Friday 1^st June 2012 to Tuesday 5th June 2012

Whose idea was it to leave at 11.30pm ?  There I was at just half hour to midnight on Thursday 31^st May setting out from home on yet another madcap adventure. This time we were planning to do everything on the cheap by camping wild wherever possible and saving on hotel accommodation costs... the thinking behind this was to give us more time away to explore our next destination.... The Balkans.

First saving was the Channel crossing. To get a really cheap deal we had to travel at silly o’clock in the morning so our £23 fare was achieved by agreeing to sail at 3.20 am from Dover to Calais. We met up at the Warwick services on the M40 just before midnight. Mark, keen as ever, had beaten me to the rendezvous and, after a quick fill at the petrol pumps, we were off on our sojourn. Through the dark of deepest night we rode and made good time until we met with a flashing overhead sign on the M25 which announced that junction 12 was closed. I kept my fingers and toes crossed that junction 12 was behind us but it wasn’t and we were unceremoniously dumped onto the M3 heading south towards Portsmouth instead of eastwards to Dover. A quick reset of the satnav however had us popping into Chertsey & Cobham via some small back roads and joining the M25 further along past the obstruction but now battling to catch up our lost time.

We made it to the port with 10 minutes to spare but then Sod’s Law came into play and we were selected to go into the customs shed where the very kind lady let us pass by answering a couple of easy questions and we made it onto the ship just before it sailed ... Phew !!

You would think that the 3.20am would be a ghost ship but it was far from it with coachloads of kids on their way across the sea to some outing or other but luckily we found a seat and just sat out the 75 minutes of excited noise.

We were pretty much first off the boat and there was no stopping at French immigration which meant that we were on the road to Dunkirk in no time at all.  We chose to use the motorway system for our journey to our first campsite adjacent to the Bever Dam near Huckswagen in Germany. We arrived on site at around 2pm and set up our tents as it began to drizzle, had a brew and then slept for a good couple of hours.

Camping near the Bever Dam, Germany

We had agreed to meet up some other guys who use the Adventure Bike Forum for a weekend of camping and a ride out to see the dams attacked by the Dambusters in WWII. As the day went on the gathering swelled to twelve of us and we rounded off the day with a meal and drinks at the campsite bar/restaurant before hitting the sack for a good snore.

 

Sorpe Dam

 The following day (Saturday 2^nd June) the skies had cleared and we set off on a group ride to see the Sorpe Dam, Eider Dam and finally, the Mohne Dam. It was a good route and we had a thoroughly good day out but the evening get together at the bar was a bit more subdued as many of the guys were not used to 300+ mile journeys and they were a little tired to say the least. 

Most of the guys left the site on Sunday morning just as Ken from the Stafford area arrived. The rain set in and me and Mark just stayed in our tents talking and sleeping throughout the day before meeting up with Ken for drinks and a bite to eat in the evening. Ken didn’t mind that he had missed the meet as he said that he liked solo travel and his own company. On Monday Ken stayed to do his own tour of the dams as we took advantage of the improving weather to pack up and move on. This time we were on our way to Kirschlengen to stay with Mark’s uncle Leonard and also to see Mark’s son, Ian, who is stationed at the nearby army base in Gutersloh.

When we arrived we discovered that we were not actually staying with Len but rather at the house of his good friend, Doris, who was away on holiday but coming back soon but he was not sure on what day. We later discovered that Len  had not asked Doris and she was not aware that we were now living in her house !

We eventually got to pick Ian up from the local train station (I say eventually because, in true Ian style, he got on the wrong train at first and was hurtling in totally the wrong direction until a kindly,  but confused, ticket inspector got him sorted) and we all headed to the local Kartoffelhausen – potato restaurant – where we filled out boots and washed it all down with some local beer.

Tuesday morning (5^th June) saw Len knocking on the door to take us out for breakfast and a visit to the local supermarket to stock up with some pasta for the next batch of camping later in the week. 

Len took Ian back to the army base whilst me and Mark fettled, farkled and repacked the bikes. When Len returned we went into a nearby town and had a Chinese meal but not before Mark made Len telephone Doris to make sure that she was OK with us staying at her house. She was OK with it all and she was not coming back home until Friday – we would be away by Thursday morning so everyone was happy.

Fettling & Farkling at Doris's House