2004
Coaster Trips: 2004: Fort Fun Abenteuerland, Sternrodt Mountain
Monday July 26th
Fort Fun Abenteuerland
Fort Fun Abenteuerland is a small family oriented park which is built on the side of a mountain. We were welcomed to the park by the manager, who informed of an ERS on the park's Vekoma-built mine drain, Devil's Mine (#307). During the ERS I took just two rides, as the single train was dispatching every three minutes or so. The interesting thing about Devil's Mine is the queue, which goes through a mad house; there are excerpts from a mad house (moving bridge, rotating tunnel, etc) and a sharply angled room from a crooked house. Quite neat, though I wonder whether I'd want to queue for any period of time in there.
We then moved over to the park saloon, which featured a Rodeo ride, apparently named George. Various club members tried this out, most only lasting a few seconds. I decided not to ride myself, but Andrew took it on a total of three times. This was followed by a question and answer section with the park boss, who revealed two new rides for next year; a 1300 metre alpine slide, and a hang gliding ride down the side of the mountain. These replace the park's Power Slide which was closed down at the end of last year due to technical problems.
Andrew and Niki wanted to ride the Pirat swinging ship, which we tried out twice; once at each end. I have never really enjoyed pirate ship rides; they don't make me ill or anything like that; I just don't find them very exciting. The exception to this, of course, was the superb stand up pirate ship at Albacete last year, but I have not seen one of those since. Pirat was one of the few swinging ships that goes to ninety degrees and for that it was noteworthy, but otherwise I found it unremarkable.
The obligatory Vekoma corkscrew, in this case called Wirbelwind (#308) was a walk on, so we took a single circuit. The weather had begun to let go at this point so we were glad of our ponchos. I think this was quite possibly the shortest coaster with inversions I have been on, but it was quite long enough nonetheless!
Andrew decided to ride Roll Over. I do not know why. I also do not know why he chose to ride it a second time. He is a strange child. While Andrew was making himself ill, I took a spin on the Marienkäferbahn (#309). An enthusiastic ride operator meant we got three full circuits, which happened again when I rode a second time. (Andrew was, at this point, complaining he was feeling sick; no surprise there; and he chose to sit out for a few minutes).
Andrew and I took a spin on the Wild River log flume. Niki and Peter elected to shelter instead. The log flume here was quite interesting, featuring a splash into an underground tunnel, but it wasn't as good as the one at Heide yesterday (though to be fair, I don't think anything is!).
Our final ride of the morning was on the Chair Lift up the side of the mountain. The view would no doubt have been spectacular if the weather hadn't been so bad. At the top we could see the now closed entrance and the top section of the Power Slide, and I have to admit I would have loved to have tried it (as it looked fantastic!). I suspect the "technical problems" referred to were probably riders not braking properly and sending themselves flying!
The park put on a buffet lunch for us, which was delicious if a little lacking in the healthy options. They did have some vegetables available, but they were not up to the standard of the rest of the food. After we finished eating, we ended our time in Fort Fun with a ridiculous eighteen consecutive rides on the Rio Grande rapids ride. It wasn't making us too wet, and we were having an interesting conversation, so I figured why not? The ride operators thought we were mad. They were probably right.
Sternrodt Mountain
The dismal weather experience in the morning had just begun to clear as we were leaving Fort Fun. This was much to our advantage, however, as we headed to the first surprise of the trip, Sternrodt Mountain. The mountain is home to a huge Alpine Slide (no, it's not a roller coaster, though it's a close relation) which I really enjoyed. I managed a total of ten rides during our two hour ERS, in all cases with the brake kept entirely off until the end of the ride.
Andrew and I were the last to arrive at the buffet dinner, as we sneaked the last club rides on the slide. The buffet dinner had an awful lot in common with the buffet at lunch, even down to the interesting flavouring on the chips. This was not, however, a bad thing; our meal was delicious.