IBW 2019 - Holland - What else could have possibly gone wrong?

[Dave DND]

Flags had gone very quiet, and was looking thoughtful (Never good news) and then muttered " Mate, these ain't gonna fit "   





Flags had spotted something we had not considered - the offset of these wheels was very different to the ones we were replacing   





However, Chad's Buggy had a similar setup with these rims, and we could play around with his wheel spacers





After much jacking and swapping, a spacer solution was found that worked for both cars





And Dave was so happy he could hardly contain himself over what we had now managed to achieve   





Yet another crisis dealt with.
Hopefully that would now be the last of it, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

It was Saturday Night at last - it was Party Night, and Lee emerged ready for a good night in Holland





And it wasn't long before we had been inundated with Hippies, it was going to be a Groovy Night, Man   











We told Mark Darby (who looks like this all the time), to dress down a bit so he didn't show us all up   











We were undoubtedly in for a good night, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

Right then. Serious head on and time to address the elephant in the room.

As many of you will have heard, this years trip left a lasting impression thanks to one of our members. It was actually the reason I named the thread like this. As a storyteller on here, I try my hardest to convey what happened for your enjoyment, but I was faced with a situation that I have really had to come to terms with and was not sure how, or indeed if it should be mentioned. As much as I want to pretend it didn't happen and ignore it, I can't.














The trouble with these sorts of events, is that everybody has a camera, and before you know it, details are posted on social media.














I didn't want to post the pictures on here at all as I felt it may upset some of you.














If you want to skip forward to the next bit, then I fully understand, as I am not comfortable with this either.














But after a good chat with everybody concerned, it was agreed that the pictures should be shown and I can only apologize.














I'm sure that there is a helpline somewhere, but I am too traumatized to look for it.














Last chance to look away, you have been warned.














I give you Dave Oojamaflip . . .      





I was laughing so hard that a bit of wee might have come out   







We headed up to the main barn for a drink, the live music, and the party, and were confronted by Ruben dressed as the Easter Bunny 











Amongst the crowds, we spotted a couple wearing exactly the same outfits as ours, and were really surprised to find that it turned out to be one of our International Members, Andre who lives on an Island just west of the Dutch Dam. Great to put another face to a name, and we look forward to a road trip to come and visit you in due course.







And if you thought that Lee's giant spliff was a comedy one, then think again - this was fully functional   





Nobody wanted to dance with Dave though - Cannot for the life of me think why not ?      





The party went on until the small hours, and after a bit of persuasion, we managed to convince them to open the chip van as a few of us now had the munchies. I am not sure who was most hammered, those cooking the chips, or those ordering the chips, but I remember being deafened by the cheers that went up after they were finally served.

What a night - What a Party
Hopefully that would now be the last of it, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

It was a bleary eyed Sunday morning when we got up, only to find some nutters outside doing their morning exercise routine. Kath had been up for hours due to wetting the bed, but I expected better of Dave and Gail - it was far too early for this.





Gail was trying not to draw attention to the fact that her supposedly temporary stickers were made from either real tattoo ink or some form of indelible marker, but either way, they were proving somewhat difficult to remove.





Snoopy was in full swing giving his expert Masterclass on repairing Buggy's and was working through them all. Mark's Carbs got adjusted





Glenn's wheel bearings were making some noise, but had a replacement set donated by someone that was trailering their car back to Germany





And Scott's timing was adjusted





That was the cars all fixed and hopefully that would now be the last of it, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

Vicky had found one of the wigs from last night and reminisced over having long flowing hair





Which always seems to translate as " Vicky is getting a little Fruity "   





DC (as seen on TV) just couldn't resist - At least he was now smiling again 





They didn't have to do this as we already knew that these two were a pair of tits 





Even Kath was wondering what it would be like to have big Boobs  ( Come on Kath? Really? ) 





Dave thought he may have another problem for us to solve. With precious little space in the Buggies, how on earth would we get these home. I told him not to worry as we had already blagged the back seats of Nigel's Freelander,





I was thinking that I hadn't seen the Town Cryer when he appeared and announced the Off-Roading was about to commence

[Dave DND]

You all know the sound a really high performance bike engine can make when revving away, well imagine what that sounds like with two bike engines slung in a rail





Twin Rev Counters tells you just how mad this thing is





I couldn't quite work out how it all worked though, seemed to be 2 completely separate power plants





I heard someone in the crowd saying that these engines were going to be transplanted into a Buggy in due course   





I have never before seen anything that can accelerate quite like this thing did. Imagine a radio control car that has two speeds, flat out and stop. Well that's pretty much what this car did. The debris it threw out the back as it launched was just breathtaking.

