Friday 1st 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 31st 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.
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Camping near the Bever Dam, Germany |
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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.
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Sorpe Dam |
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The following day
(Saturday 2nd 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 (5th 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.
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Fettling & Farkling at Doris's House |
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