VW enthusiasts on the road to Hunstanton for the ‘Run for Hun’ fundraiser
VW enthusiasts drove in convoy on a run to the Norfolk coast on Sunday to raise funds for RNLI.
More than 100 classic Volkswagens, including iconic campers, Beetles and Golfs, along with customised creations, took to the A149 coast road to Hunstanton, before pitching up for a meet at the town's seafront car park.
Chris Marshall from the Anglia Dub Hub, who was one of the organisers of the Run to the Hun, rolled up in his vintage Beetle, while wife Heather was at the wheel of the couple's T4.
“We do watersports, we go paddle-boarding, I'm learning to sail,” he said. “Living by the coast, the RNLI is so important for everyone's safety here.”
Amid the array of the full-sized VWs, Dougie Rye, aged four stole the show with a miniature classic camper built by his dad Phill from a fibreglass shell and a mobility scooter.
Now all they have to do is choose the colour - which he said might end up being a distressed, rusty look.
The family from Gayton, met mascot Stormy Stan and members of the Hunstanton and West Norfolk RNLI Guild, who ran a collection at the event.
“The RNLI do a great service. Being a coastal community, we need them,” said Phill.
Jen Dormer, who drove from her home in Hertfordshire in her camper named Bear, was selling event stickers for people to add to their vehicles in aid of the RNLI.
Jen, who's now on her third VW camper which she travels as far as Cornwall in, said: “They're (RNLI) here for anyone who goes out on the sea. Heaven forbid we ever need them, but it's just so good that they're there.”
Stormy Stan, who hitched a lift to the event after welcoming the first wave to town, was taken by a purple Mark I beach buggy which Liz Applegate had driven from her home in Wroxham on the Norfolk Broads.
Liz said her late husband Peter, who ran a boat-building business before he died in 2015, was a keen RNLI supporter, whose name had been added to a Shannon Class lifeboat as part of the RNLI's Launch a Memory programme.
Derek Greening, chairperson of the Hunstanton and West Norfolk RNLI Guild, was pleased with the turn-out.
“It's been another successful year for the Run to the Hun,” he said. “There are many people here and all have been very generous to the RNLI as they always are. It's great to see so many people here enjoying themselves.”
The day has so far raised more than £600.