Basingstoke Festival of Transport

For the last few years I've seen photos and threads from the Basingstoke Festival of Transport. 1000 old cars, bikes, trucks and buses spread over Memorial Park in the town. So on a sunny Sunday morning we loaded up the Camper and headed south. Lily in the co-pilots seat and Kim knitting in the back, first stop was for a cuppa with some our friends Steve and Izzy and a chance for Lily to play with their cat Stumpy, with a nervous looking cat left at home we all clambered back aboard and headed the short ride to the show. For a whole £2 we parked up in an adjacent field and hiked across to the entrance. We were faced with tractors, lots of tractors. I love how much care people will lavish on even the most mundane workhorse.







Next on display were the bikes, everything from thundering Goldwings through to the elegant Ducati from the Sammy Millar Collection.









We skirted the main field, taking in the old Ford line, this 1936 Woody was one of the first things we saw and remained my car of the day. The plain beige metal work was the perfect foil for the shiny woodwork. If it was clean outside, it was on the inside that my breath was really taken away.







There was a chap running an RC tank, not the usual 1:76th scale model, but a mammoth 1:6th scale all singing all dancing version, with smoking exhausts, rotating turret and sound effects.



It was only just after 11am, but it was deemed to be "dirty burger" time, so we stocked up on beef and with a long walk back to collect the buggy, set out round field number one, rammed with autojumble and the commercial vehicle section. I do love a big truck and there were some huge ones parked up.

















After lines of buses and lorries and vans it was back to the classic cars. Most marques were represented from Austin to Saab. Amphicar to Vauxhall and many more in between.













Back up through the autojumble stalls we picked up a couple of toys for Lily and managed to avoid buying yet more tat for ourselves! Another bit to eat would see us ready for the next field of cars.



















By 3pm we'd seen all we wanted to and the much expected rain was just beginning so we headed back to the Camper. As we climbed aboard the heavens opened! Lily was soon snoozing and kipped for a couple of hours while we watched the WSB races back at Steve's. A trip out for tea and it was finally time to head home, in her PJs and wrapped in a quilt, Lily co-piloted me home, aided by Bunbun, 'Pillar and Filmore. Her last question as we parked up on the drive was "daddy, can we go and see cars again next weekend?"



The rest of the photos from a brilliant day out can be found here

Steve.