Photo TR: Tom and Piers spend Easter in the Westcountry!

Shockwave · March 26, 2008

So the 2008 season has begun, and it's time to go out and find some new places and meet some new friends!

For a change, I decided to take this Easter off, instead of doing what I normally do and work over it. It also gave the chance to get a few new credits and parks visited, and see a little bit of culture as well. So on Thursday 20th March, I drove down to meet a few friends in the south, have a few drinks before the trip really began. Late that night, I got to my Travelodge in Bournemouth, parked my car and went to bed. So far so good.

Next morning, I wake up, have breakfast, pack up my stuff and leave my hotel only to find that my car is covered in bird shit. Not a good start to the day. Then I get to Adventure Wonderland which has a credit to ride, and whilst riding, a gust of wind slows it down and it gets stuck. All the more embarrassing as I'm the only person on the ride.

Eventually I get off the ride and leave in a hurry and headed west to another credit in Weymouth. Turns out this one is exactly the same as the one I broke at Bournemouth. Luckily this one made all the way around. It was also strange to see a place that I hadn't been to for about 10 years, as I used to live in that neck of the woods. The credit is only a recent addition, when I was a kid there used to be bumper boats there instead.

With the day getting a little better all the time, I washed my car, and made it into Plymouth, where I spy a fairground with a mouse credit up and running. After cutting up two lanes of traffic, I got across the road and went into the car park, rode it, then went off to meet up with Piers.

Here's the photos...

And after that, we headed in for the night.

We did one more before we left.

This one looked a bit too spinny, so we passed.

But it a had a credit, so what the heck.

The rainbow's end didn't have a pot of gold. It was more like a dodgy fun fair.

One Piers later, we decided to head back upto to the fair for another go!

Come with me if you want to live!

The Arnold Schwarznegger roadshow was also in town that day.

One near miss later, and I got my ride in.

Top tip: don't cross two lanes of traffic if you see a spinning mouse at a fair. I was lucky and didn't crash. You might not be.

And here's the exclusive car wash POV.

Speedy coaster was fast enough not to get stopped by a gust of wind.

This one didn't leave me high and dry halfway around though.

A few hours later, I was down at an old childhood haunt.

With a bit of rope and some pulling power, I was soon free to leave.

Luckily when the mechanics stopped laughing, they came to rescue me.

And here is the idiot who caused it. With a stupid photo to match.

And this is it. Stuck halfway around.

And there is the credit!

Aventure Wonderland is a big indoor playcentre with some outhdoor attractions and a big maze.

But never mind, it was time to whore some credits!

And this is my car after the birds had gone.

This was where I woke up on Friday morning.

Tömmioh · March 26, 2008

Great TR so far Tom!

It's always nice to see some smaller more unknown (ok, honestly that park was totally unknown to me) parks. Really shame about the birds excrements, man, the birds must've been quite humongous when you look at the size of some the droppings.

Yay, for Terminator (1) the ride, Now where's Terminator 3-the ride and dare I say... Sarah Connor Chronicles ?-the ride

Cool, Travelodge's got a new design/font from what I saw 2.5 years back, hehe.

It's nice to see that you can "already" visit parks, I have yet to wait about a month, anyway looking forward for more pics!

Divv3k · March 28, 2008

Cool stuff Tom. Did some credit whoring myself last weekend so glad I wasn't the only one.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Purplepills · March 28, 2008

Haha I can't believe that ride broke when you were the only person on it. That must have been almost embarassing!

Nice pics so far, look forward to reading more.

Shockwave · April 18, 2008

Wow, I almost forgot that I had started this trip report!

After an eventful first day and a good nights sleep, it was time to go and check out the most southerly park in England.

Flambards is described as an "experience" by its advertising, largely down to its two main exhibitions of Victorian Britain and Britain in the Blitz. There's also a aviation exhibit, indoor educational centre and function facilities. Oh, and some amusment rides catering for all ages.

The park is good for a couple of hours, but after that there's not too much to keep you there. So we left to explore the most southerly and westerly points of England.

Whilst I post the rest of the Flambards/Lands End photos, I'll leave you with a random kaleidoscope to keep you wondering.