[Dave DND]

I am a big fan of learning new skills, especially ones that can be used in real life. If you ever get the chance through your workplace to go on a First Aid Course, or know of a local St Johns Ambulance centre that is doing an evening class, then I would seriously urge you to jump at the chance.

As some of you may know, I have a background as a Sub Aqua Instructor, and along with that goes a lot of training courses that I have both been on and also used to teach. Rescue Management, Incident Management and I am also a trained Paramedic to name some of my own skills. It does mean though that when something happens, I tend to be the one running towards danger when others are running away. Today, sadly, was one of those days.

Around the edges of the field we were on are some serious drainage ditches. They look almost hidden, and even when standing next to them you would be forgiven for thinking it was nothing more than a bit of scrubland between fields and not a 8 foot wide and 8 foot deep solid trench. From where I am standing it does not look much, but follow the ditch to the end of the picture and only then does the profile start to appear.





We were making the most of the sunshine when word got around that a car had just driven into the ditch right at the end of the field. A few moments later, I heard a yell from the campsite of "Ambulance" and that's when my ears pricked up, I threw a bottle of sun cream at Kath and started running towards the end of the field. Sure enough, I could see the rear wheels of a Buggy and as I got closer my heart stopped as I recognized the rear number plate as being from the UK. Christ, it was one of ours. It was Scott.





Scott had somehow managed to crawl our of the car on his own, and had either slipped or collapsed on the floor when Dave Mayer arrived first on scene, and by the time I got there Dave had a hankie covering his eye. There was claret everywhere and it was quite obvious that he had gone through the windscreen. The only saving grace was that he was fully conscious and coherent at all times. Allan went to turn the ignition off and slid down the sharp embankment as he did so it was that steep. With the help of another paramedic from one of the other clubs, we managed to stabilize him until the Emergency services arrived. The Police were very quickly on scene, followed by an ambulance. At all times, Scott wasn't bothered by his injuries, he just kept asking how his car was.





It was pretty obvious that Scott had a serious head injury but he managed to walk (albeit aided) into the Ambulance which was a good sign.





Its amazing how a simple thumbs up can put your mind at rest. Whatever the injuries were, he was going to be ok. Jackie, who was quite understandably besides herself by this time did make everyone laugh as she got into the front of the ambulance only to be told by the driver that she had to go the other side as he should be driving and not her. A small touch of humour made the whole thing feel a bit more "Human"





No sooner had the Ambulance left, did a tractor arrive, and set about lifting the Buggy out of the ditch. Scott's car, being a 1958, does not have seat belts, but what really shook all of us was how far away the passenger seat had been thrown as it had been ejected straight over the top. Thankfully Scott was driving on his own, and although a serious crash, it was also clear that he was not traveling at any great speed.





Ruben was an absolute star, followed the Ambulance and spent the day at the Hospital with Jackie so that she was not on her own, but also had a really good interpreter with her as well. Ruben really has gone above and beyond the call of duty on this trip and kept us updated as to Scott's progress at all times.





The car was dragged back to our campsite and we quickly covered it up using Marks cover to save any prying eyes and photos from the crowd that were now gathering. Everybody, and I do mean everybody came over at some point to ask how Scott was, and I lost count of how many then asked if he would be selling his wheels.

We shall return to this when we know more.
Hopefully that would now be the last of it, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

Quite a few of our crew decided to take a trip into the town and do a bit of exploring





They went to take another look at the windmill that Kath, Dave & Fynn had visited yesterday





It had suffered a major fire in 2000, but had been lovingly restored back to its former glory.





The owners were very hospitable, and allowed them full access to explore





If you were here five years ago, then you will notice that the "Kangapoo" hotel on the "Bumhole" mud flats is now having a sandy beach installed





The whole town has now gone upmarket and is virtually unrecognizable which is not a bad thing as it was really grim before.





And they even have a Boat here especially for Ruben - The Pancake Restaurant 

[Dave DND]

The sun was shining today, and some of the stalls around the site were selling their wares









I met up with one of our International Members, Buggy Collector, who was here selling his collection of . . . well . . . Buggies







I also bumped into our good friend Krach Marie who was here with her blue Buggy (She has a fabulous green snakeskin Buggy - I`m sure you know the one)





And then it was back to the tents for a spot of lunch





And a chillout with a few beers and a few friends in the summer sunshine (At long last)   

[Dave DND]

To the side of the building, some large ditches had been dug up which meant that there was always a good collection of rails and Off Roaders to be seen





It was amazing to see how much punishment you could could put a vehicle through





Hang on a minute, I recognize someone over there going into the water





I think that puddle may be a bit deeper than it looks 





But Pat is used to puddles and has no trouble with a gentle exit





Well, it was a bit gentle when you compare it to some of the other lunatics over here





To be fair, most of the International guys had their cars on trailers, and it was somewhat brave to subject one of ours to this considering the long drive home,

but then Pat is an absolute nutter and we expect nothing less from him, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

Next up on the agenda were the Presidents Games. The idea of this one was to pick up a set of small numbered buckets and arrange them on a bench in order using a hook suspended and operated by four long ropes, but to add to the difficulty, on the top of the plate holding the hook was a cup with a ball in it. Looked difficult, but then they had not thought about Flags being at the helm, and with a few careful commands, this was accomplished within minutes.





