War and Peace Show 2012

One particularly heavy shower.

I'm back, who missed me? Just got back from the 30th War and Peace Show. If I could sum it up in one word? Different. It was definitely different this year. Normally you get there and the weather is fantastic for the duration of the show, you have the occasional rain shower but otherwise it's all blue skies and sunshine for two weeks. The place becomes so dry and dusty that if a heavy vehicle (there's usually alot of them) goes past you choke for about two minutes on the dust cloud it leaves behind. This year however was very different.

Hose pipe ban eh?

You know we recently had a hose pipe ban due to a water shortage? We don't now and I'm not surprised. The word "Monsoon" springs to mind when you think about the weather for this year's show. It was horrendous! The worst weather we've ever had down there at the Hop Farm. I'm normally a fan of a bit of rain while camping, I mean the sound of the rain hitting the canvas is one of the most soothing sounds I can think of, but this......this was something else entirely. The rain was torrential and not like a passing shower, it lingered for about 2 days without ever really letting up. Then when it did pass it didn't really pass for long and came back just as strong as when it left. A couple of years we've been worried that the river might burst its banks due to a heavy rainfall but this year it happened, and since the field is a floodplain, it was hell. Massive sections of the fields were underwater by at least 4 inches and I'm not even exaggerating when I say this. 

Our own personal lake.

I wouldn't of had a problem with the weather if the surface water wasn't such a huge problem. I like the rain as I've said but the surface water and eventual mud was hell. For the first time in a good few years I've had to wear wellies at the show. Due to the crappy ground conditions you can't really go and do anything, I didn't have my bike there with me but if i did I wouldn't have been able to use it. The mud was causing all kinds of chaos with vehicles rolling in. People were getting stuck in all manner of vehicles all over the shot and that was just on some of the regular camping grounds. If that was chaos then they need to come up with a whole knew word to describe what happened on the Stalls field.

Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink.

Any other year, there wouldn't be much of a problem. The stall holders turn up, drive to their pitch and set up shop (the only time I can say that and mean it) without any problems. The pitches are marked out with white spray paint on the grass so everyone knows what kind of space they've got and everything, but this year, the rain kept washing the markings of and due to water-logging pitches people needed to be relocated to other places which is a chore at the best of times. Then the state of the field meant that vehicles were getting stuck all over the place and then chewing the area to shit so the officials decided it'd be easier to tow the stall holders to their pitches. However this took a helluva lot of time due to the lack of vehicles able to tow others without wrecking the place and so this caused mayhem in the form of incredible traffic jams. Ever seen Die Hard 2? The part where they say "Stack 'em and rack 'em"? Well that's what we ended up doing. Normally it's out of our jurisdiction (yeah that's right I just said that) as we're on the Big Monktons team but they needed help and we couldn't just sit there and do nothing. So we headed up there to help control traffic, Uncle Steven helped out for a while towing people to their pitches but the Land Rover got bogged down back at camp one night so he had to switch to traffic duty. It was crazy up there, we had multiple stacks of vehicles along 3 or 4 long roads and more backing up at Booking In. Eventually we managed to clear everyone and get everyone set up but it took ages, a couple late nights for some people and was a battle in its own but we (well they since I only helped for a day or two) got there in the end.

One of many storm fronts.

Stalls wasn't the only place hit hard by the weather, everywhere was affected pretty badly by the often impassable conditions on the ground, creating a need to pull vehicles out and around which in turn created traffic issues. The first week or so of the show was pretty hectic. Things began to ease off towards the actual show week, where it's open to the public, but by no means were things easy. Health and Safety changes caused alot of issues at first but we did our best to adapt to them. It wasn't easy but we were getting there. Dad and the rest of the "real" adults from our camp have been officials for a couple years now, I got drafted in times of need as an assistant official last year but that was fine by me, I don't mind mucking in when needed, but this year I got promoted to full time assistant official. I got called into the dining shelter after the official's shirts had been collected and Dad throws a bag of purple shirts at me. I caught them offhand (I was proud) and simply said "Ah crap..." as I noticed my name on the bag. Now I'm on the team's list it means I actually have to do things! I'm kidding, like I said I got no problem helping out. It's gotten to the point now that I've been there so many years I've pretty much seen everything. Very little changes from year to year so now I mostly spend my time minding camp and reading (which I enjoy) but it'll be a nice change to actually be doing something for once.

I could not be more impressed with this.

You remember a couple weeks back (I think my last post actually was 2 weeks ago....) I wrote about storms and said I'd never experienced an all guns blazing full on storm? Well now I think I've gotten as close to one as I'm going to get. It was stunning. Equally beautiful and terrifying, to quote 'Turn Coat' by Jim Butcher, "I can't decide if it's one of the most beautiful terrifying things or the most terrifying beautiful things I've ever seen". I was literally stunned by the storm that seemed to boil up out of nowhere. The clouds took on an angry looking air behind the tree line but we thought that it'd just blow past and not really amount to much, since most British storms never really do. One flash of lightning and it's over. This one? This one was different, much like the show this year. Thunder roared all round and lighting struck with a ferocity I'd never seen before. The strikes were so close together that the rolls of thunder blended together creating a furious cacophony that hammered at the ears and so bright that they burned into your vision for a good couple seconds, only clearing in time to be blinded by the next one. One photo I wish I could have captured was of a blast of sheet lightning consisting of 5 thick bolts all connected by an incandescent streak of lightning just under the clouds. It was both beautiful and terrifying, such a display of raw power. I didn't get to see where any of the bolts made landfall but I doubt they would have been pretty sights.

One of my favourites.

Despite the chaotic weather and conditions, that forced many other shows to close, the show was still fantastic. Although the atmosphere may have been a little strained but with things the way they were that was to be expected, there was still the regular fun and games and pranks. It just shows the grim determination, willpower and resilient spirit we can all display when facing adverse conditions, it was the 30th anniversary and come hell or high water the show was going to go on!


There was also some brilliant sunsets to see, I caught a few, missed a couple others but I'm not complaining. I managed to get some incredible photos while I was there and I'm happy with that.


Well that's pretty much all for now....


Catch ya later folks.