Great Dorset steam fair. 30.8.06-3.9.06

[Manky Monkey]

http://www.gdsf.co.uk/home.html

[lunatic]

The loony family might be going down there. Its a really huge show, and well worth going. There is something to suit everyones taste.

[Manky Monkey]

Yeah, Brock always raves about it but I've never been, so thought I might give it a go.

[lunatic]

Well worth the trip. If you can stay into the evening and see all the showmans engines lit up do it. We spent the whole day there and still didnt manage to see it all.

[BikerGran]

Used to go every year but after a while the effort of queuing in traffic etc ceases to be worth it!  I avoid the area like the plague while the Fair is on!

[Manky Monkey]

Very wet, very windy, very muddy -but a grand day out.
Photos here:
http://mankymonkeymotors.co.uk/Photos/steamfair2.9.06/

[BikerGran]

Strange thing, it's almost always been wet, windy and muddy for the Steam Fair - they even changed the date a few years ago hoping for better weather, but it didn't work!
Changed the location too cos too many vehicles got bogged down at the old place!

[lunatic]

Didnt make it in the end. As always manky the photos are great! Looks like a festival, what with the crap weather and people in silly hats! Some fantastic contraptions there! Ive got an unhealthy urge to get an old tractor! 

[Manky Monkey]

I need to clear the backlog of unwritten write-ups so will scribble some words about it soon.
I loved it. Just a brilliant atmosphere. Very friendly. So much to look at. The site's 600 acres & they reckon they get over 200,000 people through the gates. Did you see the snaps of the Watercress Line loco? They put down 50 feet of railway track & there was this bloody great steam train, all fired up & going nowhere in the middle of a field! The site's on a hillside & covers half a dozen fields. In the evening you could hear the train whistle going across the fields in the darkness -quite spooky & mourneful, especally when all the other traction owners answered it.
In another field there was a team of navvies, hard at work building a road that went nowhere. Rock crushers, rollers, tarmac boilers, stripey wooden barricades, men at work signs -even a tea hut. Very surreal.
It was alternately lashing down with rain with hurricane force winds or bright sunshine. They put an announcement out on the tannoy -Would Mr Clark return to his tent because it's no longer there!
It was like a festival. I think it must be the Young Farmers' annual get-together -lots of jovially drunk blokes & some truly gorgeous farm girls.  They had 6 huge marquees, each with a series of live bands playing all day. Some cracking music too. Loved the mandolin player with the clog dancers called "Spank the Planks", & Lady Winwood's Maggot -sort of U2/country rock. Would've liked to have seen Ultimate Madness or Queened & also United Stoats of America. Great, warm, cosy atmosphere in the marquees when it was pouring down outside.
I left at 9pm. Would've left at 8 but I lost my bearings in the dark & spent an hour trying to find the right carpark! I was seriously tempted to buy a 12 ton Warrior steam roller but wasn't sure I could tow it home behind the Mankymobile!
A thoroughly recommended day out.

[trikerpete]

good day out better not tell my brother. he went thursday with car & trailer tent, got turned away because he didnt pre-book. he was well pissed off. A mate of his, who had pre-booked, with his car & caravan had some problems.... he left his big dog (a bullmastiff type thing) in the caravan to guard it......went back later to find window broke, dog unconscious/drugged, generator/money/and most of his stuff all gone. Dog came round several hours later and was a bit shoockup. yeah lovely place, just some asshole attend it.
dont think im gonna rush to go there

[BikerGran]

There are always major theft problems - he was lucky they didn't nick the dog, some poor bloke left his staffy in a pen outside the van while he was inside - gone!   

[Manky Monkey]

Doesn't sound like the same show I was at at all! Mind you, I was just a day visitor. Not into that whole camping thing so didn't venture into the campsite. I was chatting to a harmonica player from one of the bands & he told me they refuse to play the marquees that had bars in them late at night cos all the travellers come in & start fighting among themselves. A show like that's bound to attract the travelling community, plus any event that big's bound to have it's fair share of scumbags in attendance. The Dorset Police had a temporary communications centre on site & I saw plenty of civilian security too. Can honestly say in a whole day's worth of wandering about I didn't see any sign of trouble though.

[BikerGran]

No you don't see it!  You don't see your caravan gas bottles...  or your bicycle.....  and I never knew there were so many generators in existence!  I reckon every 2ndhand genny that sold must come from the Steam Fair!

[Manky Monkey]

Ah well, a show to visit for the day, rather than to camp at then I suppose. Won't dampen my enjoyment of it though. I loved it.
All the major bike shows have suffered with thefts from tents in the last couple of years, including the NABD ones. Sad, but there are scumbags in every community I guess.