Photo TR. Southend Adventure Island

The last UK park before I head across the pond in a few weeks time and a final chance to whore some more credits to give me a slim chance of cracking the 400 barrier.

I was accompanied by Mr. Pete who also offered to drive seeing as I'm picking him up on the way down to Swansea next weekend for The Hamsters gig.

So onto the park. Well the addition of the Eurofighter "Rage" has made a big difference as far as I can tell otherwise it really wouldn't have been worth the trip. We'd pre-purchased our wrist bands online thus saving £3 on the park price of £18 so our first stop was to collect said items. Southend very cleverly market themselves as the UK's largest free entry amusement park. Which I would assume is spot on now that Blackpool are charging an entrance fee.

So first stop of the day just had to be "Rage" and it certainly stands out in the park with it's bright colours and the vertical lift hill. Of all the Eurofighters I've ridden this is by far the smallest and most compact but it's still very good for such a small ride. The park was pretty much empty and it was a walk on for all the rides so Pete and I just wandered straight on and we were dispatched immediately. Who needs ERT?

The usual relaxing ride up the lift hill followed before tipping over and plunging down and then up into the loop. Nice bit of hang time at the top which just allowed you that brief "OOOH" moment before it pulled out and into the overbanked turn. Round another tight turn before going through the barrel roll and then into another couple of tight turns with smooth transitions and then hitting the brakes. Too be fair it's a ride that would grace any park no matter how big it is as it does a good job of entertaining for very little effort.

The rest of the park isn't much to speak of to be fair the other coasters are pretty tame in comparison and two of them had water dummies filling the front rows to ensure they would get round as the place was so empty. So we made sure we got the credits in and then a ride on the disco before heading out for lunch. We had a lovely, freshly cooked fish and chip dinner (Pete went for the Cod and I had Plaice) and after that we headed back in to make sure we got our moneys worth out of the wrist bands.

A few more runs on "Rage" later and we decided that we'd got Value For Money out of the bands and headed back to my Mum's as there was beer to be drunk.

Well it was the best ride in the park so here's a final look at "Rage."

Oh wow man, I mean these signs are just SO clever!!!!

The new ghost train wasn't ready just yet. It does look rather small though!

It's all rather phallic actually!

Hey, wait a second! There's a dummy behind me as well!

All he needs is the white scarf to complete the outfit.

These guys are making these words up....

Beware "RAGE MAN" he tells it to you straight!

It's Mr. Pete and he's found a sign!

Hey look. Meet my new friends "The Dummies" they're so cool as they don't scream at all!!!

Coming through the barrel roll.

One vertical lift hill in bright colours!

This looks like a fun park to check out. Thanks for posting this.

That exit sign is what every park needs theres so many people going in the exit to ride rides at Six Flags Over Texas.

And a few from me....

Insert caption here...

Crowds were still heaving...

Now for the money shot!

The train moved about a centimetre in the time we took this photo!

Porn shot for Derek!

It took longer from the brake run back into the station than the ride cycle itself!

Me likes!

That's where Eddie Grant went to!

It was Green, but no one was screaming

Yes, it was THAT busy!