1000 miles, 3 countries, 7 days!
At the end of September 0218, Ogri MCC went on tour.
Sal, and Rob and Tracey Mac left from the Clubhouse on the Sunday morning and gathered up club members on the route. We met them at Reading services where amazingly, everyone arrived on time! By the time we made it to the Ferry there were 16 of us.
Waiting for the ferry a car decided it would be a great idea to pull into the middle of the pack… nearly knocking Sal off her bike and making contact with Graham’s panniers… after that the driver waited for us to go through.
Getting on to the ferry was… um.. interesting! I have never even ridden the bike up a multistory car park circular ramp… and the road was damp – as was the metal rail in the middle of the ramp…and then I got my back tire caught on the tie down cables on the car deck! but the bike stayed upright! And that is all that counts!
Once we had all found our cabins we all met up at the bar for a couple of drinks, and Rob and Tracey bought Tracey M a litre bottle of Malibu from duty free for her birthday, with instructions she had to finish it before the week was out (this will be important later!)
Then off to bed, with a side expedition to see Mark and Tracey’s fab room with a massive porthole, real bed and a full complimentary fridge! (I was very jealous… we had bunk beds!)
We arrived safely at a damp Hook of Holland, despite the relatively rough crossing and the plan for the day was to do about 60 miles, meet the Heathens at a specific services and then do the next 100 miles to Osnabruk…with a single stop.
But the best laid plans of mice and men and all that…
The weather threw everything it could at us. It drizzled, it rained, it rained harder, the sun came out (every time we stopped riding, and rained harder when we got going again), it hailed and there was a rainbow (very fitting as we had woken to the news that Geoffrey Hayes had died). It certainly gave my new waterproof kit a thorough but successful testing.
With Bowser leading we lost the back half of the pack within 17 miles of getting off the ferry… But they knew what services we were heading for and they made it before we did! So, coffee while we were waiting for the Heathens… and whilst drinking coffee we watched the Heathens ride by… so we all kitted up and rode to the next services… but in the time it took us to get there, they had ridden back to the services we had been at… This could have gone on all day but eventually the to-ing and fro-ing got us all to the same place… and our 16 had become 21.
And so, on to Osnabruk. The weather was so bad we didn’t even notice that we had crossed from the Netherlands to Germany – the only real difference was the exit junction signs stopped saying “afrit” and started saying “ashfart” which obviously made me smirk!
And so, on to Osnabruk. The weather was so bad we didn’t even notice that we had crossed from the Netherlands to Germany – the only real difference was the exit junction signs stopped saying “afrit” and started saying “ashfart” which obviously made me smirk!
“The weather started shit, got shitter, got pissed
Bowser’s description of the day
Sadly, there were two who could not have been with us, Lee and Di, who were saying goodbye to Lee’s mum Mavis
And Tracey made a decent dent on her bottle of Malibu, which made our visit to the nearest Schnelle interesting! Some of my favourite quotes from Tracey M include “it’s a man on a bicycle” and “I like a bit of meat” (with “appropriate” accompanying actions!).
Then back to the bar for more beer and a very silly night was had by all!
The morning brought more silliness, starting with us all singing happy birthday to Simon – much to his embarrassment!
Mac and Graham went around Osnabruk to visit old haunts… but sadly, most of them are now housing estates.
Once we had all broken our fasts, and checked out, various groups bomb-bursted and the plan was to all meet up at Hamelin (yes of pied piper fame)
Nic, Sally, Bowser, Jim, Chris J, Toffee, Harry, Susi, Graham and Dave, went to visit the 2nd and 3rd year rally sites and to go to Bielefeld where Sal and Toffee used to live when he was a little tike.
Togs and Steve found a coffee shop over the road and Si and I joined them there for coffee and doughnuts,
followed by a wander round to the bike shop for water resist spray for our visors as it was still peeing down… Which is where we got the news that Sal had hit a patch of mud or diesel and Toffee threw his bike on the floor in a fit of pique after her (he assures us he wasn’t trying to run Sal over… honest!).
