The larger group of Buggies set off on their scenic tour of the Dutch Motorways





From early childhood, we are all taught that Holland is full of windmills, but it really isn't the case now. There are still a few about but on this trip from one side of the country to the other, you could probably count the ones you can see on one hand





There is a very large lake and watersports centre over here, and the Dutch love to spend their bank holidays with a bit of kite surfing





Holland is a strange place to travel, being so flat there is not actually a lot of scenery to see in the distance, but the roads are nice and smooth and good to drive on with a real bonus that it is very easy to keep a large group of you together for most of the trip.





If you look at the map when route planning this leg of the trip, there is a very long road that goes across the water with the sea on one side and freshwater on the other. On paper it looks as though it could be an interesting place to head for. In reality, it is mile after mile of heavy steel barriers with watchtowers every few hundred yards. The view is somewhat underwhelming.





If this was the only rain they had to contend with, then they got off lightly as they headed for the bar on Bing Beach





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

Meanwhile, on the other convoy . . .

It was a nice and gentle cruise back along the way we had come in, and with 2 trailers in our convoy we sat at a steady 55mph which was absolute bliss for taking in some of the last views of Holland on a nice sunny day. Although a supremely confident driver, Vicky was a little apprehensive about driving the Kango over here on her own, so Kath jumped in as shotgun and I stuck behind her to allow her to overtake into a lane that I would be blocking for her.





It was a pleasantly uneventful trip to the services, and by that I mean really enjoyable, although I`m not sure that DC was feeling quite the same due to the lack of road holding on his new slimline wheels. I did have a moment of panic myself though when stood minding my own business and having a wee when this little voice over my shoulder said "Hello Dave" and turned out to be Vicky who had wandered into the gents by mistake. Or was it?





Ruben's hire car was sparkling really well in the sunshine. I think they call this a Hotrod Sportscar, its a very different look to our ones and this one is somewhat rapid.





Scott and Jackie were left to share a quiet moment together and reflect on what had been a somewhat traumatic weekend for them. I am just so relieved that Scott is well enough to do this leg of the journey and so proud of the BBI guys here for pulling together and getting them home.





The plan was that to save us all blocking the Europoot terminal, we would split up with DC and myself heading for Bing Beach and the others meeting up with us afterwards. It was time to say goodbye but not before I had taken a picture of my car next to Rubens as I hadn't got one of those.





As we approached the Ports, there is basically a fork in the road, with the Europoot terminal for Hull on the left of the river and the Hook of Holland terminal on the right with Bing Beach behind it. As we approached this area, the traffic was starting to build up and given that Vicky asked me to stay behind her opening up the lanes, I decided that I would just stay with her for the short distance to the Port. I had no way to signal to DC that this was my intention, but luckily he stuck with me if not a bit puzzled.

I hadn't expected the three tunnels on the way to the port (Northern crew had kept that one quiet) and they were decent enough to make some noise and have a bit of fun. We soon arrived at an empty ferry port (we were a bit early) and set about unloading Scott's car and putting Ruben's one on the trailer. Dave was going to drive the car onto the ferry and that was all sorted. They had a plan.





There was only one thing left to do now and that was say goodbye to the unquestionable star of this trip, our mate Ruben.

  All Hail Ruben the Resourceful, master of all he surveys.     Ruben basked in the heavenly glory and looked down on his subjects. He felt good.





We suddenly noticed that a few cars were starting to appear in the lanes so it was time for us to turn around and make an abrupt exit. Bing Beach was about 10 miles away and the sun was shining.

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

It was time for us to now join the others and head to Bing Beach for some grub. We left the Europoot and headed through the tunnels where Lisa broke the absolute taboo that I told you of earlier and mentioned that she wished that she had not taken her coat off looking at the colour of that sky. Yep, that meant I was about to get wet. What I had not envisaged though was the biblical monsoon that then hit us hard. There was no warning, no pitta patter of rain, just an instant and severe deluge like someone standing above you with a fire hose on full bore. We were in the middle of a horrendously busy five lane motorway and this was getting serious, it was also getting heavier. I couldn't physically see the windscreen in front of me and the rain was so heavy that when trying unsuccessfully to pull to the hard shoulder with Snoopy I nearly got rear ended by a huge lorry. I tried slowing down, but traffic was going too fast to allow me to do so and now driving without my glasses (I just couldn't see through the extra 2 layers of water covered glass) I spotted a lane going off to the right. At that point I had no idea if one way, two way, restricted access, allowed, whatever, I was going that way. At the bottom of that slip road was a fuel station with a roof. As I pulled up, I saw that DC and Oojamaflip were both behind me. The rain then got even heavier and we witnessed our first Dutch flash flood.

