http://www.myspace.com/cheapwayround
So to start off this years European ride outs it was decided to try and re-trace some of the origional route but also make a trip into Luxembourg and catch up with a friend living in Luxembourg and also on something a little more sensible than a monkeybike.....
a Suzuki RV125 Vanvan :whistle:
So it then become...
6 COUNTRIES...
5 VANVAN'S...
4 DAYS...
On the trip were myself, Welshxpress (Keith), Buck (Kev), Staib (Nick) and Hamwick (Mark)...Mark and Nick had left from London and caught an earlier ferry from Dover while myself , Keith and Kev made our way down from the Midlands catching the 10pm ferry and making our way to the B&B Boulogne for around 1am...
Next morning we woke and went down to breakfast and met up with Nick and Mark
before also filling up the bikes and making our way accross France towards Belgium...
Crossing over to Belgium...
Must make note for any future trips.....no ice cream for Buck!...
Nice detour and some Belgium green laning thanks to the Garmin mapping showing this as an actual road...
Thunderstreak in a thunderstorm on a roundabout near Florennes Belgium airbase...
Arriving in Dinant on the Friday evening we found the access road to our hotel was closed, no problems i thought and headed into the hills above Dinant and aiming to come back down to the river and approach the Hotel from another direction
Coming down the hill towards the river i caught a glimpse of the Hotel Ibis but arriving at the bottom we were stopped and told the road (as was most of the town) was closed for a 20km marathon and had to wait nearly an hour before we could cross and get to the hotel...
View from the hotel along the river Meuse...
Rocher Bayard...
Leaving Dinant on the N94 turned out to be one of Belgiums best kept secrets, the roads just got better and better, tree lined sweeping roads with fantastic scenery it become obvious why this region is known as the Belgium Alps....in fact the roads were so good we did not stop to take any pictures until we crossed over to Luxembourg and got to Lac de la Haute-Sûre...
Welshxpress used to be a silhouette model before becoming a tea tester...
Making our way into Wiltz and East was to be the second suprise of the day......Luxembourg! we have all seen Andy's excellent pictures but seeing/riding is a different matter, i'm hoping Nick has some good video footage as again we hardly stopped for any photo's...
Also prior to being a silhouette model it is rumoured Keith was also a hippy?
Unfortunately we then come accross a road closed sign, stopping for a drink and a quick look at the map several German bikers come down from the road that was closed, stopping them we asked if it was passable to which they replied yes only a little dirt, so off we went...
Now with "Only a little dirt" ringing in our ears the second "Route Barrier" sign was duly ignored altho coming around a uphill hairpin bend at speed we were greeted with this...
The above pictures do not show the drop but this video avoiding the above gives a better idea, the ledge was less than a foot wide of soft soil and a steep drop to the woodland on the left, keep an eye on the bottom left of the screen...
http://youtu.be/rN-WMVlj3Rs
Heading South we were then met up with Andy in Colmar and headed off into Luxembourg city, making the wrong move of mentioning he had PG tips tea bags at his appartment it was with no suprise Keith accepted Andy's kind offer of a cup of tea, so it was off to Andy's to block the access to the parking spaces at his appartment...
Several cups of tea later and a wise move to stay indoors until the storm had passed it was then off around Luxembourg...
Fortunately Kev was able to control his beer better than his ice cream...
After a decent Piza in Luxembourg and arranging to meet Andy the next day it was off to our hotel in Troisvierges around 75km's to the North of Luxembourg city
I wonder if Ewan and Charlie ever had stressful moments like this on the Longwayround...
Sunday morning Andy again joined us at our hotel for breakfast and then rode with us up to the Luxembourg/Belgium border..
Looking at how this tank had been parked at Lagercamp i think they may have been on the Lager?
After a brief detour into Belgium, Germany was our next border crossing...
After sprouting a second pair of legs Keith realised leaving the rear pegs on was a good move...
Fourth country of the day was Holland with it's tree lined trails and huge canals...
Of course a trip to Holland would not be complete without...
Sunset over Turnhaut...
Monday was our final day, leaving Turnhout we headed again towards Holland via the docks in Antwerp...
Nicks bike looking out towards Vlissingen from Breskens before heading South and into Sluis...
After Sluis we made our way down to Oostende and over some food we realised there had been crossed wires over which return ferry we had booked, Nick and Mark were on the 5pm where as i was pacing the route for our 6pm ferry, it was then a mad dash to try and get Nick/Mark on their scheduled ferry hence no more pictures were taken until we got back to Calais...
Karl
