Oz's travels.

To Dorset once again.

I have to start with mine an Phil's two favourite pullers.

G Force....... that needs to be said with some force, so....Here's G FORCE!!!!!!

Giles Moston's 380T Ford engine plus Turbo + a lots more bits, kicking out 350+BHP.

With Mark Gass Brown...aka Squirrel, commentator of the tractor pulling. Phil was here to be his glamorous assistant...... ha ha that's a laugh.

The Grave Digger. Built by Will and Alex Steele from Fife Scotland. Perkins V8 with Turbo. Called the Grave Digger due to the back end is from a dinkum digger that used to be digging graves in a cemetery in Glasgow... hence the name of the puller.

With me is Will, after this photo he took me off to show me..........

Little Dawn....

Will an Alex's showman's engine.

No this Showman's engine hasn't shrunk in the rain, it's just a full working scaled down version.

The Showman's engines line up...... back later on for the night shot.

A wonderful Foden steam lorry and a sentinel steam lorry.

Hovis..... more on that at the bottom of the page..

A rare six wheeler Foden.

'Phil!!!! Found one for me... any chance mate?'

HOW MUCH!!!! about £6500 an that's in kit form.

Original restored rides, they looked wonderful.

A beautiful fair living van..... ERF proper British lorries.

Steam powered swing boats.

Steam powered merry-go-round.

On with the walk about, still loads to see.

The Old Glory magazine stand. I recognize the colour of those lorries out front.

Allely's Transport from Studley in Warwickshire, 6 miles up the road from where I live.

Phil's Dad used to work for them, He was there when these lorries would of been used.

Allely's Heavy Haulage with a steam engine from The Swanage Railway. This Daf tractor unit retires from road use after this show. It was great to see it come an have pull on the tractor pulling.

A very interesting book to read is this one. This is the story of the rise of an extra-ordinary man Maurice Allely, who from humble beginnings but with determination, foresight and maybe a bit of luck, founded the major general haulage and heavy haulage firm. There are stories from employees of the firm, Phil's Dad 'Nick Maine' features in the book telling a few working experiences he has had with Maurice.

Grab yourself a copy.

There are quite a number of fair ground organs around the show. I'm not to bothered about them but when you have them all belting out their tunes at the same time they do make a right a racket.

I soon got a bit peckish, what to have? so much to choose from.

There was even Water buffalo Hummmm?????

Arrrr that'le do me darling..... a pasty.

Bog off Phil its mine!

The play pen.

Heavy haulage lorries that come out to play at certain times of the day.

A big impressive stationary engine in full working order.

The Showman's engines line up night shot.

Alex an Will made their own battery. A tub of salted water then ran the wires from their generator on the front of the engine in to it. Run the power into the tub an watch the amps get higher an higher. Well something like that.

THE BUNGEE........

NOOOOOOOWAY!!!!! you wont get me on that!

Another organ but this one had screens showing footage taken from world war 2.

Thirsty work, a stop off at Arts for a pint of Wilcox sweet cider. Arts is the only place you can order food one end of the van, takes a few steps an grab a pint at the other.

Let have a ride.

Looking over to the tractor pulling track.

I'm sorry but its got to be said...... "I can see the pub from here!"

(Castlemaine xxxx advert from 1988 Take a look,

link >>https://youtu.be/XRJwJc6Yppo)

On our way back to the camp site we checked all was ok at the tractor pulling track.

Keren Yardley's Air Pollution.

James Yardley's Noise Pollution an the Grave Digger.

Norman Young's V8 Scania. Proper shape Scania not like the ones nowadays.

Now there is a limit in what you take to bed with you..... teddy yes, tractor puller hummmm no.

On our way into red 1 camp site I stopped to have a chat with Tania who was on security.

Feeling safe and sound with Tania on watch I slipped into my sleeping bag..... GOODNIGHT.

Even though a late night, up early to do the washing. Well...... one of our neighbours had these contraptions they take with them to do their washing. I lent a hand.

A slight clang... Tom prout's impeller out of his turbo, there should be flappy bits on that bit! I do hope someone was filming it when it happened, it went with a right big flash an a bang.

Road Rollers.

I saw this engine at Welland Steam Rally...…

(Always on the last weekend of July by the way)

Now can I fire one off though the big wheel?

A front line hospital.

Ahhh time to have a snooze.

Road works get ruddy everywhere.

This trailer has a collection of train whistles fixed on it all connected to it's own steam boiler.

You could pay a pound an have a blast. This lad had a couple of go's.

Friday night we went to see playing in The Michael Oliver Marquee was THE LADY WINWOOD MAGGOTT, one of my favourite bands.

Link >> http://www.ladywinwoodsmaggot.co.uk/

With help from Kim Archer from Surrey, who I met that night.

This photo was taken by Kim an sent to me via my email address ozthegopher@gmail.com . Thank you Kim.

There is always a twonk who likes to get in on any photo.

After the show I was very lucky to get my photo with the band.....

cheers lads.

Saturday, Mandy a friend of mine an Phil's came down with her son Dylan. We met up an had a walk around the show.

There was a stand from Berkley Owls.

Link >> http://www.berkleyowls.co.uk/

You could pay £2 an have an Owl sit on your arm for a while. Dylan picked Duster a African spotted eagle owl.

Duster didn't take to me though.

We then saw The Sheep Show.... Link >> http://www.thesheepshow.co.uk/ .

Later on that afternoon I had a ride with James on Noise Pollution. I made sure I wore Phil's ear defenders. 7 1/2 litre Ford V8 petrol engine don't arf roar.....

Tongued twister alert.... Here's the film Phil filmed.

Thanks James it was great.

Last day had a quick look around the wood cutting display. Two more early stationary engines, one working one waiting to be restored.

A look in the model tent an what do I find, I can't get away from Doctor Who.... not complaining though... still think David was the best!

A fantastic lorry, it really works. It has a petrol engine.

We saw the full size swing boats earlier.

Well all good things come to an end so that's it from the GDSF for this year. On our way home though we did stop in Shaftesbury an take a look at a famous hill.

Just Down here....

As the sign says..........

Made famous for the Hovis advert made in the same year Phil was born... 1973. Funny to think that a Yorkshire company made a Yorkshire based advert in Dorset isn't it.

Here's the advert.

I was ruddy knackered after walking up, an I wasn't pushing a bike!

Oz's travels.

Click here to edit subtitle

Click here to edit title.