Sum it up in one word? MUD...
Sloshing around before the public arrives gives you an interesting perspective on the scale of the preparations that take place, here you see the "Super Swirl" undergoing maintainance before it is powered up and released on an unsuspecting public (who thought they would be able to keep their cider and home make cakes inside their stomach until they got home)...
This one was taken quite early on the Friday, when the posh 4x4's could still move around... ;)
- and a couple of shots of the tanks that really started the mud manufacturing process, this one was dubbed "HMS Unfloatable" which seemed fitting -
- "If in doubt - Brew up" stencil on the side -
Tracks certainly seemed to be the best way to get around the site this time -
- anything without them, or tractor-shaped seemed to get rather bogged down (ironically this lot were from the "POWER PULLING ASSOCIATION" (the "Motor Sport for Mad Men") who, inside the stuck truck, had huge tractors capable of pulling in excess of 20 tons...
This is the vehicle that holds the "Undertaker", which is the funny looking contraption they try and pull along (looks a bit like a metal coffin on a ramp made out of an old JCB)...
Meaty little things, one of them sports a 1400hp engine! Regardless, they are *all* extremely loud, and we were pitched right next door...bah...
On to the beer tent, where for the first time at Laughton we had a festival of ale (on a fairly small scale (if you have ever been to Ardingly then you would laugh your head off), but it was popular, so I guess it will be bigger next time)
(and some of the Barrels, macro style)...
An owl from the raptor display being shown off at close range to the crowd...
...and not far away we found Chilli Pepper Pete...I told the guy on the stall that he nearly killed me with the stuff I bought from him last time...and then promptly bought a load more... ;)
The Battle Cider folks...who didn't seem to really know what barrel contained which cider...not very impressive... ;) Great stuff again this year though (once they got their act together)...
The "Wall of Death"...!
No kidding, this was probably the best £3 I ever spent...Look mum, no hands!
...Look mum, no feet either...!!
The hail, after the storm...
And, joy of joys, we watched traction engines towing modern trucks out of the mud...cos they still seemed to be able to cope...awesome thing to see... ;)
The 4x4 playpen where the not-so-posh four wheel drive vehicles showed that the predominantly road car-style vehicles can basically forget it...brilliant stuff... ;)
The full Flickr stream is here (if you like this kind of thing)...
3 comments:
Cool pics (as ever)!
Thanks Daniel...! ;)
that Owl is very sweet !
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