I’ve had a few days to recover from the Water & Sand Festival in Roermond, better known as Santa Fé.

I drove down there on friday morning and encountered some of the worst weather ever, it was even worse because I was in a jeep, with no seat belts, doing 80kmph, without proper windshieldwipers, and nearly unable to see the road ahead. But we made it to the site alright. There we met our friends from Voorwaarts MARS, Vrienden van de Timberwolves and the ACES.

Light showers pestered us while we were trying to set up our puptents, but luckily it cleared up as we headed into Roermond for the parade. Like last year we ended up on the main square where live music was played for us and the public.

Back at camp Cookie made us some lovely Chili-con-Carne. We suffered for it for the rest of the night. Noxious gasses abound . That evening we enjoyed the company of our fellows with song and drink.

Saturdaymorning, brought us breakfast, members of the public and mockbattles. It still rained a few times but not as bad as before. And the mood was generally good. I took a lot of snapshots of the first mockbattle. My buddy Kenny filmed the second one.

That evening Cookie provided us with an Indonesian dish, which quickly recharged our batteries. After dinner we changed into our Class As and Navy Blues and went to see the live entertainment at the beer tent. There was a small band playing some jazz and 4 ladies singing period songs. Unfortunately it stated to rain pretty badly halfway through a song and everyone ran for cover, leaving the ladies to sing their song in the down pour.

I returned to camp around 1 am and slept like a brick.

Sunday was more or less a repeat until about 5pm, when we all started packing for our return to our dreary everyday lives.

You can find pictures here and here . The second gallery is a temporary solution to a friend’s FTP problem. He’s been made temporary admin in the photogallery. Be sure to leave some comments on his excellent camera work.

- Rick

Still listening to a lot of Sabaton

Yes, truly. 30 Degrees Celsius one moment, thunderstorm the next. I had been having a bad time sleeping because of the heat, but everything cooled down nicely last night with the rain.

This morning I even found some small frogs hopping around the garden. I guess they liked the rain as well.

A friend and I have decided to buy a ‘better’ jeep. Our Hotchkiss is fine and all but it’s not periodically correct for re-enacment. So we are getting a real 43-dated Willys MB put back together after the war in the French Maltournee factory. The previous owners restored her from the ground up back in 2003, but they’re now working on putting together a 42 Slat Grill jeep. Which is nice. We’re going to pick it up on the 24th. A week after the Santa Fé Festival, and a Day after the “Top 100″ music festival in Made.

I’m really looking forward to Santa Fé. I bet it’s going to be as hot as last time too. Taking my cameras with me….if only that old tripod would arrive before then.

I’m also waiting on a Kiev 2a camera to arrive.

Anyway, some busy weekends coming up and plenty of chances for photos.

Rick

*Currently hooked on Sabaton and Dawn of War