Zoom in to find all the little details to this GPS logged route. (scroll down for the complete story in pictures)
Below you will find a video of the trip on youtube
"The Abbey Rally"
International rally 2022, Tewkesbury
The 2022 Austin A30-A35 owners club rally was the 50 year anniversary for the British club! This weekend was also very festive because of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The location for this year's main Austin A30-A35 event was the lovely village of Tewkesbury. A lovely town right where the River Severen meets the river Avon. Because the rally field was next to the local abbey, the name Abbey Rally was chosen.
Wednesday
Meeting all of the regular travelers at our muster point in Hoofddorp started what feels like a familiar journey.
Setting of to Harwich, we were treated to some of the best weather we would see during the weekend. Although, the overall weather was not bad.
The big Stenaline ship would be home to the little Austins for the night.
One of the changes was the need for an actual passport this time, as we were leaving the EU, for some of us, this was actually the first time doing so.
These cars always make for pretty pictures
All settled in, the stories already started flowing.
With the sun going down, it was time to get into our bunks and the ship slowly rocked me to sleep.
Thursday
Early in the morning it was time to get refueled. The cars needed some gas, and we needed some breakfast. The traditional breakfast for the crossing is Currant buns. YUM!
After some driving we needed a break, we stopped at the waterperry gardens.
The Waterperry gardens are part of a larger extate with an impressive looking house, a garden center and a rather lovely little museum with all kinds of hand tools and curiosities. One example that I can remember was a victorian glass cucumber straightener.
The tea room had a lovely view of the House and we enjoyed a nice lunch here.
On arrival at he rally field we had the tent up in no time at all.
Some friends immediately spotted us and came to say hi!
That is a new tarp don't ya know. Very nice, if I do say so myself
The rally shield, that is proof that we have been there, they seemed to be a bit thicker this time.
The village provided a lovely setting for picture taking. I was not the only one doing so.
The tree did not budge.
The old streets of the town. Imagine what has happened in these little allies during the ages. If these walls could talk...
Easy taking breathtaking pictures with surroundings like that.
A nice stroll through the Queen Victoria gardens. Very appropriate because the gardens were actually built in honor of the Jubilee of the queen at the time
The other mill in Tewkesbury, this one is in need of some TLC
Old buildings in Town.
Every few houses we would see some alley, and they all have names.
What an evening.
The rugby club has a defibrillator in an old british phone booth, good to have it on site.
One of the stars of the show. The Austin Icecream Van, (Frankies Icecream) Just finished the car in time for the rally, and what a beauty
Friday
All lined up, A lot of Austins were already present on what was to be a day of trading and looking at all the lovely cars.
From our Tent we had this view.
The weather was lovely and this was also the day that I shot the most video, (have a look at the Youtube video at the top of the page)
An overview of the field.
Coffee is a necessity, allthough some people also function on a substance that is know as thee...
Sun was out, live can be so nice.
Flags and banners, there is no doubt. These people are part of the Dutch club.
Very down to earth as well...
;-)
The trip of the day. We set out to see the Cotswalts farm, however, that turned out to be more geared towards Kids.. and with the entry being 18 pounds we opted to drive to steam trains that we had spotted getting there.
Dangerous... no! otherwise they would have closed the windows.
The train was good fun
At one point a volunteer of the line joined and explained all about the line and this special day. They had 9 locomotives running on the bit of restored railway. It used to be a main route for British rail, however they closed it and took all the tracks out. 2 years later, team of volunteers started work on a single line and the restoration of all the stations along the line.
I did get a bit sleepy along the ride.. I might have even dosed off for a bit.
The sun had gone once we arrived back at the tent. Theo and myself had done some groceries on our way back, and Theo managed to make wraps filled with minced meat and veggies, using only the little camping stove.
Theo heating the wraps.
Pretty!
The evening entertainment in at the club building.
Sun and rain,
Saturday
Saturday wes the day of judging the cars, the British club Annual meeting and the auction.
An overview of the cars that were out on the field during the day: Commerials
More commercials
A shot of the cars using my cheap drone (Camera on a stick)
More "Drone" Shots
Later that day, we went for a walk.
Talking to the lockie, he gave us tons of info. Very friendly
Searching for another river crossing, in the end we had to turn back.
All kinds of Austins!
The John player Special
My favorite.
My favorite.
Lovely skies
A red sky brought an end to the day.
Sunday
On the last day, with everybody gone home, we visited the Gloucester docks, a Tall ship festival with food trucks and live music as a nice surprise
Stalls with local produce
We also visited the National waterways museum. I visited this museum once before as a kid. This Time however. It seemed to be a lot smaller, no longer showing the things that were on display at the time, non the less, it was quite enjoyable.
A visit to the Gloucester Cathedral. The bells would not stop ringing. This was, of course, to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.
We made a few bovine friends along the way.
All alone... when we came back, the only other person on the field was Ray.
Waking up the next morning to a wet world, no way that we were getting the tents home dry. No problem though, they are easily dried at home..
The drive home was quite good, we did not manage to find somewhere nice to stop, however we did come across a weird building. We decided to stop there, and the signs stating that no visitors allowed where very hard to read for us, Dutch people.. in the end, one of the residents explained that it was an old wool factory. the huge building bankrupted the original company and the building was left in disrepair. Later the building was converted into apartments. He was one of the lucky 65 that got to live in this limestone building with a rich history.
The old wool factory, now turned apartments
We also stopped at Hatfield house, to bad it was also closed.
The "Pink pub" The Cross Inn at Manning tree was again closed on the monday, so we had to find something else. In the end we drove to the Premier Inn in Colchester. This turned out to be a chain of hotels. Because we also spotted one in Harwich, this might even be easier next time. As they had the exact same menu. (food was actually really good too)
We had to wait quite a while to get on the ferry, luckily it did not leave without us.