The dual carriageway was getting quite deep with water at this stage with a huge wave going from one lane to the other as the cars drove through at stupid speeds. Further up the road we could see a BMW that had been caught out doing this and had now become stranded in the road. I have driven through some pretty serious weather conditions in my time, and that is the first that has left me genuinely scared. If you were one of those that traveled back from IBW a few years back through that amazing weather we had, well believe me when I say that was nothing compared to what we have just driven through. I only hope that this garage served Coffee, because I needed one badly.

The cashier was just standing there completely aghast with eyes wide open, mouth wide open looking at the carnage outside, only to briefly look my way and say "You drove out there with no roof?" She thought we were mad, but to be fair, it was not intentional.

We all grabbed a coffee and Kath broke out some Dutch biscuits that her daughter liked. I thought I had better explain what they were and what to do with them before Ruben came back to give her a severe telling off, as like Pancakes, the Stroopwaffle is a Dutch delicacy. You can get them at home in Lidl's or Sainsbury's and you simply place them on top of your hot cuppa for a few minutes until they go warm and gooey. Worth searching out and giving them a go, as they are lovely.



After the rain had eased a little, Dave, Dave and Dave walked across the road to study the depth of the puddles and plot a course around them on the dual carriageway. We agreed a route and decided that we would abandon Bing Beach and head straight for our Ferry Port instead as we really didn't fancy being out in that rain again. As we headed the short distance to the port, I cannot speak for the others, but I was only too well aware how much mine was spluttering and coughing with the amount of water that it was now taking onboard.

We then turned the corner into the queue for the ferry. Made it 

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

Whilst waiting in the queue, we had a good chat with a couple of bikers that were also quite relieved to be at the port. It was hellish driving the Buggy in the weather and I cannot imagine how hard that must have been riding two up on two wheels through that wind and rain. They looked exhausted.

Over our shoulder, we noticed a sign saying Fish & Chips, and knowing that we were heading on to the ferry for a slap up meal, we just had to have fish and chips as a starter. It's an interesting shop though, it's like an old fashioned fishmongers with a huge display of every type of fish possible from shark and monkfish to squid and smoked mackerel. You pick your fish and then they cook it in batter for you.

After heading through the passport check, we then joined the next queue that is literally right in front of the ferry. I commented to Lisa that I could hear a strange squeaking noise, nothing severe, but it sounded like a bearing had maybe gone or possibly starting to fail from all that water ingress. We had a bit of time to kill, so I got out and noticed that my fan belt (whilst still attached and charging) was somewhat loose. Closer inspection, to my horror, I found that my alternator mounting bracket had split with one of the bolts now wedged against the fan guard which was all that was now holding it in place. It was the other side of the bracket that failed in Belgium many years ago, for exactly the same reason - a really crap weld with zero penetration. I had a fix for it though, as I always carry a good handful of stainless steel cable ties, and I would urge everybody to put some in their emergency breakdown kit as they are heavy duty enough to hold any weight and heatproof if you need to use them for exhausts. Half a dozen strategically placed belts had my alternator nice and firm enough for me to drive onto the ferry and I would simply let the AA take care of it when I got home.





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

Word had come through that the Northern Crew were sat in the bar, and we know from previous trips that they cannot hold their drink up there. Something tells me that this trip would be no exception judging by the tiny glass of wine that Claire had now started on.





Meanwhile, over at the other port, we had now all boarded the ferry safely, my car had managed to drive on without issue and we looked forward to a nice shower in the cabin





But, we had another problem in our cabin - the toilet had broken and would not flush. I headed down to Customer Services and joined a large queue of others reporting the same fault. It turned out that one of the vacuum pumps had failed covering several floors and a lots of rooms. They knew about it and had technicians on the case, which turned out to be correct as they were working again by the time I had got back to the cabin.



I did try ringing Ruben to see if he could solve this one, but he didn't answer. I suspect he had already switched off his phone but not before barring and deleting all of our numbers


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

Morning had broken, the Ferry doors opened and it was time to depart. Some good news though, it wasn't raining !! 





I needed to contact the AA at some point, but as the car was driveable with a bit of care, I opted to head for the Morrisson's car park down the road. as I remembered that Hugh was picked up from there a few years back and it would be far easier to get a recovery truck in there than having them try and negotiate the port itself. No point making it difficult for the driver.





