Historic Vehicle Gathering 2008

XR antics:

The rest of the show:

It was an early start for me to pick up some bits to drop off at lauras. I left my house

at about 11 friday morning & headed for Torquay where I dropped the bits off at the paint shop (ooops)

before picking Laura up from work back & then seeing how much stuff you can get in a sierra boot!!

We eventually left for the show at about 6.30 but the torrential rain had really set in.

After arriving at powderham castle we drove round & round until we found a spot by a big old tree less than 30 seconds walk from the beer tent, the perfect place to set up camp. The only problem was the rain was so bad that it was impossible to put a tent up,

We decided to investigate the beer tent & after a couple of drinks things were looking a bit brighter, in fact the rain had dropped off so we made the decision to have a mad half hour & get the tents up.

For Laura & I our tent went up easily with no hitches but unfortunately for Brian he found that they had forgotten the inner of their tent, this didnt go down to well & in that weather the inner (or at least a ground sheet) was essential. Luckily for Brian Laura had an extra ground sheet.

We were all a bit cold and wet so we had an early-ish night to dry out and get ready for the following day.

We woke up on the saturday morning to be greated by glorious sunshine so after breakfast

(thank you to laura for cooking) we made our way over to the showground and started to

get the stand set up & looking good. Unfortunatley mother nature had other ideas & the rain set in again, all day it was rain showers followed by sunshine.

Brian found a Mercedes marquee unattended & decided to shelter in there as the rain was getting steadily worse. The wind was getting stronger & stronger, so much so that after a strong gust the Porsche club lost 3 gazebos, it was not long after we decided to take ours down to be safe!!!!

We did get time to have a look round between the rain & get some cracking pictures but the weather was getting really bad so mid afternoon we returned to the camp site & had a chat. Brian had to make the decision to go home due to the weather & the lack of inner tent so that left just Steve, Laura & I.

The general feeling was that we were going to leave shortly after Brian but we didnt fancy taking the tents down in the rain. After a drink or too we decided to see how it was in the

morning. We warmed ourselves with a proper hot meal (thanks again laura) & a few cups of tea.

We had a visit from one of the organisers of the show who informed us a storm was coming (something about a force 8 was mentioned) & that maybe it would be safer to not have the tents under the tree. If they thought we were mucking around with tents in that weather they were sadly mistaken! Fortunately they decided we would be ok & left us to it.

We hit the sack to see what sunday bought.

You guessed it, Sunday bought a lot more rain & by breakfast time the organisers decided to cancel

the show due to the ground being totally swamped & a many of the cars & exhibits getting stuck.

Can you guess what happened 10 mins after the show was cancelled?

Thats right, the sun came out & it turned into a rather hot day but by this time a lot of people

had started to pack up so we did the same. The tents were collapsed and stuffed in their bags, Laura & I continued loading the cars while Steve went & collected our show plaques.

We headed out of the swamp, Laura only just made it out of one particularly muddy bit & managed to cover her car in the process. We headed back home to a warm dry house.

All in all we enjoyed our time there an will be back next year just keep fingers crossed

for some better weather next time.

Write up by Jaffa