Lining-up in the morning

Ready to break the world record

Madeira drive entry at 2 o´clock

Ever seen so many BUSes ?

The home journey

Friday 6 October.
We left Rotterdam about 10 o’clock. The journey start at the ferry at Oostende to Dover. The lady at the customs asked what we had in the back of our car. We answered : The engine ! Her face told me that it was not a good answer.
We visit England for the first the with our 1974 baywindow bus, happily we joined the Dutch team with Hans Ad and Pim (who else). Hans was on top of the Dutch convoy, so the only thing we have to do was follow his splitscreen from Dover to Epsom. And really driving on the left side of the road was not so difficult I thought it would be. First we took the wrong road in Epsom, Pim started to drive at the right side of the road and nearly killed his self, and his splitscreenbus, happily someone blown his horn in time. We found at least the hook road arena in Epsom. First we entered the wrong gate of the camping area, and we thought we were the only one around with an air-cooled engine. The entry was on the other side of the area, and we are not the only one !! Steve was already waiting for us and we got a warm welcome. The next day we followed more than 1,000 other British Air-cooled vehicles. It was still dry this evening. We had a nice Indian take-away meal at the camping.

Saturday 7 October.
Someone wakes us up at seven in the morning. It was raining and the camping area was wet and slippery. We had to line up in the morning to leave for Brighton at 9.30. It was amazing how many buses where already at the lining-up area. If you watch the pictures in the gallery you know what I mean. When I was ready with my digital camera I was not able to find my bus anymore !!! Asking someone was out of question, I could have asked if someone saw a red VW with a white poptop, or ? I hope we have made the world record for the Guinness book of records. Does somebody know more about this ? We drove along the M23 the 58 miles to Brighton, we created a nice queue and later a traffic jam. We arrived about 1 o’clock at the Madeira drive It stopped raining so we could take a look at the other buses and beetles. I ate for the first time in my life fish and chips and I liked it. About 5 o’clock we searched for the Brighton Racecourse to stay for the night. We enjoyed the party and live band. And again I did something the first time of my life: I drunk a pint of British lager beer, sorry I did not like it.

Sunday 8 October.
We had to get up early to catch the ferry at Dover. We left the camping area at 8 o’clock in the morning, sorry if we waked someone up too soon. We drove along the south coast to Dover. The ferry was already waiting for us. We left England at 11.00. Hope to see all next year at the Brighton breeze 2001. We would like to thanks the SPLIT SCREEN VAN CLUB for her hospitality and wonderful organization.
Link to ssvc.org.uk to visit the Split Screen Van Club

Ronald Schouw 1974 Baywindow BUS

Do we have world record ?

To the Epsom lining-up area photo gallery

To the Brighton breeze photo gallery