VW Kombi.comSome time ago I wrote an article that was featured in Camper & Commercial magazine. At the end of it I wrote:
"Now, we’re getting settled in again in the UK and finding all manner of jobs that need doing on the van. She’s a rust-free Aussie battler, for sure, but she’s not show car material. She won’t win any prizes for now, unless there’s one for ‘Biggest Holiday Souvenir’. "
The funny thing is that this weekend just gone, Ethel was a show vehicle - and the reason for it was because she was a holiday souvenir. OK, well that’s not how they labelled it: I had taken the van up to Vanfest (who, incidentally, have possibly the worst VW web site in the world) in Malvern to park up in the "Well-Travelled Bus" category. Look, people actually looking at my van at a show! Actually, they’re looking at the map of the route we took around Australia rather than the van. Still counts though, doesn’t it?
I’d like to say that Vanfest was a great show but I can’t say that with hand on heart because, as I discovered, there’s a problem with exhibiting like this - you don’t get see much of the show. Sure, I wandered around the trade stands picking up some goodies for the van, but other than that I really didn’t see that many buses at the show (I hardly even took that many pictures at Vanfest, which is unusual for me). Admittedly I was only there for the day (no overnight camping) and also spent half the morning wrestling with door fittings (I’d started to strip down the cab door to replace the window winder mechanism only to discover that it was far from an easy procedure, and was made all the more horrible by the sheer volume of Waxoyl that I had previously sprayed inside the door cavity. Maybe next year I’ll make a weekend of it. And when/if I do, I’ll drive up there on a decent set of tyres that aren’t likely to blow out and cause a nasty accident en-route!
How’s that for a shocker?
