A long wait for pizza and a grand technical tour on the first two park day of the trip...
A long wait for pizza and a grand technical tour on the first two park day of the trip...
Day 5 started with us swapping over to a new coach, as the previous one we had been given did not have a toilet (and a toilet would very welcome for emergencies with so many long drives ahead of us!) Thankfully it was a slightly later start than the previous day too, with a departure time of 0745.
It was also the first day of the trip on which we would be visiting two parks: Parc des Combes in the morning and Le Pal in the afternoon.
We were soon travelling through the sunflower fields on a wonderful French summer morning
We arrived at Parc des Combes around 0930
Although the park would not be open to the public for another hour, we were walked around by one of their maintenance engineers who ran the coasters for us
First up was Déval'Train
It was a small Vekoma family mine train coaster
Next was Boomerang, a Vekoma Family, errr, Boomerang
Top of the spike
Going forwards ... or backwards
And finally, the park's Alpine Coaster
It was short, but fun
One of Parc des Combes' big attractions is a train that goes out of the park - we hoped we could take a ride, but it only runs in the afternoon
The Nautic Jet made a good substitute
Arms up
Flying through the air
Splash down
Survived
Grand Galop
Some of the horses were slower than others!
Our group meal was at Pizza Nuts, which was right at the top of the hill
They weren't really set up to cope, and it took over an hour for everybody to get something to eat
The second park of the day was Le Pal, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary
It was a large park with a lot to see, so we had no time to waste
Tigre de Sibérie was our first stop
Followed by the jungle themed Azteca
The Disk'O Coaster had a bit of airtime
Twist was spinny
I convinced the group we should have a go on the fantastic King Kong
I'm not sure they all thought it was as great as I did!
The final coaster at the park was Yukon Quad
It was a quadbike style launch coaster from Intamin
We also had an ERS on it after the park closed
That was followed by a behind the scenes technical tour of the ride
It was very comprehensive
Still touring behind the scenes
Yet more ride tour
Eventually we moved on to look at other parts of the park
Construction site for Le Pal's new 2024 water coaster
Unfortunately the extended technical tour put us behind schedule. By the time we reached our hotel for the night all the local food places had shut and it was too late to get dinner, so it was emergency biscuits before bed!