To say the least I’m Disappointed but here’s how it went:
On Saturday after a three hour drive to Longleat (about an hour more than it should have taken because of the traffic) Sharon and I arrived in a muddy field on the top of a hill.
From the Car park it was about a 20 minute walk down to the valley floor where Longleat house was, but the impressive view as you walk down is worth the walk.
Even though the sky was grey, umbrellas were up and the wind was trying to knock us over, the air was full with an excitement which made you forget the dull light that was trying to overcast the day.
Hangers had been put up for the planes just across from the 16th Century LongLeat House and the place was filling up with people. The house is surrounded by acres and acres of land and scattered around where giant inflatable cones, standing 12 feet high. Or at least they would have been inflated if it hadn’t been so Windy…
The pre-race shows were cancelled – parachute display and helicopters – because of thew wind, but my hopes were still high (as you could sense were the other 99,999 peoples) that the weather would soon change.
Even as we huddled under a unberella away from the rain trying to stop it from exploding inside out our hopes were high – announcements were good that soon the wind would fall and we’d be seeing what we came for.
Then two planes took off and flew around – at first I was impressed by the amazing flying sideways tricks they were doing, until I realized they were simply being blown sideways by the high winds.
Things were getting desperate now. Recent weather news said the wind was soon to drop so – ever optimistically – the pilots and entourage knocked on the doors of Longleat house and Lord Longleat himself declared that the race was open.
Unfortunately the miracle we were all praying for didn’t come and the inevitable cancellation was announced.
Still we’d been there five hours and I was dammed if I was leaving so early.
So, as yesterday the pilots had successfully completed a qualifying round – the award ceremony was played out and we stopped to watch.
Then all there was to do was to climb back up the 20 minutes walk (now 40 minutes long) and sit in the car for an hour until the cars could actually get through the massive amount of traffic that had accumulated.
It had been a good but highly disappointing trip. :o(
There’s always next year…
Redbull: www.redbullairrace.com
Longleat: www.longleat.co.uk
#flag: “Red bull air race”, longleat