The next game involved strapping on what could only be described as a gallows and a cable operated plate with a beer in the middle. The concept was easy, operate the strings and drink the beer without getting covered in it - and it was a lot harder than it looked judging by those that had a go.





The English have a real reputation over here for cheating and bending the rules a bit. Now when you also take into account that you are not going to put any sort of obstacle between one of us and a free beer, I' m glad to say that today was no exception and Chad decided to go for it. With the Gallows attatched, he simply walked over to the nearest fence post, parked the plate with the beer on top of it and then bent forward to pick the glass up between his teeth and drink the beer.





The somewhat perplexed Dutch Judge admitted that there was nothing in the rules about this as he then leaned against the post to prevent others from following suit, and held his head in his hands when Pat and Nigel had a go using a very large straw to take a drink.


It was then time for the Presidents meeting. This is basically all the club representatives getting together for a breakdown of the event, and to discuss plans for the next one. First item on the agenda is always a beer, followed by the second item which is usually a replacement beer. These meetings are generally a bit hard to follow as they are usually in German, but I was really struggling with this one due to the topics being discussed. Usually, the next meet would have been Belgium, but it was going to be swapped this year with a German one. Some of you may know our good friend Toon was involved in a horrific Chemical Tanker explosion a couple of years back that showered him in acid. I was so pleased to see him there this weekend and he appears to be doing very well. However, he is on a transplant list and will not be able to help organize the Belgium IBW, so it was unanimously agreed to change it. The discussion as to exact venue was hard to follow, but will be announced in due course once finalized. We didn't get a chance to speak at this one, but with Brexit on the cards, it was generally accepted that there is nothing more we could add as far as a UK one goes.


Coming out of the meeting, I spotted a white van driving past - It was Ruben returning from the Hospital. He looked absolutely shattered, but was still smiling as Ruben always does. I rushed over to see him with only one question on my mind, how was Scott? I was not expecting the reply given though and that was that I could ask him myself very soon. Ruben had dropped them back to their Hotel and they would be on site shortly.

Good News 

[Dave DND]

Scott had appeared on site and was looking remarkably chipper considering all that had gone on. The hospital had really looked after him and the various specialists he had seen throughout the day were satisfied to discharge him with a bag of information to hand over to the UK Doctors including some discs containing his CT scans. The car was still covered up at this stage and Scott asked to see it.





The car was uncovered and the true extent of the damage could now be seen. None of us had actually looked at the car either until now, as we really had tried to keep it covered up from everybody else on site.





Scott and Jackie had a very big decision to make. He had been involved in a serious crash, he was badly injured, the car was undriveable, they were in a foreign land and thankfully, they were fully insured. It was time to make the phone call and push that button to get them all repatriated. During the time that they were in hospital, some of the more sober amongst us had been working through a few alternative solutions and playing them out, so that whatever Scott said, we could all jump into action. We had arranged a safe place to store the car to be collected from at a later date and we also had spare seats in cars to get them back to the Hull ferry should they just want to go home. There was also the question of what would happen to the Buggy if the Insurance Company got their hands on it, as it this condition it would certainly be written off and never seen again. We also reckoned that we could probably get the Buggy back to the UK too if necessary, and once on home soil, the situation would be a lot easier to deal with. The various scenario's were put forward and Scott was very quick to make his decision. Within seconds of Scott saying he wanted to come home with us, the magical fairies appeared along with this A frame. It looked suspiciously like Rubens one, but I did not see him put it there.





The windscreen was only hanging in there with a wing and a prayer, so Dave and Gary set about removing the glass as there was no doubt that it would fall out whist going along.





The sheer force of the impact can now be understood. The most obvious damage you can see is how bent the dash panel is and that the impact has clearly ripped open the passenger side area. The cracks on the wings and the bonnet are also just visible and the really eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted the two diagonal stripes of blood on the interior panel that show just how steep that ditch actually was.





Scott told me that he really wasn't traveling that fast and just didn't see the ditch until he had started to go over the top of it. His instinct was to grab the steering wheel and brace himself against it. Even by doing so, he was left with a broken nose and where his eye had taken the full brunt of the impact, had left him with multiple eye socket fractures and some damage to his optical nerves. The doctors feared that he may also have detached his retina. When you look at how hard he grabbed the wheel, I think you will agree that he got off lucky as god only knows what would have happened if his head had sustained the full force of the crash.





