Our third visit to the 2006 Belvoir Castle Steam Festival & Family Show was definitely one to remember. The emphasis here is normally on the steam engines but it became an opportunity to see vintage tractors at work, not so much for farming but for heavy haulage, and sometimes with a little too much gusto. Our thanks go to Stuart Burton from Rochdale with his off-farm condition MF35 for his help in towing our van and caravan through the mud to the very congested exit.

To be fair the weather forecast was not at all good for the weekend, and under the circumstances, the exhibitors were very committed to the show. Even after Friday night's constant rain and unending showers during Saturday, the general public were still prepared to fork out their £7.50 entrance fee to see what was on offer on Sunday. However, by noon, it became apparent to seasoned ralliers that things would only get worse as the rain set in again.

I was told that the organisers had placed on ban on vehicle movements on Sunday morning to run until 4.30pm that afternoon, which I can understand from a safety viewpoint with public on the field. However, if they then thought that they would be able to remove that proportion of over a thousand entered exhibits and their associated camping and transport vehicles that were present between then and dusk in God knows what conditions, well ......

With this mind, and with a roadway at the edge of the field close by that was not too cut up that would take me beyond the public access, I made an early decision to abandon and make a dignified run for it. With help from other exhibitors who were also packing up, we hitched up and made off under our own power as far as the lowest part of the roadway where we got stuck. From then on, we were in the hands of the tractor drivers. At that point things were fairly OK but as more and more exhibitors tried to leave, it became very chaotic.

At times, it was laughable as Chelsea tractors with caravans on tow but with only road tyres for traction swung to and fro searching for grip, but as it became more congested and more slippery, it became inherently more dangerous. As we inched closer to the exit, Stuart's friends kept an eye on where our caravan was moving and warned both him and me accordingly so we could compensate, but the muppet on the MF135 who tried to tow a vintage lorry and caravan out through the gate alongside us made the whole operation downright dangerous.

Suffice to say, we were relieved to get out after 2 1/2 hours. I would suggest that those people who did not need to be home the next morning probably decided to stay put. Unfortunately, not all of us could do so. Whether the rally was formally abandoned, I don't know, but judging by the volume of cars trying to exit through the same access as the exhibitors, I would suggest that common sense prevailed. It is a great pity as there was some quality exhibits to be seen, as you can see from the pictures we managed to get between the showers on Saturday, and from our general report elsewhere on this site.