Sal was taken to the nearest hospital to survey the damage and in the meantime, we caught up with the Scottish contingent, Rob, Tracey Mac, Mark, Tracey M, Ray, Les and Lisa, who had been for a wander round Osnabruk and let them know the news.
The rest of them headed out to Hamelin and Togs, Steve, Mac, Rob, Tracey Mac, Si an I went to the local Triumph shop to see if we could find the necessary parts to make Sal’s bike roadworthy, turns out they didn’t have what was needed and wouldn’t be able to get it in for a week. So we headed off to Hamelin to meet up with the rest of them… no one fell off, there were no U turns and we didn’t get lost (that might well be the last time I will be able to say that about this particular trip!!)
Once we got to Hamelin we parked up to figure out where everyone else was. Turned out we had stopped outside the Eisenhaur tattoo shop and they were truly wonderful, they let us use the facilities, made us all coffee and let us charge our phones.
Finally met up with everyone at a Maccy D and from there we set off to the Spiders clubhouse… Notice how I make that sound so easy… Les dropped his bike and this time Lisa didn’t have a chance to get off in time as there was a wall in the way, but no damage this time thank god!
By the time I got to the road to pull out apparently everyone in Hamelin had decided to drive past the Maccy Ds and by the time I could get out Simon Mac and I had lost the pack so with Mac’s guidance we went off to the right… and despite the weather (yep… still peeing down) the roads were awesome up some amazing sweeping bends for about 25 k… The roads were fabulous – the whole of the day I only saw two pot holes… why cant our roads be as good?! We finally decided that we had gone the wrong way so we turned around and went down the sweeping bends… went back the way we came (which is when the rest of the pack saw us going over a flyover in a perpendicular route to the way we were supposed to be going) past the Maccy D, past the tattoo shop past the turning we were supposed to have taken… according to Simon that is because Mark rang him and he couldn’t hear the satnav directions… into a housing estate for the second u turn back the way we came, then up what looked like a dirt track, then missed our turning again finally back on the right road and rode straight past Dave in the Spider’s clubhouse entrance… so final U turn and we had made it…
“Would you all please stop dropping your bikes and breaking things!”
Rob
The news from Sal wasn’t good, she had broken the ball joint of her shoulder and was due to have an op in the morning to pin it. But despite that bad news, we managed to keep the side up and have a great night partying with the Spiders who absolutely did us proud! They fed us, gave us beer, and beds. I got my arse well and truly kicked by an 11 year old who would only speak German… turns out she is as English as I am!… The drinks flowed freely and kept on flowing! Trancey M got tiddly again – she even managed a little pole dancing! And at one point we were honoured to be invited to drink with them in their private clubroom – and a very impressive clubroom it was too.
When we finally got to bed it turned out that Chris James snores like a total bitch – I am amazed that Helen hasn’t smothered him with a pillow yet!
In the morning Toffee, Chippenham Stu, Graham and Dave went to visit Sal in hospital – her op had been postponed and she was going to be in hospital for at least 5 days. Bowser sorted her insurance arranging for Gilly to be collected from Pegasus, and through her travel insurance, Sal was going to be repatriated home once she was discharged.
The Heathens, Nic and Togs headed off to Pegasus and Bowser, Steve, Mark, Tracey M, Rob, Tracey Mac, Jon, Ray, Jim, Les, Lisa, Simon and I all headed off to the Mohne Dam (Yep, the Dambusters Dam). We split off when we got to the town, Bowser and Steve going straight to the Dam and the rest of us stopping at a Gyros house for lunch before we went to walk over the Dam. We got to the wrong car park so were quite a way from the Dam. Mark had a hangover and complained about the walking the whole way… but credit where it is due despite the constant complaining he did it any way!
Once we had been to the Dam and sung the dambusters theme (well it made me happy) we headed off to the Pegasus clubhouse. 100 dry miles, 2 u turns (me) and one lost person (Jon trying to find me on one of my u turns) later we pitched up at the Pegasus clubhouse
Emma, and Frank met us there taking our numbers to 26 (I’m still counting Sal as she was with us in spirit)
Once again, the host club did us proud and took really good care of us. Drink food, places to sleep, a fire and Nails! And with the wonderful news that Nic and Emma had become grandparents with Scarlett Lucy coming into the world, what more could you ask? (Though I could have done without the bells from the Monk’s retirement home next door first thing in the morning).
