Richard Bannister

Ah yes, Plopsaland. The name no doubt sounds perfectly acceptable in Flemish, but the obvious interpretation from someone brought up in an English speaking country is, well, scatalogical to say the least. It isn't helped by some of the signage therein; the Plop Restaurant, for example. Better yet, the signs refer to younger visitors as Petit Plops, which, er, can be translated to... okay, I'll stop there.

The first coaster we saw on the way in was the twin tracked Vleermuis (#695), one of the few remaining Caripro Batflyer rides. This one was rather short, but fun nevertheless, albeit suffering from the usual hideously abrupt braking at the end of the ride.

It was raining quite heavily at this point, hardly a surprise for Belgium. It did mean that the powered coaster was likely to be closed, but it wasn't. It's nice to be wrong sometimes, especially when the ride in question turns out to be a gem. It was impossible to see much while riding Draak, but there were plenty of other rides nearby which would certainly have made things more exciting in good weather!

The off the shelf coaster, Rollerskater (#696), had been themed with a giant washing machine mid way through the track. The theming does raise a rather curious question; perhaps my education has been lacking in some areas, but the idea of putting roller skates in a washing machine seems just a little odd to me. Is this taught in Belgian schools?

New for this year is a Mack-built water coaster, SuperSplash (#697). We hadn't seen this ride operate at all, and as the park map said it was coming in May the natural assumption was that it wasn't open yet, even given that we had reached the first of that month. However, on approaching the ride it became clear that it was open. Riding something with a big splash in it without seeing riders disembark is always a risky proposition, but we decided to risk it (in the middle of the boat, naturally). The ride has no lift hill, instead using a vertical lift and turntable, all of which is enclosed. Then a door opens, and the boat slides out down the large drop, over an airtime hill, and into the water, most of which was deflected away from the boat (fortunately).

The final coaster in the park was closed due to bad weather. However, as the sky was clearing, we decided to come back to it, only after riding the Panoramic (observation tower), the Kasteel van Koning Samson (log flume, nicely themed), and a De Vaat (boat ride, dull as dishwater). In due course, Dongo's Race (#698) opened up, albeit only with four riders at a time; the tyre drive on the lift hill was clearly having a very bad morning.

It was on the way out that I spotted a dark ride which I'd somehow missed. Bos van Plop turned out to be a real mixed bag; there were some fantastically detailed sets, marred only by very limited animatronics. A few puppets blinking their eyes do not a dark ride make.

 

On entry to Bellewaerde, my first instinct was to look at the map to determine where the coasters were. Apparently this was to the left of the entrance, so we headed off in that direction. Little did we know that the park had, in fact, two entrances, and that the coasters were in fact on the right of the entrance we'd come in on. Twenty minutes later we had finally arrived at Keverbaan (#699), the second large tivoli coaster of the day. Unlike the one at Plopsaland, however, this model had apparently warmed up enough to use all the seats in the train. Riders were treated to three full circuits, though I can't help but wonder if the third was unintentional; I heard the squeal of tires attempting to slow the train unsuccessfully; perhaps the operator chose to cut his losses.

There are some things you win, and others you lose. If anyone had asked me what I would have liked as my seven hundreth coaster, it seems rather unlikely that I would have chosen Boomerang (#700). Nevertheless, that was how things worked out, and this particular model seemed not to suffer from the usual headbanging.

One of the newest attractions at Bellewaerde is El Volador, which in itself is one of the latest entries in the Huss Rides catalogue, a Topple Tower. The premise is simple; a ring of riders is lifted to the top of a tower, which then falls over sideways a few times. Unfortunately, the ride sounds (and for that matter looks) a lot more impressive than it actually is. The falling motion on the tower could be better regarded as a gentle descent, and the overall ride motion in all honesty did nothing for me whatsoever. While it was interesting to ride once, it must be said that this is not one of Huss' finer efforts, and is certainly not worth making a trip for.

The major dark ride in the park is Los Piratas, which can be succintly described as Disney's Pirates of the Carribean without the Yo-Ho-Ho song, that in itself being no great loss.

This brings me to a story which would normally not feature in my trip reports. Having had plenty to drink, I felt, as it were, the call of nature. Having located a suitable facility, I made my way there, only to find a somewhat odd scene in progress. A local teenager was in the midst of defecating into a urinal, while a female companion (inside the mens bathroom no less) documented the event using a camera phone. Perhaps this is some curious local custom, but whatever the case I elected to postpone my own, er, requirements until a later occasion.

Instead, the final ports of call became two water rides, the River Splash flume (medocre) and the Bengal Rapid River rapids (rather good). The latter featured relatively unusual articulated boats, which I have only come across at a small number of parks. The reason for this became clear mid way through the course, where the course became very rough, in a fashion which would likely cause ordinary boats to take on significant amounts of water.

As I type this, George has taken over the driving for the last hour or so to Brussels Airport. This weekend has had an awful lot of driving in it, but the locations of the target parks demanded it. Pretty much all the remaining coasters in France are in the south of the country, and those remaining in Belgium are widely spaced out too. Something for a future trip, I guess.