belgium

Belgium Trip 2008home

We went to break a world record (and drink beer) and succeeded on both counts :D

On Friday 19th September an unusual event occurred, I cleaned my bike! I discovered that my wheels are actually a metallic gunmetal grey and not black. I also got overexcited and couldn't get to sleep early so only ended up with around 4 hours kip.

It was an early start on the Saturday morning, crawling out of bed at 5am, being collected by rollo22 at 5.45am and meeting up with white537 at Clackett Lane services at 6.30am then onto the Medway services for 7.30am (except we got that a bit wrong and met up on the a2 instead). Once we were all collected we headed down to the ferry port.

We were supposed to go by eurotunnel but the fire 9 days before put paid to that. 

It didn't take too long to check in and then we had a little wait to board the ferry. Once on board we got strapped down and headed up to the on board restaurant and took over one end :)

It was an uneventful crossing, which was good as I get travel sick, everyone had a bit of a get to know you and sorted money for shirts and accommodation, got the coffees in - some people even managed to have some breakfast.  I wasn't that brave, I had a little kip instead and then tested the helmetcam setup.

Once off the ferry we headed off in convoy and after a wrong turn (satnav confusion I believe) we headed off in the right direction and met up with the MOB welcoming committee and then off to find some petrol and the war grave memorial at Ypres (with a couple more navigation errors :) but it all adds to the fun).

It being my first trip on the bike to Europe, and the first time in a long  time that I have been on a group ride out, I was a little nervous and my riding confidence suffered.  Did seem to keep falling behind but with a little encouragement managed to catch up.

Saturday night we all went out for dinner at De Groene Wandeling (Buggenhout) where the food was excellent, the staff friendly and the beer went down a treat (even if there were some sufferers in the morning!).  I was almost locked out of my hotel as there was a 'knack' to getting the front door open but after some much needed assistance and a to-and-fro between the accommodations (provided by our wonderful host) I was finally installed and asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Sunday morning rolled round and after some breakfast I went over to where the boys were staying and after a bit of staggering in the glorious morning sunshine about we were collected and taken off to the world record venue in Moerzeke.

After the successful record breaking we headed back to Buggenhout for ice-creams.  After a little chat with the landlord I swapped accommodations as J.P headed home on Sunday (shame I nearly set fire to the room after I left my scarf on the bed head over a powerful halogen lamp and had popped to the bathroom).  In the evening we headed back for dinner again at DGW and more beer (not as much as on Saturday night).  Unfortunately they were all out of fillet steak (we had it all in scrummy Flemish stew the previous evening) so just the standard steak for me.

Monday came around too quickly and we had to head home again.   Suited, booted, bump started and fuelled.  I had the lead (being that J.P took his satnav home and I had mine) Managed to not get us lost or pulled for speeding, but it's a bit dull and lonely at the front and relinquished the lead when we hit roadworks.  We had a quick stop for chocolate buying (Gadget bought most of the shop and then an additional half the shop free ;) ) and another quick stop in Dunkirk for coffee and a light lunch before boarding the ferry.

 The ferry home was again calm, but with grey clouds looming as we approached Dover.

 Belgium Trip Videos

Rather unpolished helmetcam footage of the trip, some of it has lengthy black spells where the camera wasn't connected (which I have yet to edit properly), but have had a play with the video from the world record ride out on the Sunday