Tuesday, May 29, 2007
I think that was an album by the 4 Non Blondes. More importantly, Biggar was the venue for Volksfling last weekend.
The BananaBus at Biggar
We think we might have won the "most picturesque drive down" competition we decided to unofficially run. Glencoe was looking suitably spectacular and not a little bit imposing as can be seen in the photos. The A82 - a helluva state normally - was fairly bump free but very busy Northbound with Bank Holiday weekend traffic.
We made good time in the newly revamped Banana Bus as we dropped in at Bridgeton to collect Grampa John (my dad) and enjoy a cuppa and a Tunnock's Caramel Wafer...milk, not plain. Jings! The very thought...
Onwards then, sniggering quietly at the shockingly busy northbound A74, we pottered along through exotic sounding places like "Crossford," "Lanark" and the strangely twee sounding, "Symington." There were loads and loads of garden centres and my dad wasted no time in reminiscing about berry picking when my sister and I were wee...needless to say I recall nothing of this, no doubt in much the same way that Ben will remember little of our rambles and trips in years to come. I digress...
We arrived, problem free in Biggar. But not before we'd attempted a new world record for "nummber of times you can cross the Clyde in one hour in a Camper Van" (6) en route. I've still never managed to make my way to the source of the river up in the Lowther Hills but it was certainly little more than a big stream by the time we neared Biggar having been about three quarters of a mile wide* as we (ahem) sped over the Erskine Bridge.
*just a guess...how do you measure that when you've forgotten to start counting as you drive onto the bridge?
The festival itself...well what can one say? Never entirely sure of the point of these things but we got rid of the old fridge from the bus which was collected on behalf of another 80-90 person by Tony & Nic whom I had trouble locating. As I said to them in a text when they'd suggested meeting by the bouncy castle, "I feel like Tony Hawks...I'll be the one with the fridge."
Having also met up with Steve of VWInteriors "fame" to get a bike rack in exchange for a snowboard - as one does - we then bumped into more 80-90ers in the shape of the Bowton Lad & Beach Bum...both of whom have lovely buses, it must be said. Now, I may be sad but I'm not that sad so I didn't take photos of their vans. I did, however, get a photo of Fritz's camper. Fritz has been a long time 80-90 correspondent and has
answered many a query and helped me offload an unwanted Christmas DVD by swapping it for a Sheryl Crow CD. Which was nice....Steve's Split
Fritz has a big family and a big van to match. Not that I'm saying his van looks like his family, that would just be daft but what it does look like is great fun, having - as it does - one of those fantastic Viking spacesaver roofs.
It was brilliant to finally put a face to a name and Maisie would gladly have stayed in their pop-up all day!
Fritz's exciting paintjob.
After that it was nearly time to hit the road, having singularly failed to locate any nice melamine dining ware but not before we'd hit the West of Scotland VW Club stand to acquire a t-shirt for Ben and say hello to Chris & Dave. Lovely, helpful types who've pointed me in the right direction as I sought to sort out the van following the vandalism.
Highlight of the day had to be on the way out. Desperately in need of a caffeine hit, I spied a lovely green panel van. How is that of any use? Check out the photo and the link and this one to see why! Inspired. It made me think we'd need to use our recently borrowed wind turbine (don't ask, long story...will explain in the summer) to power our Gaggia. What's more worrying? The fact that I even thought of doing that or the fact that I'm not joking?
Chocolate sprinkles sir?
Anyway, reasonably uneventful drive home but we did spot the very nice - I thought - race card building (is that the right name?) at the disused Lanark Racecourse. Following an odd incident where we thought for a moment we had entered the Isle of Man TT just south of Crianlarich, we were able to continue our picturesque driving theme by zooming up through Glencoe & Ballachulish then over the Corran Ferry as the sun went down. People pay money to come here you know!
TT Ecosse?
...Ballachulish at Sundown
...The Corran Ferry
A lovely day, lovely people, lovely coffee and lovely to be back on the road in the Banana Bus.
Labels: biggar, volksfling, vw