If we take a closer look at the business end, you can see just how bent the beam is





The chassis behind the frame head is severely buckled too. If you don't know what you are looking at, everything here should be flat and level.





Enough of my waffling then, as this is the picture that you probably want to see, and you can tell straight away just how out of alignment that front end is.





With the wheels pointing in different directions, the steering components badly rubbing and nothing to attach the A frame to except the damaged area, there was no way we could tow this from one side of the country to the other - a short trip maybe, but 200 miles? I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

Ruben was now getting a little bit agitated, not so much due to of our never ending demands on him, but more because there was no way he would ever leave a man behind and his potential solution also had a major problem that went with it.

Ruben knew a guy who was local to this area that would lend him a trailer (that was the easy bit), but the frustration really kicked in as Ruben, being of a younger generation did not have the automatic entitlement on his license like us oldies do, to actually pull it. Sure, he has illegally towed trailers before, and had towed his own Buggy to Noordbroek for this event, but there was a big difference between a short local trip and the journey we would have to make to the other side of Holland. We all remember that he was previously fined in Germany when towing his own car back from the last IBW. Over here, the expensive trailer test costs around 500 Euro's and when you are saving every penny you have for a house deposit then it it quite understandable why this Dutch Petrolhead has not yet gone down the licensed test route.

However, Ruben had come up with an astounding proposition to put to us that may just solve the problem.

If Vicky could drive the Kango, then Keith could use Rubens van to tow the trailer with the Buggy on down to the Europort for the Hull ferry. Ruben would follow us in his Buggy. We could then offload the Buggy and load it onto the ferry. Ruben would then put his Buggy on the trailer and tow it (albeit illegally) the short distance back to his own house. He would then drive the empty trailer back to Noordbroek in the hope that an empty trailer was unlikely to be pulled over, and then drive home. That's approaching a 500 mile round trip !

There was another issue though, that unlike Stenna who grudgingly allow the use of tow ropes, P&O have a strict policy that cars must be driven on and not pushed or pulled, but nowhere does it state that they have to be in one piece. By the time we had discussed that one, Dave Mayer had already got the Buggy running and moving under its own power.

Dave then gave Ruben a chunk of notes to cover the petrol money for his epic trip, and I had hatched a plan for something else. Ruben had done so much for us this weekend and like a true friend, never asks for anything in return. But I saw a way that we could actually repay his kindness and generosity and told him that we, (as in the BBI Community), would now bankroll putting him through his trailer test. He was so gobsmacked and lost for words that he was physically unable to argue with me about it. Several members have generously donated some money towards this and I was sure that I could sell a few more sweatshirts and top trumps to make up the difference. Money has since been transferred we await his update in due course.

Hopefully that would now be the last of it, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

As we were finalizing the plans for getting the Buggy home, we completely forgot about the prize giving in the main hall.

And guess what, we won a prize for the best Flower Power fancy dress. Luckily Chad was there to accept it, which was just as well as he seems to be the one who always ends up taking them home.






As we sat and drunk the last of our beer we reflected on what had been a very strange and eventful IBW, and we were then treated to the most spectacular sunset. Or rather, knowing our luck, it was probably the next field on fire.





Hopefully that would now be the last of it, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong? 

[Dave DND]

After a quick breakfast, it was time to break camp. Its always a bit sad, as it means the holiday is coming to an end and its time to say goodbye to both old and new friends.





The Belly Dancers had gone home and Glen and Fraser were now quietly dismantling the Turkish Boudoir





As with any Buggy trip, it is written that you must have a line up of all the cars in their glory before heading off





Scott, pictured here in his Hotel room was ready to set off





Dave and Gail, now sporting their new back wheels, were ready to set off.





We were really pleased to have got the tent packed away in a dry condition, and after reassuring Patrick that he would still be allowed to visit the UK post Brexit (I kid you not, the Europeans think we will be off limits and don`t know how to travel to us in the future) we were ready to set off.





Under a few watchful eyes, Dave drove Scott's car on to the trailer - they were ready to set off.





And Jackie had even remembered to get into the correct side of the van - She was ready to set off.





It was time to say goodbye to our hosts, the Algemene Buggy Club, your hospitality has been truly awesome as always, and something tells me that this is one IBW that will never ever be forgotten. Goodbye old friends, we will see you all next year in Germany.

 


Traditionally, we all head for the (not so) scenic route across the large dam, but this time we would split into two groups. Those that were broken, walking wounded and traveling slow would head direct for the Southern Europoot, whilst the rest would drive along the coastal route and hopefully we would all reconvene at our favourite bar on Bing Beach for a meal later.


Hopefully that would now be the last of it, I mean, what else could possibly go wrong?