The road to 600 credits | Part 4 - Oakwood, Barry Island and more!

Before we begin I'd like to confess to a cheeky +1 on Littlehampton seafront. a wacky worm themed to a fish that fits in here as number 581. I also visited Shayler's Funfair in Lancing that day and was re-united with one of my favourite flat rides, the Rock-o-Plane!

Now to finally get to Oakwood!

Oakwood [+5]

Similarly to Great Yarmouth, Oakwood had been on my to-do list for years! The time had come to finally be able to join in ranking the UK's top 10 coasters (as Megafobia is always in the lists) and be able to collect another UK woodie credit. My problem had always been that it was just so far away, so we decided to make another weekend trip of it.

First up we rode Speed, which sounded a bit rickety! Turned out it rode a bit rickety and I came off having drawn blood from being stabbed by my earring. That's two coasters that have done that to me now, Speed and Tornado at Bakken, although this was a bit more dramatic. I should really be more careful with the headbangers clearly! We rode the treetops coaster (another cute Zierer Tivoli) and then it was off to the main event, Megafobia.

Finally!

Back row was first on the menu and wow what a ride! This thing has some great moments of airtime, a fab first drop and is pretty violent in places! My main gripe was it was just a bit too rough. I found myself having to hold on halfway through to steady myself and avoid adding any further injuries from coasters to my day! I later rerode in the middle and found that this solved a lot of my issues, which was pleasing. I can see why some rank Megafobia so highly on the UK scene and I bet it was amazing back in the day. Maybe Oakwood can resurrect it a bit one day with a retrack? That would be awesome!

There are two other credits, a bug themed Pinfari and a cute crocodile coaster that had a cheery ride op. I then discovered one of my favourite flats, the Flying Scooters! I had no idea that a UK park had these but you see them all over the US. I couldn't quite get these ones to snap (we got loaded two per car so I'm not sure that helped) but I enjoyed having a ride on these as always as they're just really good fun! The park is full of quirky minor attractions such as a drop slide, which was a real blast from the past, the famous waterfall slide of doom (which two of our group successfully managed to evade complete soaking on) and one of those metal bobsled things that are always enjoyable. Drenched was closed due to the virus but it looked like it might have been quite intense and wet anyway, so no great loss. Overall I really enjoyed my visit to Oakwood and am so glad that I finally made it out to the park!

Coney Beach [+1]

That evening we popped into Coney Beach for a potential +1/2. Despite being denied the Go Gator (fair enough, we got the other +1) we stayed for much longer than anticipated due to the good selection of flats. The star attraction here is, without doubt, the KMG Afterburner style ride, Beach Party, which some of us rerode for the long, intense cycle that had great views over the beach! The Musik Express style ride (complete with foam), ghost train and sizzler were also good too! I'd definitely recommend a stop off here if you're making the trek out to Oakwood.

Barry Island

The next morning it was time to head to Barry Island. We arrived at what we thought was the opening time to then discover that they were in no hurry at all to open any of the rides so we dawdled around for a while whilst we decided what to ride. I already had the Beastie credit from Alton Towers but rode it again for nostalgia/fun (and had to climb out of the restraint at the end as it wouldn't open!) and the SBF coaster Cyclone ended up never opening before we had to leave. No new credits could have been quite a let down if it wasn't for the flat rides. I had never ridden a Gravitron due to fear of it being horrid in the US and now, armed with my camera for a POV, with the only UK version in front of me, I knew it was time. 

Here is the wrist mount POV from that very moment, luckily you can't hear my commentary!

What a fab ride! I love the retro space vibe these things have and it's fun watching all your friends slide up the wall to thumping music, through smoke as you can barely move! This was my definitely highlight of Barry Island and one of the best memories from the trip! If you were wondering, yes this is the ride from Alton and Pleasure Island amongst other places and was the only ride of it's type to be built by Vekoma under license by the much more well-known Gravitron Manufacturer, Wisdom Rides. Fun facts! I also dragged everyone on a rather intense and long-cycled old-style Orbiter, which I *think* everyone ended up enjoying.....well I certainly did!

Weston-super-mare: Funland + Pier [+3]

The view from the pier

Next stop was yet another seaside town, this time it was Weston-super-mare. First up was Funland, a permanent fair set up on the site of an old Lido right on the beach (you can just about make out the starflyer in the photo), which was also home of Banksy' Dismaland for a period. The park has 3 credits, a Go-gator, wild mouse and wacky worm. All the greats and a nice +3! Bonus enjoyment came from a friend nearly getting stuck in the tiny front seat of the Go-gator! The things we do! We also walked down the pier to do the ghost train that they have hidden away indoors on the pier where you sit in these creepy cages! I had no idea that this ride even existed!

Brean Leisure Park [+4]

Oh Brean. The final stop of the day. I wanted to like you but we didn't have the best visit here. There was a horrendous faff to get tokens and then every ride had a slow-moving queue. After a long day of coasters this wasn't ideal. The obvious highlight was Astro Storm, a bucket list coaster I had wanted to do for years and years as I used to love Black Hole as a kid and love a space themed retro indoor coaster! (Yes, I even like Temple of the Nighthawk!) It was as good as I had expected, I just wish it wasn't so far away and maybe at a park that had other themed attractions to go with it. I would have really liked to have done it at Blackpool! We very nearly missed out on the looping Pinfari credit (oh no!) but after some queueline drama involving park managers and counting we finally got our ride. What a ride it was! Don't think I'll be reriding that one anytime soon! I'm glad that Brean bought Astro Storm and bothered to keep the theme with it but the rest of the park could do with a bit of an update I think!

That concludes part 4 of the road to 600 series, with the cred count now running at 594. We can't be far off 600 now surely!?