Twenty two vans in total attended this 5th and final Victorian Extravaganza Holiday Rally organized by Thelma and Norman Hey, all to be greeted on arrival by a pot of tea. A full programme of events were arranged by Thelma and Norman including tea and coffee on the first evening and on the Friday evening we had a meal in the clubhouse. We were entertained by fellow Rallier Eric Loveridge who had brought his electric key board which was excellent.

On Sunday a boat trip was organized by Thelma from Conwy Quay. The following Wednesday a barbecue was held, again we were in the clubhouse to eat. This was followed by a quiz and entertainment by Eric and his music. Friday in the clubhouse a meal of pie and peas with chips were served followed by a sweet. Tony our Northern Secretary, with his wife Fran, made the journey from Yorkshire to present the plaques etc to Thelma and Norman and Assistant Rally Marshals Gerry and Betty. Thelma gave potted plants to all the members who had attended all five of her Rallies at this venue.

Throughout the Rally we had a mixture of weather, rain and sunshine at various times, sometimes heavy rain, which meant the yellow flag had to be flown. On Sunday we enjoyed a cooked breakfast in the clubhouse before leaving, with some members going on the follow on Rally at Bickerton. In all an excellent Rally enjoyed by all who attended (pity it is the last one).

What a trip! Where else could you cross the globe within the boundaries of a Rally field, but with the Elddis Owners Club? Inspired by an idea from Louise Pharis, the highlight of Pauline and Charles’ Rally brought together the culinary expertise and distilled delights of eight different countries – extending late into the evening, with vans decorated in the style of each country, decked out with flags, balloons & bunting and many of the ambassadors wearing national dress.

After the spectacularly sunny Saturday ordered by Charles, with lots of new shorts from Sainsbury’s in evidence, the Grand Tour took us through: England - Pauline and Charles Bayliss, Wales - Janet and Chris Jones, France - Val and Dave Withington, Belgium - Ruth and Lyndon Wigmore, Italy - Gill and Andy Ashworth, USA - Louise and Sarah Pharis, India - Diana and Moss Owen, China - Caroline and Pete Kent. The cuisine on offer ranged from cream-teas in England & Welsh cakes from Wales, to noodles in China and beer with everything in Belgium (thanks Lyndon).

Processing from country to country was not without border control as everyone had an Elddis passport to record their progress. Special mention should go to Dave Withington for faithfully recreating a French street toilet for the convenience of his international visitors. Clive Gott attempted to establish an unlicensed gambling den by adding Monaco to the Tour, before the authorities (Doreen) took his playing cards away.

Geoff Jones made every effort to continue the Tour on Sunday morning, roaming from breakfast-bbq to breakfast-bbq in search of ‘spare’ sausages and pleading starvation, Sue has made a special request that we don’t feed Geoff, “as it only encourages him”.

At Flag, the results of the popular vote placed the USA as the best Tour experience, by the narrowest of margins and with everyone else in equal second place. All the contributors received the sincerest thanks from the club for a most creative and enjoyable evening. Louise received special thanks for her original idea and creative inspiration.

Our First-time-Ralliers, Karen and Bill Heggs only just made it to Flag, not being prepared for the volume of hospitality they would experience on Saturday night and still recovering at 11 o’clock. Moss Owen did not apologise for his Indian outfit.

Sam Kent ran a successful raffle for the Kids, managing to press gang Dominic Sinclair as his heavy-duty raffle-ticket sales assistant. The King of the Kids, Derek Jackson shamelessly plugged his new book at Flag before making a special presentation of a plaque for attending 115 Rallies to Dominic Sinclair (see photo).

Dominic gained his 100 rallies plaque last year and is going around again, although with exams ahead he is now concentrating on his school work (?)

A top tip from Gill Ashworth is that we can all get 10% discount at Davan Caravans just by joining their Club scheme, available at the checkout desk and thru the internet at http://davan.co.uk/join_caravan_club.php. Bogged down motorhome recovery services were provided (several times) by C. Bayliss Towing Services. Counterfeit passports and fake immigration papers were c/o Louise Pharis.

First time Ralliers at this event were Karen and Bill Heggs (see photo)

Neal Vernon, Kerry and Daniel, Visitors were Mal and John Wheeler.

Thirty vans and one motor home attended the Rally at Corbridge to be welcomed by Tom Stobbs and not the familiar face of Peter Turner the named Rally Marshal. We were told Peter was not very well and could not run the Rally.

The weather was not as good as we had been promised by the met office for the bank holiday weekend. On the Friday evening Peter came for the evening coffee, driven there by his wife Linda in their new Freelander. He was feeling a little better and thought they may attend the Rally on Saturday if Alan the Assistant Marshal would tow his van there for him. It was nice to see them at the Rally that he had organized. Tom still ran the remainder of the Rally.

There were two new Ralliers Kevin and Francis Last and Brent, Heather and Fay Reid. The social was held on the Saturday night in the club house and a very good meal was had by all. Flag was held on the bank holiday Monday where Derek presented the plaques and thanked all the Marshals and Assistant Marshals for a great Rally, and the Vice President John presented the new Ralliers with there ‘First Rally plaques’.