Dutch!!!!!!!! We promised them a phone number that I would have to search out and went off to find our German friend Sylvia who was in her usual spot along with Frank Flick of Batcave (Unimog bits) had an evening of discussion and Gareth went off dribbling at the thought of owning a MAN. A friend of Frank and Sylvia had invited Gareth to climb into the driving seat of his very old truck and Gareth was besotted with it.
Tuesday 17th
After a night of electrical storms that lit up the tent and a little rain, the day faired well and we bumped into Steve De’Ath and Janko who are two very dodgy characters and always on the look out for a good deal or to sell you the coat off their back (or even vehicle).
Our chat with these two and Janko's wife, were cut short when Thorsten phoned to say he was at the booking-in tent and needed to know if and where the saved spot was. We rushed over as fast as we could in the heat and dust and met up with them as they were pulling our boundary stakes out of the ground. Although we were very pleased to see them all, the pace got quicker and we were soon surrounded by the German contingent. All this was very worrying for all our neighbours that watched the invasion and they raised their concerns and as a group, had a quiet word with us. This was to invite us to their side of the fence where they had a ‘spot’ for us as they could see how noisy the Germans were getting. We thanked them for their offer, but did not have the heart to tell them that the Germans were actually our friends and we had invited them to invade.
After a while we had thoughts of better places to be, as that ‘show feeling’ had still not come to us. We had decided to up and off it to France the next day, with the channel being within the hour. All that promise of French fancies was too much to resist. A shopping list was mentally prepared, but no itinerary!!! Thorsten had kindly brought us a B S P from Sabine (who sadly could not make the show) and showed us his wonderful photos of his trip to Cambodia in a ‘duck’ which in English is a Citreon 2CV Sorry, B S P stands for Beltring Survival Pack and was full of goodies that we love. ‘Thankyou Sabine and hope to see you soon!’
Once we had this to look forward to, we were happy enough to enjoy our last day at Beltring, but we thought we'd better keep this quiet from everyone. We were invited to Ian’s 50th Birthday get together and we told them that we had other plans that we could not divulge even under pressure. We were planning to slip out the back gate for a shopping trip on wednesday - but didn’t specify where that shopping would take place!
Looked out for our friends at the Dutch ‘War Horses’ and only saw Timo who came over to our camp and advised us on a few things. He also pointed out on our European Atlas where there were a few more museums to visit when we managed to get to Holland again.
Wednesday 18th
Managed to dry off our tents and get them rolled away without anyone noticing and this was easy surrounded by the Germans. Had a slow look round the market, now that a few more stalls had been erected. Found Marnix our friend from the Ursel Wings and Wheels Show that we always attend in August in Belgium. Sylvia and Frank were already at his stall and we were offered Leffe 9 (far too strong for day time drinking?) We had pepsi instead and Gareth kindly took some awful photos of Marnix and me (not sure if I will allow them on the photo gallery).
Had a cup of cha with EAFVG (East Anglian Fighting Vehicle Group) Thank you Maurie, it were smashing and more of our local club had arrived by then.
As we were bent on going at five o’clock or a little before, we were thinking of having something substantial to eat to tide us over (ha ha) ‘til French breakfast the next morning!! We did have a good meal and then packed up Heidi ready for the off.
I was trying to keep calm, especially when we bumped into David and Lyndsey who were there for the day and to celebrate with Ian for his birthday. Had to keep a lid on it and we just said ‘yes’ when they asked if they would be seeing us later.
Got off at the desired time and just waved nonchalantly to all those we passed on the way out. We had left our show passes in Heidi’s window and bands round our wrist as we made our way to Dover. Left ourselves so much time to get there, but the roads were busy and got there just in good time for the 20.00 crossing. I was wanting Gareth to pinpoint which direction we would be heading once we disembarked at Dunkerque - after a quick look in our old atlas, Gareth pointed out that one of the ‘must sees’ in the front index we had not yet visited and that was le Mont Saint Michel. My idea was to get as much European shopping as possible by going to the most central town in Belgium that would be surrounded by Holland, Germany and France. I thought I had found the ideal place, but this meant quite a bit of hectic motoring and this was our ‘extra’ holiday and we wanted to enjoy this. We slept on the A16 in a rest area, but had to remember we were facing in the wrong direction for our chosen destination of le Mont in the morning.