Thursday morning, Gilly (Sal’s bike) was collected so we knew that she was in safe hands and my hands were very badly swollen and sore so Homer was loaded into Susi’s van and I “hitched” a lift to Klepps with Emma, in the hope that it would give my hands enough time to stop being swollen so I would be able to ride home on the Sunday, as did Lisa, to give Les a bit of solo riding time.
Gizmo and Steve L were already at Klepps by the time we got there, and Alex and Lee got there after us, taking the Ogri contingent to 29, though Togs decided he could be away from the wife and munchkin any longer so headed home. Thursday night was another night of excellent hospitality with lots of beer and really good company…truly we didn’t meet anyone the whole trip who wasn’t really friendly and welcoming. Oh and we got the news that Togs had broken down on the UK side of the Channel way, and had to be rescued… but not till 2 in the morning! We didn’t laugh… much!
Friday dawned sunny and warm. Of the 5 cookers on the breakfast table trying to make coffee, Bowser’s didn’t work because it needed a clean, Rob’s didn’t work because he didn’t screw the jet boil on properly, so he proved that a watched pot doesn’t boil… Fortunately, the lovely Anja brought us coffee so breakfast was not a total bust. We were camped under trees, at least one of which was an oak that did its best to murder us with acorns falling from a height of at least 30 feet!
A load of us went to DeWitts (a huge camping shop) Nic and Emma and I were jut coming out and there was a car slowly backing out of a parking space with a kid hanging out of the window shouting – My first thought was “Why isn’t that kid strapped in?” but Nic dropped everything and went running which is when Emma and I realised he was alone in the car and was yelling for help!! Nic went for the handbrake, Emma went for the back of the car to try and stop it rolling any further and I went for the lad and pulled him out of the window! Mum was so relieved that there was no damage when she appeared (that her son wasn’t hurt that is, not that the car was not damaged… obviously!)
Back at the Klepps, Chris, Frank, Herbie and Tracy arrived today taking our Ogri total to 32 – good showing though we say so ourselves. Though we didn’t really see anything of Gizmo – he was rough as a badgers arse (no Badger – not your arse) – and it was not even alcohol related! Simon found a new friend – Trevor the 5 and a half legged Grasshopper – it spent most of the afternoon sat on his hand and shoulder like a parrot! Grasshoppers are odd in the Netherlands! Eventually he went off for a wander (Trevor not Simon)
Apparently, the beer was stronger than they realised and Chris B had to put Jon to bed early (bless him!) and Chippenham Stu had to have a power nap!! And Mark M went to bed at 9 after 2 hot chocolates and a Lemsip (honest guv!!)
I got a call Friday evening that my mum was really poorly and had been taken to hospital, and they thought it was a stroke, which put the kybosh on things for me – Si and I stopped drinking early so that we could head back Saturday if we could change our ferry booking. But we were still up for the stripper on the stage at 10. For some reason someone thought it was a good idea to get a drunk Dave up on stage with her – I think she was surprised how much fun he had… He definitely upstaged her!
No one who knows him will be remotely surprised to hear he got completely naked! When we got up in the morning and Dave’s pants were outside the tent we were all a little worried about Chris B who was sharing his tent with him – Though Chris assures us that Dave fell into bed and didn’t move all night! Which will be why Dave swamped his sleeping bag… again!
That morning we found Trevor in our tent… sadly deceased… Who killed Trevor?!! (Simon still misses Trevor!
Another pleasant round table breakfast before Chippenham Stu, Mark Y, and Mac went home Saturday morning and we managed to rearrange our ferry tickets so headed back to Jolly Old Blightly Saturday afternoon which sadly meant that we ended up missing Chris B taking his Ducati round the dirt track and being dragged on stage for the Stripper Saturday night.
Finally rolled home Sunday afternoon after visiting mum with a total mileage for me of 911.7 and 1039.8 for Simon
Jinx
More Pictures in the OGRI MCC 40th Anniversary Run Gallery (Cheers Harry!)
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