Fiesta Diary :: Day One :: Saturday 22 July 2006

The morning is greeted with a bit of a hangover and some frantic last minute packing. As we leave Providence Road the exhaust pipe drags across the top of every speed-bump. Will seems to have an inordinately large amount of luggage with him, including two boxes of food which turns out to consist of tins of tuna, tonic water and baked beans! We trundle nicely along the M4 and arrive at Hyde Park at midday. The pig seems to be running hot, but it has been acting like this since it was serviced and MOT'ed.

We are almost the last vehicle to turn up at the park, and the 190 or so that are there already look amazing all lined up! There are a lot of Suzuki SJ410s and Fiat Pandas, many Nissan Micras and other small cars, and a smattering of Fiestas. We park up next to a Micra painted in “Dukes of Hazard” colours and are later joined on the other side by an immaculate B reg MKII Fiesta in brown.

I quickly find Vaughn and hand over the MOT certificate. He is very relieved. The blue Fiesta looks pretty good, with quite a few stickers on her, and a few handwritten messages. I stroll on a bit further, meeting Harryazoda(?) who is a manic forum poster and leaving a week later than everyone else. His Polish Skoda looks truly shit and broke down on the way to the park. The “Tenby Mongols” are there with their 1982 MKI Fiesta which is also in a bit of a state – not broken down but with the usual Fiesta rust holes in all the right places.

Other interesting sights include a vehicle with a three metre mast sticking out of the top, and a large fluffy monkey on top of a Panda. I can only presume that this is “Team Monkeytank” from Glasgow. There is a guy riding a Honda C90 and another chap on a Korean 125cc bike. I think the Korean bike will be okay but not so sure about the C90!

Back home to collect driving license. Breaking windscreen wipers. Kitchen has been tidied! Breakdown near Canterbury. Get 8.30pm ferry across to Calais, meet the army boys and a boy/girl SJ410 team, and another SJ410 team consisting of two posh ladies! Nurse the car for the overnight run to Prague.