And then this happened.

So I stole a digger instead.

Damn. I was hoping to ride on the back of the space buggy!

Piers says no to counterfeit Jenga!

So he dealt with it.

Piers doesn't like imitation stuff.

Well, cheap knock-off Jenga anyway.

After the big slide drama, it was time for some party sized Jenga!

This however was very real. Unfortunately this was the best picture we got due to the shape of the building. It's a vertical slide that's about twice as big as a regular one. As a result, I was terrified the first time I dropped off the edge! But once you fall, it's amazing.

And this isn't real either.

Sorry Chris, it's not a real one.

Maybe this is the Cedar Fair area after all.

They don't even have a real Dancing Stage machine!

Tacky is the word you'll be looking for right now.

We went back out to see what else there was outdoors. I think this is a few trashcans short of a Cedar Fair exhibit.

The spinning tunnel was really disorientating. And very green and blurry!

I'm still waiting on the cheque from Disney.

What follows is the very idea that inspired the shadow of the Yeti halfway round Expedition Everest.

In one of the many indoor parts of Flambards. And this is as good as my Myspace mirror photo taking skills get.

Hey SharkTums! I didn't know you were moonlighting at Flambards!

Because we didn't fancy the idea of getting soaked in chilly weather, we did the Rockin' Tug instead.

But in the flurries of rain and snow, and with the really cold weather, no one was riding.

No family park is complete without a log flume.

There was this spinning thing, but we declined.

Which meant one of us had to pedal.

Apart from the coaster, there's also some pedal copters.

Trains look very insecty too.

It was quite fun. Lots of twisting drops and tight turns.

This is as far south as coasters go in Britain.

Where else?

So, where do we start?

It's the best day of the week!

Shockwave · April 19, 2008

More Flambards, Lizard Point, and Land's End!

There we go, that was a brief tour of Lands End. There's other attractions to do there, but we were off to have a few drinks. So it was time to go.

They made a funny.

And because it sells poop in a bag, it's also Robb-approved.

It sells local ale, so it's also Derek-approved.

We checked out the Dan-approved gift shop before going.

Since I was spending my money on alcohol for that night, this pic will have to do.

And here it is! The famous sign. Tokyo was put on today thanks to some Japanese tourists.

The winds and the lack of land claimed two more victims.

But there is a giant TARDIS just before the land ends.

The foreign translation will tell you the same. No more land!

Like I say, there's no more land! It just stops!

Wind. Exhibit B.

It was very windy.

And here we are at Lands End. Where the land just sort of stops.

This is where the old lifeboat launch used to be at the bottom of the cliffs.

Cliffs have feeling too y'know.

Long way down!

Lizard Point stretches a few miles further south than Land's End, making it the most southerly mainland point in England. Land's End is sitll the most westerly mainland point in England, so we'll go there later.

NOT LANDS END.

It was time to leave. But first I was hungry for scrambled eggs.

Sadly this is the closest I'll ever get to flying aboard this incredible machine.

There's also an aviation section, with a section of the Concorde prototype.

So here's a map of where the RAF bombed in Nazi Germany.

The next exhibit was about wartime Britain. But I wasn't allowed to take photos inside this one.

Good old modern medicine.

And monkeys could drink in bars.

Horses got tired quickly back then.

Nearly as old as Jeff.

So this shows what Victorian Britain looked like.

And now a few shots of the three indoor "experiences".

NOT A POSTBOX.

Shockwave · April 21, 2008

OK, we're at Sunday now, which means that we were going to Milky Way and Crealy Adventure Park.

Milky Way is a really cool little place, it has a lot of quirky stuff that kept us very much entertained for a few hours. Big slides, golf driving nets, archery, shooting, dodgems, a maze, and alien abduction.

And that last one is not a misprint. You really do go aboard a mother ship and squeezed into a probe (don't panic, it's just a powered Batflyer, and you don't come off walking like a cowboy). You even have to crawl through a tube to ride it.

The outdoor coasters weren't open today, as one was stalled halfway round and the other wasn't built yet, but that really didn't make any difference. And Piers also confronted with one of his worst fears. Briefly...