Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Scott W]

Well I was off again this weekend to another European reptile show, this time in Antwerp, Belgium. I'd never heard of this show until two weeks ago and not spoken to anyone who had been but as 'The Medusan' (aka Dave) wanted to collect a snake, I decided to tag along.

I'd just like to make it clear that ALL travel arrangements were made by The Medusan!


Day started off quite well, I had an hour or so's drive over to meet up with Dave and actually got there an hour early. Dave showed me his collection and set up which was superb and very well maintained. Then we headed off to catch the EuroStar @ 12.10pm for a 1.30pm departure. It was then Dave discovered that he actually lived 90 minutes from the terminal Needless to say that even driving at 100mph plus we still didn't quite make up enough time and arrived at 1.24. To be fair the EuroStar people did their best to get us on our train but we needed a French man to check our passports....this was of course impossible as he was far to busy drinking a cup of garlic (or maybe tea...not sure).

Lucky enough we were able to catch the next train about 4 hours later. We arrived in Brussels, already 4 hours late but then 'we' made another crucial traveling mistake by catching the slow train to Antwerp. This train only had to go maybe 60 kilometers but it decided to stop at EVERY station on the way, this meant that the journey from Brussels to Antwerp actually took longer than Ashford to Brussels (apparently there was a direct service that left just after...this would of taken 25 mins!)

We finally made it to Antwerp where Herman & Patrica (of www.albinoreptiles.eu) were waiting for us (thanks guys ). We went straight out for pizza and finally made it back to Herman's at around 11.pm to have a look at his collection. All I can say is 'spotless' the set up was great and his snakes are amazing. If you didn't know Herman is Mark Bell's contact in Europe. We eventually left Herman's at around midnight and drove no further than two blocks only to get caught up in grid lock traffic , apparently their is a concert hall that closes at midnight and they let 50'000 people out before they start the traffic back up

At around 1am we made to the hotel, just the security guard on duty, we booked in and asked for a quick beer before bed. The security guy was a great bloke and let us carry on drinking until 6am , at this point I decided some sleep was needed but Dave thought watching the grand prix was a better use of his time

So just a couple of hours later we headed off out to the Expo. It was only a few minutes cab ride away. The ques outside was reasonable and once inside I was impressed with the size and number of vendors. It was almost on par with houten. There was a great mix of animals and equipment. The expo was certainly busy but not so much that it was uncomfortable to walk round. It was good to see 3 breeders from the UK with tables all of which looked quite busy. Casper from BC Reptiles seemed to be doing a good trade and had some stunning geckos!

By 2pm we were ready to catch our taxi back and were determined not to miss our train so made sure we were there early Nothing else event full with the journey home...to be honest I was still hungover and am still feeling rough today

All in all a good show and with the Eurostar it is a quick show to get to, I'm sure you could plan it so that you can get there and back on the day, the train to Brussels is only 90minutes

I've a few photos to follow (not many...was too hungover to play with the camera )
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Please DO NOT pm orders for reptiles, send email instead scott@captivebred.co.uk

[Stuart]

Scott are you part Romany gypsy?..you are always bloody travelling!..lol
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[MJ]

Did wonder why you where on your way back from Antwerp last night

Sounds like a good time for sure is it annual?
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Paul

For all your Tropical plant and Naturalistic Vivarium needs please enjoy Urban Bromeliad

[lol93]

Sounds like a good show!
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[Cleef]

Sounds good Scott, get the pictures up!
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Steve P

[reptileparadise]

Next time come and say hi!

I was at the second part of the hall with some leopardgecko's, gartersnakes, crested gecko's and some madagaskar groundgecko's...

It was a nice show. Not much real cool stuf, but I did end up with a thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis melanistic and a pair of thamnophis cyrtopsis cyrtopsis...ow, and a paroedura lohatsara male..
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