Then last year my mum bought me volksworld magazines and I realised that there are shows all year round where hundreds of VW campers and cars flock to be shown off by their owners. Hundreds of campers in one place, sounds almost like heaven!
Since I've been fixing up my camper I've joined a VW club in Swindon, called Dublands (www.dublands.co.uk). We meet up monthly but the club also goes along to different VW shows. So when they said they were going to Stonar Park, one of the biggest camper shows in the VW calendar, nothing was going to stop me going!
Those who were leaving from Swindon had to be at the meeting point before 9am so that we would be on time picking up those meeting at Didcot. Not being native to Swindon I needed to leave at 8am. This was no problem as, just like the Disney advert, I was just so excited to go I ended up waking up at 5 and was ready to leave at 7!!!
Once I was dropped off at the meet, I was going to be riding with, one of the only girls in the club, Jazz. We were going to be cruising in her lovely little Blue Polo GT.
Once we were all sorted we set off to Didcot with Adam and his family in the lead, in their orange bay camper! :). The sun was shining, Lily Allen was playing on the stereo, the windows where down and we were cruising, everything was good! We met the rest at Didcot and then cruised our way along to Stonar Park.
As we had come down the back roads we only had a 2-3 minute wait to get through the gates. When we got through, there were hundreds and hundreds of VWs everywhere. I didn't know where to look first! As the show wasn't just for campers there were loads of VW cars there too. Some vehicles looking like they had come straight from the factory others were going more for the rat rod look.
The whole Dub crew parked up together and Adam put up the Dublands' flag. Once base was set up it was time to explore, well once we had found the loos!
We decided to look at the stalls before lunch and then the VWs after. We all broke off into little groups to have a nosey round the stalls. There were heaps of stuff, from parts for your dub to camper van styled teapots! There were stalls selling stickers for your dubs with sayings like 'You may out run me, but I'll out live you' and 'It’s a dub thing, you wouldn't understand'. Some stalls were not even VW related, such as the stall selling clothes from the pussycat range of New Look! None the less I managed to find a VW Transporter 1982 to 1990 Haynes manual, which I had been looking for, for ages, a VW cloth badge for my travellers blanket and a cute little bracelet.
At 1pm we had lunch under the awning of the Bay camper van. We were absolutely baking and we all looked like we needed the break. While sitting there we could see those who were just arriving. Most of the camper vans where in such good condition they put mine to shame, though admittedly they were mainly splits and bays coming through the gates and my camper is a T25!
After lunch we went off to look at what I had been waiting to see since I had got there, THE CAMPERS :D...Oh and the cars as well of course! The first group I went off with were more into the cars and liked to take their time, so when I saw the camper van group whizzing along I thought I'd go and join them. Though there were some interesting cars, such as the orange beetle with a wind-up key in the back of it!
Karen and I broke off from the rest of the group to go and have a nosey at the splits and bays! There where loads of them, row after row after row. I had never seen so many campers in one place. Karen told me that the guy who runs the split screen club rang them all up to come along to the event. He must have had a lot of ringing up to do!
Disappointingly there were none painted in a psychedelic fashion, so I didn't really get any ideas for my camper's body work. I did however, have a little nosey at some of the camper's interiors for ideas. Some were pretty plain or mixed matched and others had a nice little theme running throughout.
After our little mosey round the splits screens Karen and I went off in hunt of a T25 owner to ask some questions to do with getting to and replacing the brake fluid. We found an owner of one who was very helpful. He showed us that all we needed to do was to pop off the cover over the Speedo and unscrew the little cap to be able to access the brake fluid. Cha! That simple and we'd thought we might need to take off the whole dashboard! After that we had a little wander around the stalls again before meeting up with everyone else to head back to our vehicles.
My first and hopefully not my last VW festival was over. The day had been great, it had been beautiful weather throughout and I still can't believe how many camper vans there were! It was a great experience and I can't wait for the next VW festival with the Dublands gang :D. Next year, hopefully, I'll be going in my camper to Stonar Park (Hopefully)!
Bucket List experience cost:
1. Stonar Park Ticket: £8
2. VW Transport 1982 - 1990 Manual: £16.95
3. VW cloth badge: £1
4. Bracelet: £0.50
Total Bucket List Experience: £26.45
