What an adventure BeachBuggin was!

The last time we all headed down to the seaside at Southsea in a VW for Beachbuggin was 2007. It was an overcast day with a spot of rain from memory (and looking through the old photos) This year the day dawned bright and sunny so a little later than planned we loaded up and headed off. Not being beholden to a club stand we were going it alone and hoping to bump into some friends during the day. All was going smoothly as we left the bottom of the A3 and headed into Southsea, a quiet rumble got a bit louder and there was a faint smell of rubber so we pulled into a handy layby and got out to investigate, all looked ok but the Camper refused to fire up, just turned over lazily, after a few minutes head scratching and searching I admitted defeat and called the breakdown company with a wait of an hour we settled in for a drink and some cake.



Loads of fellow dubbers passed by, the was the odd honk but nobody stopped to help. The Fullyloadeds on route to the show in their new T5 pulled over with offers of assistance but there was nothing to do but wait. Just after being told that we had a 15 minute wait as the driver refuelled a familiar Cowprint Bay pulled in behind us, it was Ed who we had camped with at Camperjam. He offered to have a look (he’s an AA recovery driver so it was rude to turn him down) within seconds he had it sussed as the fan belt top pulley fell apart in his hands. (the heat of the engine had kept it together whilst bolted in place but as it cooled it was game over)



With the offending part removed Ed and family clambered aboard the Cow van and headed for the show, top of their list a new pulley. Breakdown arrived soon after and with two hours of calling them we were unloaded into the carpark.



Alan (Ed’s uncle) had the new part in with in a few minutes tools had been twirled and Leonard fired into life once more, needing to leave him to cool for a bit before attempting the trip home we thought we’d make the most of the show. With the sun beating down we set off across the common. The show was bigger than 5 years ago with lots of traders and plenty of show’n’shine to admire.







Stopping by one of the club stand we said a few hellos and told the tale of the pulley. Before heading off across the common once more.













We headed over to the coachbuilt corner for a chat with Gren & Jan and then aimed ourselves towards the beach and a well earned ice cream, and of course a glance at the hovercraft!









Meandering through the rows of dubs we started saying a few goodbyes and stopped for a chat with Matt.





With fingers crossed and a cautionary top up of oil we set off through the traffic and on to the motorway, keeping the speed down and stopping to check things a couple of times we made it back in a couple of hours, the fix seems to have worked and hopefully the van will suffer no lasting effects!



The photos from an eventful day out are here.

Steve.

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