Oz's travels.

Page 2.

Phil went back to the tractor pulling arena to do his commentary spot, normally Squirrel and Phil do it together but a new plan was thought up by Squirrel for this year. Squirrel covers the 11am to 1pm section, then Phil... 3pm to 5pm, then Both of them do the evening... 7pm to 9pm/10pm. When Phil's section finished, he walked over towards Keren Yardley (left) an Rachel Knight enjoying the afternoon sun. Squirrel was fast asleep.

Ahhhh bless.... he looks so sweet. Keren was a bit worried at first, why was he so tied? Squirrel awoke a bit later an said to Keren "I'm fine, I have never walked so far, for a very long time!" All the years he has been coming to GDSF, he has never had chance to see any of the show! The new arrangement of splitting the commentary sections, gave Squirrel the chance to explore the show.

"STORMIN NORMAN" firing up Hot Pot. Hot Pot ran a lot better this year after a very long winded job by Norman and Ben making up new HT leads. There are 24 sparkplugs an the length of the HT lead between the last sparkplug (near to Normans feet) to the coil pack at the front of the engine is about 5 foot. Times that by two, then work out the lengths of the other 22 leads, then add them all together. I came up with.......

"A RUDDY LONG LENGHT OF HT LEAD!!

Now we did have a couple of guests pullers in the evening sessions, one was that AEC I was stood on back in the Heavy Haulage section, another one was this GMC tractor unit with a Detroit Diesel engine.

The showmans engines. It don't matter how many times I see them, I am still impressed.

I tried to talk Phil into have a go, but he wouldn't... he said "I don't want to show off by ringing the bell 3 times in a row"

Ha! like that would happen!!! He's a coward... I have him next year.

Phil was tempted to have ago on this stall, shooting a arrow at a target with a bow..... I stopped him, I could see him hitting the chap not the target.

Time for a proper drink, a pint of Wilcox sweet cider. "CHEERS"

Before you say anything, NO they weren't picking me up for being drunk in charge of a minor.... (Phil). These Dorset Police officers very kindly told me the time.

As we plodded past the outdoor stage we had to fight our way through the many people that were watching............

The Wurzels......

Will Steel lifted me up for a drivers eye view of his an his brother Alex, showmans engine...

'Little Dawn.'

All the years I've been coming here, I've always stopped to watch the candle boats put put put put around the bowl, I thought it was about time I bought one.

I picked out a yellow one an the lovely Hydi wrote on its name.......

H.M.S Oz T Gopher.

With my boat packed in the bag with its candle, wick and the destruction pamphlet I was ready to set sail. Thank you kindly Hydi and Andy can't wait to float me boat.

Next morning after breakfast we headed down to the food hall for supplies. On the way we past the two Kenworth tractor units. The one I'm stood on reminded me of the one in the film Smokey an the Bandit.

The day was already getting warm an the temperature in the food hall was double that.... Here with very needed refreshing refreshment was Charmaine Barber.

I do like the look of these classic Daf lorries.

On our way back up to the tent we past the track, so we watched Squirrel for a while.

I came a bit unstuck, so I went to Graham an Peter for help. they soon sorted me out with a bottle of POWERBOND SUPERGLUE.

Friday night already, so that means........ LIVE FROM THE MICHEAL OLIVER TENT ITS.............

"THE LADY WINWOOD MAGGOT"

Up dated photo opp with the band. Brilliant gig lads, thank you.

It took a bit to get this panaronic...... sorry panoramic shot of the show.

An odd shot, but as it was so dry, Norman ask a bod to pop round with a water bowser to lightly dampen the track....... WRONG!! He blitz it. When we started pulling the tractors couldn't get a grip.

Well the last night of the show. After the evening pulling session, It was great to chill out with a nice pint of Wilcox sweet cider an watch the night world go by.

"HAY PHIL THE TIDES GONE OUT!"

" Ooo CHEER'S "

The steam roller that is... OLD ROSIE. Weston's wonderful cloudy cider.

Just taking a breather.

Alex Steel this time at the wheel of Little Dawn.

Me copping a wobble......

On the dot of midnight, its time for.......

Heading back towards the camp, on guard outside the real ale tent was Paul Brady of PPE Security, keeping a watchful eye over anyone that try's to be naughty. Now looking at the size of Paul, would you play up?

I got the munchies, so a stop off for a pasty an to be served by Becey and Steve with a knock down price pasty was brilliant.

The partying was still going on. On the outdoor stage was.......

The Madness tribute band... One Step Behind.

The size of the showground, its amazing who you can bump into, Richard 'Turbo' Vincent. Turbo featured as a expert on Scrapheap Challenge many times. Phil an I have known Turbo since we started being involved with tractor pulling back in 2005... ish.

With Turbo was his mate Peter from New Zealand. One day I'll hopefully go.

This engines home is not too faraway from Henley-in-Arden (where I live), about 8 miles.

I have been in contact through Twitter with Bear from the Steam Apprentice Club. They had a stand so I popped round to meet him. They had a Mamod steam track layout.

Bear.... Since these photo's were taken Bear was given a name... his name is now Justin Steam, Justin showed me the steam powered workshop.

Ha...... there go's that roller again...... runs better then mine.

That dogs got the right idea.... it is ruddy hot.

The last look at the showman's engines, they look like their parked on a beach.

In the ever decreasing campsite, I chatted to Katherine Gould & Steve Durnford while we watched Phil pack away the tent.

Our next door neighbour had a great set up to go round the shows with.

RIGHT..... to finish off GDSF 2017 we will play out with Ben Young driving Hot Pot.

All being well there will be a GDSF 2018 page in 12 months.

" LET IT RIP BEN! "

Oz's travels.

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