Wings and Wheels '05

I have been roped into this and the best thing is to get the deed done and dusted!!

It is a shame that it sounds like it is all but forgotten until next year, but this is my chance to re-live all the experiences of a Belgian weekend at Ursel Airfield (God help us all!)

This is the third year running for us at this show and I was recognised as the first English women to attend when we met Pascal and told him of our plans to visit at the War and Peace Show at Beltring this July.

Heidi performed well on the foreign roads with the new gear box and engine, the only problem being the electrical fuses and couple of other minor things. This altered our ideas of route finding on only the country roads, as now we were able to overtake all the lumbering lorries that have to keep to the slow lanes on the A roads and motorways at peak times in Holland. We also had a change of pace when it was time to exit off these nice fast roads because we were on the look out for obscure little towns to fill our shopping list of vehicle spares and this was quite successful.

We arrived at Ursel Airfield at the appointed time and found to our amazement that the site looked full, but we were able to squeeze amongst other vehicles and reserve a little spot for our chums from Germany. Many people eyed this special little place, but we managed to keep it all day until Thorsten, Sabine and Hubert came with their English Military Police Series III Landrover and Munga.

Our other German friends, Sylvia and Jens came with Frank Flick and a fleet of Unimogs and this is when Gareth and I both say ‘Aah, wish we could afford to bring ours’ They managed to muscle their way into a little spot down the road and we often passed them on the way to the military fair that was held way over the other side of the Brugge Aero Club and quite a long walk it was!

In amongst our Landrovers and Unimogs were a few

other military specials, but my favourites were the

DAFs and Minervas. A typical Dutch vehicle was also

parked next to us and that was the Air Portable owned

by Karen and Andy of England, who arrived by satellite navigation and spent all their Euros on Dutch radio equipment. Steven, our friend from Holland with a Dutch Land Rover Ambulance supplied all their needs and told us that this could leave him some room in his garage at home to play with his motorbike.

Being an airfield, you have to mention the aeroplanes and so this is it! (Gareth will supply you with pictures)

I think the favourite part of a show for me is meeting up with friends and having common interests with lots of new people and the Belgians certainly know how to make the English feel welcome and we had many a conversation with the English speaking visitors and even the Flemish and Wallone speakers can manage a word or two about green meanies and our love of them.

Although I say I love meeting the people, I also adore searching out the bargains at the stalls and we did manage to get a new camo net to match our vehicles and the Uzi door mount for Heidi. Gareth managed to bargain for two LAWs and two medium sized ammo boxes and we proved our empty pockets to the stall holder when we were short by a few euros. Of course, he felt sorry for us and sent us packing with our goodies. Shame we hadn’t thought of the money we would need on the way home for food. Never mind, we managed to live on titbits we had left wrapped up in the back of the Land Rover.

The weather kept fine until the Saturday evening and boy, did it rain - but we kept amused by bottles of Hansa beer and fun chats with our German neighbours and went to bed snug and dry in our little Dutch Military Tents - you know, the sort that zip together? Sundays little bit of evening rain saw us hiding under large tarps stretched between Unimogs at Frank’s place, where we had lively banter with all in that camp including Marnix, who used to help Pascal organise things for the show, and he explained all the new layout of this year’s show and also sang ‘My Old Man’s a Dustman’ as he went off with his black bin bags to clear up the site!

Our net was packed away as soon as possible and the tents were only slightly damp on the outside when packed up for the journey back to Blighty.

Goodbye Thorsten, Sabine and Hubert!!! Goodbye Jens and Sylvia!!! Bye bye everyone, see you next year.

Just been told by Gareth that I have left out just one more vital piece of information and that is the visit by Belgian’s leading hearthrob/crooner to the show. This man is legend over in Belgium and his name .................. is Eddy Walley!!! Not my cup of tea, but he is better than Bruce Forsyth (I think?) Decked out in a white suit, panama hat and silver tabbed boots, the women nearly fainted at the sight of him. When I got back to a www - I looked him up and apart from being famous in England on Eurotrash, the poor old bloke is 72!

Last mention goes to Dez from English

Land with his transporter full of green

goodies - he won ‘Best in Show’ (might

be something to do with a little favour

asked of him before he left!) A Fox and

an FV432 were amongst the machinery

he drove over for the show and he told

me he has been to every one!

Lorraine