As usual, the cafe was shut, so it was time to say good bye to our friends as we would not be with them for this last leg of the journey





I think that Dave was trying to hint that it was time to crack on and head for home





There is something sad about such a fun loving vehicle being abandoned at the end of a trip like Billy No Mates, but we didn't mind. Whilst Lisa raided the store for some supplies for the day, I started that long winded phone call to the AA. Their phone system is determined for you to use their app, and every time I have used it in the past, the app has crashed. Today was no exception. After a while of being on hold I finally got through to someone.





The AA cannot send out a recovery truck without first inspecting the vehicle to see if they can fix it by the roadside, and its pointless trying to argue that one. However after 30 minutes waiting, the call came through that they would be sending out a sub contractor instead and when speaking to them about a broken bespoke bracket on a kit car, they instantly agreed it was not a roadside fix and would send a recovery truck instead. After around an hour and a half, we were met by a young lad called Adam. He asked where the best place to attach the winch was and was quite happy for me to drive it onto the back even though it broke all of their rules.





Adam was really good company, and I think that he was so relieved that we were one of the few people in his truck that was not screaming and shouting at him about being late and I get the feeling that these guys get an awful lot of abuse. Lisa curled up in the back for a snooze whilst Adam and I talked turkey about cars. A 300 mile journey is not going to be done in one hit as the drivers only have so many hours on their tacho's. Adam suggested that the South Mimms services would be a good place to drop me off, and he phoned ahead to another sub contractor to ensure that were not waiting for anyone when we arrived. Lisa awoke during the journey and was surprised that we were traveling on such a bumpy road, thinking it was a country lane or something. She was a bit surprised when I informed her that we were actually on the M25. Wow that has deteriorated since I was last on it. We reached South Mimms and were left in the busy lorry park, looking somewhat forlorn.





No sooner had we opened our sandwiches did the next truck arrive. I think his name was Terry, but if it wasn't, then I`ll just call him Terry anyway. I said that I was able to drive onto the back under my own steam, and he was pleased with that as time was precious. If I could get it loaded faster than he could winch it, then that was fine by him. He was really interested in the Buggy and asked if he could take some pictures of it on the back of his truck and then proceeded to show me pictures on his phone of every conceivable supercar you can imagine that he had recovered. He was genuinely exited as mine was his first Beach Buggy. We spent the next hour or so having a real laugh, as this guy was a very excitable and passionate Petrol head and we relived every episode of Top Gear and the Grand Tour during the journey. Like the previous driver, he said it was such a change having people in his truck not shouting at him for being late and that he wished he had enough hours on his tacho to take us all the way home, but would get us as far as he could. He recited a common scenario where he has people shouting their heads off at him not to scratch their cars as he is pulling them out of ditches when he knows full well they are written off and the owners will never see them again - but they blame him for that also. As the miles passed by, he came up with a proposal that may cut down the number of trucks we would encounter that day. If it was alright for him to stop for 45 minutes on a tacho break, then he was prepared to take us a lot further down the A303 to Ilminster as that's where his Mum lived. That is only an hour or so away from home, and that seemed really good of him to suggest it. Sometimes it does pay to be nice to the drivers. He also phoned ahead to ensure another truck would be waiting for us when we got there. We exchanged phone numbers at the end of that trip, and I would not be surprised if I didn't hear from him again. He was a real nutter and we had shared some good laughs.





Twenty minutes later, the next truck appeared. Picture in your head the stereotypical hazy summer scene in a field of wheat (without Theresa May) and a yokel of a farmer wearing a smock, a straw hat, chewing a blade of straw like a cheroot whilst gazing upwards at the sun without a care in the world. If this guy had been any more laid back, he would have fallen over. It was great and his strong West Country accent reminded us just how close to home we were. He had borrowed the truck from a mate of his to do this trip knowing it was a Beach Buggy, "a bit special" as he put it. He was also a car enthusiast and showed me pictures of some of the stunning vehicles he had, and was very passionate about his customized motorbike, his own pride and joy.

At around 5:30pm, we turned the corner to our house just in time for tea. It had been a long albeit pleasant day where I had met some real characters along the way and that kind of made up for not being able to drive the Buggy home. If the truth be told, I was also knackered, had saved close to the national debt on fuel and had arrived home not much later than if I had driven it myself.

Time to relax. Our Epic adventure had now come to an end   

That turned out to be a very different and unexpected trip, but we still had a blast. Nothing can compare to the friendship and madness of the Buggy Community. This trip threw us just about every challenge possible and we have still come back smiling. If you have never been on a trip with us, even one of our UK camping weekends, then I seriously urge you to do so. The people I traveled with are more than just friends and I will always refer to them as my family.




