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It is 0450 hrs and I am wide awake, which is rather annoying as there are still 10 minutes until the alarm is due and those ten minutes would have rounded up my total nights sleep to a nice four hours. Still on the plus side I haven’t woken the rest of the house. Slowed by the after effects of the previous evening it takes me 45 minutes to leave the house. A vital part of that time is spent pouring over the map comparing the excruciating detail of the AA Auto Route directions with the road map. It has been a long time since I last made the pilgrimage to Dunsfold for the open weekend and there are two things that stick in my mind; I got lost trying to find it and it was very cold. So armed with my map, directions and some nice warm clothing I set forth. Just as an after thought I chucked a pair of shorts and a tee shirt into my Bergen, well you never know! I had an excellent journey until I left the final A road, shortly after which I missed a turning, travelled some distance out of my way and got hopelessly lost. I think that part of the mystique of Dunsfold is that only those with grit and determination ever make it to the event – the rest are still out there in the wilderness trying to find their way. This is perpetuated by the complete lack of event signs to guide the hapless pilgrim with the single exception of large DEFENDER signs at the entrance to Dunsfold Land Rover. Thank goodness I had decided not to try and find it in the dark! Phil Bashall pointed me in the direction of the Club display area and as I approached I spotted Richard Lock with his usual huge grin. Clearly a man in his natural environment, a field full of Land Rovers. Special effects man Jeremy was there with his 101 Ambulance “Matron”, Sarah Patterson and Anthony Burroughs with their winterised 90, Chris and Barbara Thomas with their 110 2.5 diesel FFR hardtop and Dirk Huperz with another 110, this time a V8 GS. So along with Richard and Becky’s 127 Ambulance the line up was virtually all coil sprung. At one time when I attended a show my 90 was the youngest vehicle amongst an array of Lightweights and 109’s, and was duly ignored by the general public as beingtoo new to be interesting. Which just goes to show how things change. This time with the exception of the 101, mine was the oldest vehicle. Fortunately this was rectified later in the day when Budd Tilton turned up with his Series III Marshall-bodied Ambulance. This also meant that we had three different varieties of Ambulance on the display, which was nice. All we needed was a fire engine to represent all three emergency services, Police, Fire and Ambulance. I did spot a tidy series IIA lightweight with Sankey trailer which belonged to a Club member just there for the day. Apart from ourselves there were a number of other clubs including all the series clubs. Graham Holding was present with his surplus parts and equipment and BDR Trading Surplus of Worthing had a stall with surplus clothing, ammo boxes and jerry cans. Land Rover Gear had a stall strategically close to the Bar, although a similar proximity to the portaloos was probably less of a benefit. Landcraft had brought along an extensive range of models for the younger enthusiast and collector alike. As in previous years the REME museum at Bordon was represented. They carried out a recovery demonstration using a 1937 Morris recovery truck to extract the remains of an Alvis Stalwart from the undergrowth. Dunsfold Land Rover has now become the home of the late John Parker’s model collection. No, not that kind of model!! Miniatures of the real thing, in various scales and materials. Most important of course were the Dunsfold Collection vehicles. The collection has been enhanced with the addition of some former Gaydon vehicles, including an amphibious 109 built for the Australian Army and, my personal favourite, a military specification 90 which was preserved as a reference vehicle and is absolutely pristine. (Barbara, I checked the indicator lenses and they were all marked front! Mine are now correct.) Finally of course there were all the visitors vehicles. All in all, something for everyone. By about 1400 hrs I was feeling very hungry so decided it was time to cook myself a full English breakfast. There must have been something fascinating about this because as I sat eating it I was photographed. Perhaps I will appear in some obscure European Land Rover magazine. The afternoon drew on and things quietened down as the general public left. Richard and I were standing by his ambulance when I spotted a hot air balloon in the distance and pointed it out. “It sounds like some-one is trying to inflate one behind that tree” was Richard’s comment. At that moment a balloon emerged from behind the tree and attempted to land. However, as there were a few vehicles in the middle of the field the pilot aborted the attempt. There was some speculation as to whether he would make it over the workshop buildings, but with vigorous applications of heat he just made it. A few minutes later another balloon came in very low and we thought it was going to crash on the off-road course but, passing through the tree tops, it made an excellent landing on the field before us. At this point a woman charity fund raiser rushed up and demanded a donation from the occupants and a lively discussion followed, much to the amusement of those of us spectating.
Richard had acquired some items from a fellow ambulance owner who was going to carry out a full camper conversion in preparation for a long overland trip. As we stood in front of his vehicle Richard remarked that it was a pity that he could not swap bonnets as the other vehicle’s was much straighter. I suggested that we could knock some of the dents out, so we set about removing the bonnet, rummaged about for a rubber mallet and with a block of wood which Budd loaned and proceeded to beat the living daylights out of it. Now I don’t know if it was the ringing of aluminium or that strange phenomenon that whenever you work on a vehicle at a show a crowd gathers, but pretty soon we were surrounded by onlookers. By now we had progressed to a large wooden mallet and there were even those who wanted a turn themselves. Apart from a few cracks in the paint the end result was quite good!
Phil Bashall provided a communal barbecue, but we gathered round a disposable one and watched Becky cremate everything on it (sorry). Then we headed off to have a go at the Dunsfold Impossible Quiz. This quiz is legendary for banal and obscure facts. If you are the sort of person who knows the chassis number at which the 6 cylinder engine was introduced then you would have no problems. The winner got 34 out of the 44 questions correct, to which the general response was “you need to get out more!” As a team we new such things as the manufacturer of the Pope Mobile and what EOD and JATE stand for, and managed a respectable 17. We fared better in the general knowledge quiz and were only one point behind the winner. I think that the ladies predominantly dealing with this had a big influence on our success. Unprepared as I had been for the glorious sunshine during the day, I knew that the night was going to be cold and a 9x9 tent is not exactly draught proof, however clad in a track suit, sleeping bag liner and snug in my arctic sleeping bag I had an excellent nights sleep. So apparently did every-one else as no-one stirred much before 0830 hrs.
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