Adventure Overland 6/7 October Daventry

[RMS]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for that post - good waffle

For those who don't realise, (and who just skimmed the post), Tom is the organiser of this show and he's doing it on his own with no big backers.

As it happens, 4 free passes for this show this year is perfectly adequate - we're actually struggling to get that many vehicles on the stand as most of us are from 'oop North' and fuel costs come in to the equation as well.

At present, just Steve and myself have committed, so there may be only two on the stand, but as you all know we normally set up as the 'front door' of the stand anyway so should be able to put on an interesting display.

John will be there as well, but not in a Camper, so doesn't really count as a stand vehicle

Cheers,
Robin.

[TomMc]

Oh yes, I can waffle for England. To emphasise the point (about club displays, not the waffle), when I used to run the National 4x4 Show at Trentham Gardens in Stoke 2001-2003 inclusive, I used to have 40 clubs there, each with a whole raft of free tickets. Then one day somehow I found the time to look around, only to realise there were maybe two, three ior four maximum interesting 'display' vehicles worthy of the name, the rest were regular, very ordinary standard LR leafers/90s/110s, SJs/Vitaras, Patrols, Fortraks/Sportraks, etc. so, even ignoring the financial side of giving away so many tickets (which I could afford at the time so that was fine), the displays were quite franky mediocre. For every interesting vehicle, there were a half dozen everyday runabouts that normally you wouldn't take a second glance at.

That's why for ADVENTURE OVERLAND I wanted to make the entire event compact, not miles of walking for little return on the ol' shoe leather. This I believe I've done, so provide an interesting show which is 'jam-packed' rather then 'sprawling'.

My, I'm working well today, waffle heaven!

[RMS]

Yep, I agree with you Tom.

We find many folk, Land Rover enthusiasts and the general public alike, come flocking to the Carawagons/Dormobiles at shows. We really struggle to get away from the stand to have a look at other stands because folk are queuing up to look at ours and ask questions (often the first question is "Did you make it yourself?" ).

What is surprising is how many Land Rover enthusiasts have never seen one before, and after looking, walk away saying "I wouldn't mind one of those" or asking where they can buy one.

Even without our usual Moroccan/woodcraft etc. paraphernalia, the vehicles themselves are interesting enough, I think. Add to that our iconic pictures of four of our 1960s Classic Campers driving over the Atlas mountains, wild camping in the Sahara etc. and we have to fight folk off

Ok, I'm sure some other stands get similar attention, but I'm afraid, like you, a row of 'standard' vehicles don't really interest me much - it's a bit like; "seen one, seen 'em all"

Cheers,
Robin.

[TomMc]

I concur Captain!

[jerryd]

Yep, I agree with you Tom.

We find many folk, Land Rover enthusiasts and the general public alike, come flocking to the Carawagons/Dormobiles at shows. We really struggle to get away from the stand to have a look at other stands because folk are queuing up to look at ours and ask questions (often the first question is "Did you make it yourself?" ).

What is surprising is how many Land Rover enthusiasts have never seen one before, and after looking, walk away saying "I wouldn't mind one of those" or asking where they can buy one.


Cheers,
Robin.

Interesting comments Robin, I took my dormobile to the "all british day" on sunday as requested and out of twenty seven land rovers that were there, I got mobbed by the crowd People were queuing to get a look inside and ask questions about it, simply because they'd never seen or heard of one before
Most were amazed at how much room is inside with the roof up and how clever the seats are..........they loved it

It seriously makes me consider becoming an agent for dormobile, as I'm convinced there would be a market over here for the product.

For what it's worth I paid $15.00 entry fee to display my vehicle, but I did receive a nice plaque which was nice. I think these days a small entry fee is not too much to ask.

[RMS]

Hi Jerry,

Yes, every show we go to we have had to sneak away at some point otherwise we'd be there all day and wouldn't see anything else

Usually there are enough of us to go off in twos & threes, leaving someone on the stand to tell the tale. As the 'core group' have been to so many shows & events together, we know most of the ins & outs of each other's vehicles.

We also pay for some shows, usually classic car shows, but it's always a nominal fee to cover admin and a plaque, usually £3-£6 including camping

Cheers,
Robin.

[RMS]

Then there were three

Phillip (Dudley) has just arrived home from a break in sunnier climes and wants to join us.

So, this will be the lineup:
Robin S2A Carawagon
Steve S2A Carawagon
Phillip S2A SW with roof tent

That's more like it - pity we can't fill the other slot though

Cheers,
Robin.

[WhiteKnight]

Then there were three
Phillip (Dudley) has just arrived home from a break in sunnier climes and wants to join us.
So, this will be the lineup:
Robin S2A Carawagon
Steve S2A Carawagon
Phillip S2A SW with roof tent
That's more like it - pity we can't fill the other slot though
Cheers,
Robin.

Wahay, the three muskateers!

[RMS]

Another good weekend (do we ever have bad weekends )!

JH gave a seminar talk to a captivated (or was it captive?) audience and was well received

Many folk at this show were experienced overlanders, including, of course, Toby Savage, Chris Scott, Austin Vince and many other well known names, all mingling with us lesser folk (note: I'm not including JH in the 'lesser folk' comment!).

We felt as though our Morocco trip was small change in comparison, especially when Chris Scott mentioned in his seminar that folk should use Morocco as a shake-down trip location before setting off on a 'proper' overland trip

There were folk there who really do 'live the dream'; off on round the world trips like it was a trip down to the shops

All in all, it was an inspiring weekend, and hopefully it will give us food for thought as we plan our next adventure for 2013

Cheers,
Robin.

[HarryMann]

Hello all,

I just thought we should logon and say how much we (Jenny & myself) enjoyed meeting Steve & Robin (am I right there?) at the Overland Expo

Not having come across LR owners that we have as much in common with before, as VW Syncro drivers, we liked very much what we saw... As so many of our models have raising roofs we loved the demonstration of the Searle raising roof - it would be nice to think that the Searle was the original 'pop-top', that begat so many alternatives (but I doubt it, there's usually always someone, somewhere who did it, had the idea earlier )

Nuff said, you took our pitch and we moved down to a larger site with more level gravel

But thanks for taking the time and trouble to show us your methods of cooking , heating water and raising the roof
A good weekend expo we thought, hope to see you next year... and please visit our display of overland expedition vehicles and the overseas camping & travelling we do.

Best Wishes

Clive Smith

Club 80-90 Syncronauts President
http://www.syncronauts.org.uk/
http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=4
http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=10