Shortly after we returned home I received an update from Scott. He had been to several hospitals on his return, and was now in the process of recovery. His car is being rebuilt as we speak and I look forward to seeing it again soon. I really have to take my hat off to this guy, as despite everything that happened, he still managed to smile and crack jokes. I have a large cold beer waiting for you my friend when we next meet.






There is no doubt however about the absolute star of this trip. My best mate Ruben the Resourceful. No matter what the situation was, he came back time after time with assistance and a solution. Many of you may not realize this, but at the IBW in Holland five years ago a drunken Dave Doon and myself physically kidnapped this random Dutchman in order to have a guide and an interpreter on a shopping trip where we nearly forgot to bring him home again.

Oh boy, did we pick the right person   




IBW 2020 ?  Already Booked and counting down the days

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my story   

Fantastic write up Dave. Certainly was a trip to remember. Despite all the not-so-good bits it was a holiday I'll always remember for the good bits too. Chad's party tent meant we didn't even notice the rain and I for one haven't laughed so much in years.
I wish Scott a speedy recovery and sincerely hope it's a full one.
IBW 2020? Wouldn't miss it for anything.

Great write up as always Dave, thanks for doing that. It certainly was an IBW trip never to forget. 

I hope Scott recovers fully and his buggy is fixed better than new. 

I'm more than happy to relinquish the trophy to anyone that wants it, its just  I seem to always get pushed to the front to collect anything and talk on stage, and I therefore ends up in my buggy to get home. 

My second hero for the weekend next to Ruben has to be Snoopy as he also never stopped helping everyone out - superstar.

Chad

Great write up, looking at the photos I missed a fair bit of the fun during the weekend but we got everyone and their buggy home despite the mechanical failures, damage and injuries so a successful IBW trip.

Chad and Flags got DC sorted on the refit and Nigel took over the repatriation of the wheels so a team effort by all.

No roadside breakdowns was a big bonus we all kept rolling.

I'm more than happy to relinquish the trophy to anyone that wants it, its just  I seem to always get pushed to the front to collect anything and talk on stage, and I therefore ends up in my buggy to get home. 

Chad ? Really ?  I thought the new house was big enough to display them all ?  Have we run out of room already ? 

Right Guys, this is serious . . . .  We need a "go fund me page" for a Bigger Trophy Cabinet as the Curator of the Buggy Hall of Fame is struggling   

No roadside breakdowns was a big bonus we all kept rolling.

That one was indeed a huge relief   

Epic write up Dave - thanks for taking such time and care collating and presenting these tales. I'd expected you to have a snap of the personalised respray that Mark arranged for his buggy as he boarded at Harwich. Think the effect was called something like ' Seagull S**t ' and only available in washable colours. Mark did try and re attract his Seagull mates when we stopped on the dams coming home:



at the same place that Flags got recognised as having appeared on TV alongside Allan discussing Scottish meteorology. And then there was DC's speech when we won the prize for Best Dressed Flower Power and so it goes on ie IBW's are epic richly varied adventures best not avoided !


'...we all kept rolling. ' Yes indeed I rolled off the end of the convoy heading north on the Friday and stopped rolling on a conveniently placed slip road. The MantaRay did eventually restart and I knew Gronigen was on the sign posts and all I had to do was turn right and head east along the A7 to find the camp site. Nice to know I wasn't missed (Keith did kindly ring to say they seem to have lost me) too much.

Whilst I wasn't doing anything responsible like navigating, I would generalise that I did feel that the Netherlands was a lovely country to drive in - immaculately smooth, flat and wide roads with hard shoulders easily sufficient to take a parked large lorry well away from the main carriage way. The road network appeared well set out with signs and drivers mostly confidently nonchalant in how they criss crossed through lane changes mostly leaving us as an intact convoy. Looking from the back I sometimes felt cross eyed as other vehicles passed both ways through the convoy ahead. Sure it got livelier around the big cities (and freak down pours) but I usually feel more stressed and on the alert driving in unknown cities in this country. And boy once you get back on the Queen's Highway at Harwich the pots holes, drain and general patches were a rude awakening...

 

I had no idea about Mark seeking revenge on the seagulls, but have added that picture to the archives 

I'm more than happy to relinquish the trophy to anyone that wants it, its just  I seem to always get pushed to the front to collect anything and talk on stage, and I therefore ends up in my buggy to get home. 

Chad ? Really ?  I thought the new house was big enough to display them all ?  Have we run out of room already ? 

Right Guys, this is serious . . . .  We need a "go fund me page" for a Bigger Trophy Cabinet as the Curator of the Buggy Hall of Fame is struggling   

With all Ruth's Shoes and books, room is disappearing fast. Think I must be married to a millipede librarian