Suncream on the beach in October!

It’s the first Saturday of October and we’re slapping sun cream on and sitting on the beach at Brighton. The Indian Summer I predicted back in March finally arrived and wow did it arrive. The temperature peaked at a whisker under 30°C today!





Brighton Breeze is an ok show, but it can be stressful. The convoy starts just inside the M25 and winds its way down the M23 and onto the seafront. But you have to start early and with the queues to get parked its normally lunchtime before you get to see any of the show. These things are not one year old friendly, so in our own modern saloon convoy with Malcs, Georgie and Molly we set off at 8am for a nice carpark near the pier. By 10am we were wandering down the never ending line of campers that were still rolling in.







After a few minutes walk we bumped into a few chums who had air-cooled it down and stopped for a natter. A lunch date on the pebbles was sorted.











Getting hot and in need of a drink we spied the bar and rested our legs for a bit. Carrying on the warm walk back towards the pier end of the show. You could spend hours and still not see every camper.











With rumbling tummies and being at the seaside, Kim headed for the beach and I grabbed a couple of trays of fish/sausage & chips. Our little group slowly gathered and for an hour we chatted on the pebbles and played in the sea. My soaked jeans drying nicely in the hot sun!









Getting back on the tarmac we wandered up the final line of campers before hitting the pier for an ice cream.









It was really busy this year, well over 1000 campers, we walked half of the Drive before turning back.







In previous years we’ve enjoyed the art that is plastered all over the town, we didn’t do any graffiti spotting this time, but did see this on the wall of a shop!



There were a few bikes scattered around for the two wheeled fan.





On the pier we enjoyed the sea breeze and the shade while I spilt ice cream and chocolate sauce down myself!



Having seen all the show and needing to get back home to keep Lilys bed time routine in place! We took a stroll around The Lanes as we hunted for the Lego shop, at £80 its pricey and quite small, but I still fancy this really cool blocky camper.



Worn out we headed for the cool of the carpark, it was only 25°C four floors underground! Fired up the air-con and headed home via KFC. I’m sure the rain and cold of autumn will be here soon. But for today at least, it was a glorious summer.

The rest of the snaps can be found here

Steve.

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Breezy Brighton

Another fun filled VW show season is now almost over, the traditional closer to the year is the mega cruise from Hook Arena in Epsom down to Madeira Drive on the Brighton seafront, over a thousand Beetles, Campers and other air-cooled Volkswagens trundle down the M23 to park up in a line a mile long. In previous years we've done the whole cruise, but we always end up queuing for ages to get in and loosing time, this year we bypassed the start and met with a few fellow LTVers at Pease Pottage at 8am

By half past we were on the road again for the final blast through the town and on to the front.

Parked up together it was soon breakfast time, so enough bacon rolls to feed the 5000 were cooked up and coffee by the gallon was made

With the eating out of the way it was soon time to begin the mammoth task of seeing everything the show has to offer. The number of traders was certainly down on previous years, but the numbers of Dubs attending was up, we spotted window hanger number 1145 drive in later in the morning, we were 396!

With the wind whistling past it was wise to wrap up warm

As with lots of shows we go to, you can’t go a hundred yards before bumping into someone you know

Ratlook or should that be look, rat!

Earlybay.com had a good line up

There were a few interlopers from the watercooled world

A low Golf hid an air-cooled secret out back

The LTV snappers get everywhere

Novel tow vehicle for a Trojan bubblecar

You can’t go to Brighton and not have a beer!

Just to get an idea of the scale of the lineup, this was stood midway along the upper pavement

Following a stop for fish & chips we braved the beach to skim a few stones

Mucked around on the pier

And then headed into The Lanes to do a bit of shopping taking in the amazing graffiti as we went

By the time we got back to The Drive the bulk of the dubbers had left, as darkness descended we clambered aboard the van and pointed it towards home

As usual I took a bundle of photos, the rest of them can be found here, thanks for reading.

Steve