This year I partnered up with Spaceship Rentals to cover Goodwood Festival of Speed which taken place a weekend ago, and todays blog will be about my experience, there will be photos from the event too!
VW Camper Car - Most fuel efficient camper in their fleet
First of all they are Camper Van hire company, and I didn't manage to pick mine up on time as planned, even though I left home earlier - I was supposed to reach their office at 5pm.
Someone got hit by the train and all trains from London to Sunnymeads were on hold, so I had to take an Uber ride which also taken longer route than it was supposed to. With that all my plans for the sunset shots with the camper van were kind of buried, as the plan was to pick up the camper, drive home, get all my stuff, and hit the road, with few stops to take some photos.
Luckily I had a GoPro and my camera with me - just in case ;-) - so I decided to take a little bit longer route now - before the sunset - and head home for all my things later. M25 was busy - as always - which added some time.
First stop Box Hill
Drone use is not permitted on or over National Trust land as part of our byelaws, so I'm down to photos here only. Considering time running away, I just decided to stay here longer and hit the other spot in the morning (as it was closer to the festival grounds).
First impressions (well not really first, as I used their Campervans before) - this time Caddy comes with air conditioning, and it's automatic - I love automatic cars in the busy streets of London.
Overall it's basically newer model than I used to hire in the previous years, meaning that the guys at Spaceships Rentals are upgrading their fleet - awesome!
Then comes the colour... I liked the white ones more - all my cars are white, probably that's why - but then I got used to it and it was OK.
Time to go home now and pack my things. I am already familiar with everything this camper van has to offer, so this was a quickie.
Next stop Hayling Beach
So I had to improvise on my way and found this beach with amazing seafront parking, 30 minutes drive from Goodwood, making it perfect spot for the night.
Weather next day wasn't ideal, quite a lot of clouds, but managed to capture some sun shining through them at the end. Decided not to have breakfast here as I spend quite a lot of time here already since the sunset and they are serving one for Press in the media centre at Goodwood anyways. Also to get the Media tabard - giving me access to the track - I have to be there around 7am, otherwise they will be gone quickly.
Few sips of Yerba Mate and I am on the road.
Goodwood Festival of Speed
Arrived on time, traffic in the morning wasn't bad, and as always parking is so hectic here, even though I knew which Media parking I was going for, the security guys didn't care much and were placing people pretty much randomly. So I parked close to the team camps keeping in mind that I could re-park anyways after the day is finished, as most people are going back home.
With that in mind, I rushed to register and to get the tabard. With that taken care of, there was bit of room for breakfast and a bit of day planning - which batches I want to go for, etc.
Upcoming days were going to be hectic for me as I wanted to vlog it, spend some time at the camping spot with the camper van, and obviously what I came here for, taking photos and videos of the event.
Knowing my way around the festival I quickly rushed to a spot near the start line - quite popular - as you are just at the end of the straight before they enter the first corner. On my way there I stopped at the paddock few times, as it was so quiet there, and in just couple of hours it's going to be so, so busy.
Day has gone so quickly, and there is a lot of walking - rally stage for example is 1.2 miles away from the Goodwood House, so going there two times and around the festival made me tired quite quickly.
70 years of Porsche
Every year there is something to celebrate and there is sculpture to memorise that in front of the Duke's house. I always enjoyed them! This year is celebrating 70 years of Porsche as on June 8th 1948 the first car to wear Porsche name took on the road.
Camping at FOS
Every year I would stay at the festival for a bit longer after they day is finished, but this time I spent this time in my little Spaceship. Used this time to have a dinner done, recharge the batteries - every day there are plenty to charge - and to process some photos, and post them to some social media.
Luckily whole parking area was positioned at the hill which made it an awesome spot to enjoy sunsets, straight from the camper van.
Once helicopters stopped flying and air traffic was shut down I've released my drone to the air for some aerials during sunset, but then in the morning was told off by the security that drones are not allowed.
#FOS
Last day I was planning to leave earlier to skip all the traffic going back towards London, but even though it was busy anyway, so I made a decision to detour a little to the beach from the first day, for some drone footage of the van and the spot and then use the back roads to go around the traffic coming out of festival and drive back home.
That same beach from 3 days ago was now fully packed with camper vans, cars, and full of people - no wonder why - weather was amazing!
Seemed like a good plan - and kind of was - but the traffic was heavier than I thought and it took me a while to drive back home - to drop all the things. And here is where it complicates a little.
So I was supposed to leave the van after 5pm that day, and it was already around 9pm when I unpacked everything from the Spaceship. Packed my bike and hit the road to Spaceship Rentals office. Mid way through I started checking trains back to London. And even though I could use its hyperspace travel feature, I would not make it on time for the train back to London from their office. At this point I decided to kindly inform them about this, head back home and aimed to be there around 5am so I could get back on the very first train to London.
"Hope you guys are not mad at me for this late return"
Monday morning
Being late gave me some time to refuel car back to wha it was when I picked it up, wash it at the close-by carwash (I always wash rental cars - it's a thing), and return it nice and shiny.
I've taken a bike with me so I could cruise around Southbank when I get off at Waterloo station and head straight to work at Angel office. The ride was nice, Southbank empty - except early runners and got to work before 7am.
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